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  3. Not really a Led Zep fan, I do love the no. 1 though (and a few others). Whole Lotta Love should be lower, it seems pretty embarrassing to my ears.

      • Been covered more than most LZ tunes so I would say it’s more than a riff. One of the great Page solos, one of the best Bonham performances. I think the vocal is pretty influential. Copied on talent shows as the embodiment of rawk. The freaky breakdown may seem indulgent but it’s needed to lead up to the big guitar moment for maximum impact.

                • The riff is great I admit so I agree with @Diddley-Farquar.

                  Always found it to be a good theme for TOTP, ironically as Led Zep never appeared on it (and never released a single in the UK AFAIK)

                • I’m with Dai. A lot of Planty’s lyrics are terrible. He fell out with Ian Anderson when Ian said with his lyrics and Zep’s music it would be really good.

                  See also Bad Company and Thin Lizzy. All that “hey woman” business sounds crap now.

                  • 21 year-olds singing “woman” (as in Plant and Rodgers) always sounded to me like these are boys trying to sound like grown-ups. They’re still “girls” then aren’t they. Aren’t they? Actually back in the day they were also (squirms) “ladies”. Mate, here in Aussie they’re all sheilas and don’t you bloody forget it…

                    • …yeah, I know, right..? That’s what I like about prog. It’s meant to be that way, and is in some ways a bit punk. It doesn’t care.

                      If somehow there turned out to be a lost LZ album between PG and Presence, then I would be very sad if it didn’t include at least a bit of Percy singing about his cock. However if they reformed and did it now, then hopefully he might have something else to sing about by now.

                    • Risible at times and weak yes but unpleasant? Not for me. A lot of that raunchy business comes from the blues. The lemon squeezing and so forth. Mix in a little LOTR and gollum’s your uncle. So many lyrics are lame generally in rock I can ignore them if need be.

              • I actually agree with you on the lyrics, but isn’t this true of virtually all of the 60s Rock/Rock & Roll bands? I struggle to think of any who don’t have at least a few of-their-moment clunkers tucked away.

                My experience is that said clunkers are tolerable or even charming when I like the music (The Lovin Spoonful, The Doors), and teeth grindingly intolerable when I do not (The Beatles).

                • Well The Beatles often had great lyrics (especially from John), I give Macca a pass sometimes because his melodies are so sublime. Other 60s acts with great lyrics Kinks, Who and The Stones. The latter has some bad ones too, but Jagger has moments of greatness especially in the 60s.

                  “What a drag it is getting old

                  “Kids are different today, ” I hear every mother say
                  Mother needs something today to calm her down
                  And though she’s not really ill, there’s a little yellow pill
                  She goes running for the shelter of her mother’s little helper
                  And it helps her on her way, gets her through her busy day

                  “Things are different today, ” I hear every mother say
                  Cooking fresh food for her husband’s just a drag
                  So she buys an instant cake, and she burns a frozen steak
                  And goes running for the shelter of her mother’s little helper
                  And two help her on her way, get her through her busy day
                  Doctor, please, some more of these
                  Outside the door, she took four more …”

                    • Of course it’s of it’s time. But who else was writing about suburban housewives becoming drug addicts because of boredom and negligent husbands? Makes a change from “Moon in June” love songs. For me perceptive and groundbreaking

                      * Ray Davies could have been an influence

                    • I dunno. I didn’t listen to any of this stuff until the 80s/90s, by which time a lot of it was trite/cringeworthy.

                      It was probably groundbreaking in the moment, but now it’s a bit of an eye roll. Same for all those bands (and Led Zep), it’s just what time does to lyrics. I think you kind of have to price it in, for the bands you like anyway.

                    • I didn’t listen to them until the same time or at the earliest late 70s. Jagger, Davies, Townshend and Lennon often had lyrics that were like short stories within a song. I don’t find most of them trite or cringeworthy.

                  • That Jagger lyric kind of fits with a whole tranche of misogynistic verses he wrote at that time. Under My Thumb, 19th Nervous Breakdown, Out Of Time. It’s original but rather tainted by a certain mockery of the hopeless woman.

  9. I don’t like Led Zep. So why am I commenting on this thread? I don’t understand myself. That’s as may be, but All My Love is a fine song unmentioned.

  10. I’m not so sure about When the Levee Breaks being at No. 2. It has an awesome riff and is beautifully recorded, but there is not much to the song beyond that – and it goes on for seven minutes.

    Immigrant Song should indeed be higher up the list. The version on How the West Was Won is brilliant, as are the other opening 15 minutes or so of that live album (before it begins to drag with the 20-plus minute recordings of Dazed and Confused and Whole Lotta Love).

    One song not mentioned in the list is On the Tiles (from Led Zep III); it has an excellent outro, using a series of Bonham drum fills as the song fades. It’s also good to see so many of the band’s ‘quieter’ songs being given credit, as these are often ignored on compilations. (Sorry, just seen the stipulation about ONE recommendation. Out of time now)

  13. Battle of Evermore at a lowly 24 seems a bit harsh considering some of the tracks ranked above it – definitely top 3 for me. Although the original is peerless with Sandy on vocals, the version on Unledded is terrific too.

    However, I do skew towards the first 4 albums and am much less familiiar with Houses of the Holy onwards as I didn’t own any of those until much much later.

  15. I think the version of rock’nroll on the double DVD. Is it Knebworth when they sort of returned after being slagged as rock dinosaurs, that version is just superb. So fluid, such swing.

  17. Wearing And Tearing
    Not in the list, but should be …

    (not being obtuse for the sake of it, and maybe it’s a case of familiarity breeds contempt, but I do rate that track)

    • Never took to them. Decent rhythm section. Page over playing and Plant caterwauling not for me. Plus all the ripping off of blues artists. Quite like some of the folky stuff. Actually I prefer Plant these days when he’s not trying so hard vocally

      • I think this is probably a generational thing, but I’ve never understood the handwringing about ripping off Blues artists.

        All musicians are ripping off someone, all that matters is can you take what came before, build on it and add some magic of your own – which LZ very clearly do, to my ears at least.

        • Led Zeppelin became multi-millionaires, flitting about the world in their own jet. They aggressively fought off every legal challenge to their “copyright” with fantastically expensive lawyers. The Blues artists they ripped off, I mean basically copied, barely adding anything apart from white-guy caterwailing, languished in poverty until old age and death.

          These days, Page moans about AI ripping off songwriters. 🙁

          • Well, I like the sound of the fantastically expensive lawyers 😏

            I dunno – when I listen to the old Blues guys they never actually *sound* that much like Led Zep to me. The bones of the thing, maybe, some of the lyrics, but the actual sound of the band clearly adds something over and above, say, Muddy Waters. Or at least I’ve never heard a Muddy Waters record that sounds like When The Levee Breaks.

            Also, the lawyer in me would point out that if they successfully fought off all the copyright claims then that’s pretty distinct from the issue with AI, the overlords of whom are arguing that copyright simply shouldn’t apply to them at all.

              • Sure, but that’s exactly what I’m on about: the LZ version might crib the name and the tune, but the actual sonics of the thing are a world away from the original. They were definitely adding something, otherwise I’d be a lot more inclined to listen to the MM version.

                • Yeah sure. So take a co- credit -don’t take all the credit and set your lawyers onto them. And what about Blackwater Side. Bert Jansch supposedly revered by them , their own kith and kin and by no means a rich man. Shitty stuff.

                  • See above – I think it’s priced in that 60s rock stars are arseholes, and we all happily listen to music by people who have done much worse than not giving credit where due. Art and artist.

                    • From the Wikipedia.

                      Led Zeppelin’s song “Black Mountain Side” is similar sounding to “Blackwaterside”. Singer-songwriter Al Stewart claims to have taught the folk song to Zeppelin’s guitarist Jimmy Page. Stewart, who had arrived in London in early 1965, followed Jansch’s gigs closely and learnt what he thought was Jansch’s version of “Blackwaterside”. However, he mistakenly believed that Jansch was using the DADGAD tuning on his guitar, whereas he was in fact using ‘drop-D’ tuning. At the time, Stewart was recording his own debut album and had engaged Page as a session musician. According to Stewart’s account, it was he who taught Page “Blackwaterside” in DADGAD during a tea-break.This may even have been Page’s first acquaintance with DADGAD.

                      In spite of this difference, Jansch’s record company sought legal advice in consultation with two eminent musicologists and John Mummery QC, a copyright barrister in the United Kingdom, following the release of the Led Zeppelin album, on which “Black Mountain Side” appears. Ultimately, however, no legal action was ever taken against Led Zeppelin, although it was likely that Page had borrowed from Jansch’s piece, because it could not be proved that the recording in itself constituted Jansch’s own copyright, as the basic melody was traditional. Nevertheless, Jansch said that Page “ripped me off, didn’t he? Or let’s just say he learned from me.”

                    • Bert also comes unstuck with Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp sounding uncannily like The Waggoner’s Lad
                      (not close enough though, apparently)

            • One side had fantastically expensive lawyers, the other had nothing. Unsurprisingly, most didn’t get to court.

              They added no more than they would do with a cover version, as they did with Joan Baez.

              • I’m not sure I agree with that last sentence, but at least it’s progress from barely added anything apart from white-guy caterwailin 😁

                Also: Fantastically Expensive Lawyers, TMFTL

                • Yes. Mainly caterwailing. I’ll give you some crash, bang wallop. Any actual music is crushed by brute force. It’s OK if you like that sort of thing. 😉

                  I always felt John Paul Jones was wasted in Led Zep, apart from his paycheck. He’s a proper musician. His orchestrations for The Stones and REM, his arrangements and playing with DONOVAN, Dusty and many others, is subtle, melodic, detailed and full of harmonic progression, qualities that are sadly absent in Led Zeppelin.

                  Plant’s post band work is pretty interesting too.

          • I’ve just been browsing through this sub-thread discussing the rights and wrongs of Zeppelin allegedly ‘ripping off’ earlier musicians, and while that’s been rummaging my retinas I’ve been playing a gorgeous CD from 2023 that ends one track by tucking away a clear rendition of the melody from Molly Malone.

            Should I eject the disc and burn it out of offended anger at the artist’s clear appropriation of someone else’s work? Of course not.

      • Well, if there are over 90 in total, than we can safely say that “Hot Dog” (off “In Through the Out Door”) would be nestling in the Bottom Five somewhere. Reading the many Zeppelin threads on the Steve Hoffman forums, that seems to be the track that most Zep fans love to hate. Hah!

  25. I’d put Custard Pie much higher; my favourite of the Physical Graffiti ‘rockers’ and certainly more playful than Sick Again, which just feels grubby lyrically.
    Pretty good list though and as Bingo points out, it reminds you what strength in depth they have across their repertoire.

  26. Didn’t click this link, In The Light was the first LZ production that impressed me and made me investigate the group at length and, to this day, having heard almost all of the group’s output, it would be my favourite tune.

    Thus, I assume it was No.1 on this list.

  27. Well, my fave is only at number 11, but no matter. I used to be able to play all those tricksy chords that introduce The Rain Song, but my fingers have forgotten how to do it now.

    Shame that the list includes a highly placed song that really didn’t belong to them when they recorded it without a suitable credit, and isn’t a poor black artist’s blues classic reinvented.

    • @fitterstoke Ta very much. Wasn’t expecting this. I thought there’d be half a dozen posts moaning about yet another list. Which is why I suggested the restriction in the OP – which has been of course ignored with some excellent discussion

      • You’re welcome. As a Zep fan of old, I enjoyed it. And the truth is – they might complain but everybody loves fighting about a list!

        The difficulty with Zeppelin is: no matter what you suggest in the OP, we’ll end up where we always end up: with the usual participants making their points one more time…

        • Yes I suppose the good thing about a list is that it keeps the conversation going, which is a good thing.

          And yes of course the usual suspects will always shout the loudest. Can’t do much about that and frankly I wouldn’t want to. Free speech and all that.

          • I did a little bit of agonising over posting but in the end I honestly couldn’t raise enough residual interest in Zeppelin to muster any cogent thought about them. I used to love them during my teenage years, I saw them live four times and have fond memories of those times. Yet now they like so many others have faded into just that a fond memory. I haven’t blown the dust from my Led Zep albums in decades and don’t feel any desire to do so. Is this just me or do others have similar reactions to once treasured acts of yesteryear?

        • Led Zep really are are band for your youth. Loud, testosterone fuelled riffs and lyrics. Drugged and tanked up.

          For most of us that is a thing of the past. That said the occasional track can stand the hairs on the neck. A while back, on this little radio show I do I had occasion to do a bunch of songs related to heavy rain and I put on When The Levee Breaks. It was fucking awesome. It didn’t get me going back to listen to the whole album again though.

  31. Saw the recent film at the flicks (unlike most people) but…

    I only like two:
    The one described as the nearest they got to being able – and ‘able’ is the word as opposed to unable – to write a pop song (No. 38), and the Bry-err-bum-can’t-win-at-rugby stomp.
    Not enough for me, got rid of all their stuff, even the BBC CDs which I got for 10p.

    I was kinda hoping neither of them would be in the list. Still, not in the Top 30, phew!

    Is it time to say the Golden Age it went thatta-way?
    I do believe it is.
    The Golden Age it went thatta-way.

    Got their autographs though… ’tis true.

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