"When the Levee Breaks" by Led Zeppelin

There's nothing like those first four bars of "When the Levee Breaks." John Bonham's drum kit echoing up a stairwell is surely one of the coolest sounds ever recorded. It's the foundation of a grimy driving bluesy groove as unstoppable as the tide.

I'm definitely not alone when I say the first time I heard this drum beat it was NOT on a Led Zeppelin song. My own personal first exposure to it was Rhymin & Stealin by the Beastie Boys when I was about 8 years old. I had no idea about its provenance, but no matter. To say it was an effective way to get my attention as the opening to License to Ill is an understatement.

The signature sound of When The Levee Breaks wasn't designed in a studio. During location-recording at Headley Grange, engineer Andy Johns moved Bonham's kit into the stone stairwell and placed two mics high on the stairs. Played back in the Rolling Stones' mobile recording truck, they immediately knew they had captured something no one had heard before.

I'm somewhat going on about this drum thing. It's fine. The rest of the track earns its 7:09 runtime. Robert Plant's crying harmonica opens double-tracked and panned wide, sitting distant and slightly left. His reverb-soaked vocal gets doubled front and center. Jimmy Page's guitars are a jangling churn beneath the surface. John Paul Jones's bass groove glues it all together.

"When the Levee Breaks" is the best track on Led Zeppelin IV. You know, the album that also has "Stairway to Heaven" on it. "When the Levee Breaks" is the best track on that album.

You can drown in this arrangement. The songwriting (circa 1929 by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie) is timeless. The pacing is hypnotic. The texture present across the entire sonic spectrum is breathtaking. There is no amount of money you can spend on gear and outrun this recording.

Perhaps it's sacrilege, but since I already said this track is better than Stairway, so whatever. To me, the 2013 John Davis remaster is superior to the original. Supervised by Jimmy Page at Metropolis Studios, it gives the drums a little more definition. The stairwell reverb tail on the snare fills the room the way it was always meant to.

Listen for: The kick and snare hits with their long decay into the stairwell. On a proper stereo in a well sorted room (or a good pair of cans) it is one of the most impressive sounds in recorded rock.

Data

Song: When the Levee Breaks
Album: Led Zeppelin IV
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Genre: Blues Rock, Hard Rock
Year: 1971
Length: 7:09
Engineer: Andy Johns (Recording), John Davis (Remaster)
Producer: Jimmy Page