The Song Remains and Eventually Starts Paying Rent

Album: Led Zeppelin, The Song Remains the Same, 1976

Best Track: Dude, you know! That one where Jimmy Page just totally shreds? He's all "WHAAAHHH, WAAAWWW ..." And then Robert Plant comes in and is all, "YEEEAAHH!" while John Bonham is going "bahdow, boom, bahdow, boom, boom, boom." And I think that's John Paul Jones setting down his bass so he can play the keyboards on it. Dude, that song rocks!

Lasting Memory: Every year since 1976, the Norfolk Waterfront has played host to Harborfest. In 1984 or 1985, local classic/hard rock radio station FM99 sponsored a music documentary tent. I went into the tent to check out a song or two from the film The Song Remains the Same.

I would still be sitting there if I hadn't decided to leave after around 22 minutes of "Dazed and Confused." Literally -- to use that term in its literal sense -- the version of "Dazed and Confused' that Led Zeppelin performed during the recorded Madison Square Garden concert takes up the entire second side of the double album. The song remains, and remains, and then remains some more, eventually ending after 26 minutes and 53 seconds.

It doesn't stay the same, though. Like a hyped-up high school jazz band, Led Zeppelin pulls out every single one of its tricks during its extended "Dazed and Confused" jam. Page alternately riffs and wails on his guitar. Plant deploys his full vocal range, from falsetto to bass, and even throws in some vibrato. Bonham bashes and fills and -- sounds like to me -- hits a gong at one point. Jones even manages to get in a few bars of bass-as-lead. It's a glorious sonic mess.

A much more focused overview of Led Zeppelin's oeuvre comes in the form of the title track to The Song Remains the Same, which clocks in at just under six minutes.

I nominate "The Song Remains the Same" as the most Led Zeppelin-y song Led Zeppelin ever recorded. It aspires to epicness. It has quasimythological lyrics. It is constructed around a basic blues riff. It lets Plant do his vocal gymnastics. It has drums forward in the mix. With all of that going for it, I can't name another Led Zeppelin song that is more of and by the band.

Up Next: Led Zeppelin, Presence, 1976