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Led Zeppelin's Influences |
When the Levee Breaks | |
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On Led Zeppelin IV (or Untitled, The Runes Album, Zoso or whatever you want to call it), Led Zeppelin listed Memphis Minnie along with the four band members on the songwriting credits for "When the Levee Breaks". In this case, Led Zeppelin was being generous, as their interpretation of the song bears only a distant relationship to the original. As performed by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe, "When the Levee Breaks" is a country blues number with simple but deft instrumentation. Kansas Joe sings and accompanies himself on guitar, while Memphis Minnie plays lead guitar with a "Spanish" tuning.
[1]
Unlike the finesse of Memphis Minnie's guitar work, Led Zeppelin's version of "When the Levee Breaks" is heavy to say the least, driven by John Bonham's reverb-heavy drumming. According to Chris Welch, "When the Levee Breaks" was the first track that John Bonham got a drum sound he was satisfied with. He got that sound by pulling his drumset into the hallway of Headley Grange studio, using room microphones and running the sound through a guitar amp.
[2] The rest of the instrumentation is distinctive and Led Zeppelin adds riffs and a bridge that are original. Only Memphis Minnie's lyrics theme remains, but Led Zeppelin added lyrics of their own, particularly at the conclusion of the song when Robert Plant sings of going to Chicago. It is interesting to note that the Memphis Minnie's version of "When the Levee Breaks does not mention going to Chicago. Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe recorded "When the Levee Breaks" in 1929, at a time when many African Americans were moving out of the rural South to the industrial centers of the North. The availability of industrial jobs in Chicago made that city one of the main destinations of this mass migration. Was Led Zeppelin making reference to the mass migration of African-Americans in the early twentieth century? I suppose that's possible, but perhaps a more likely explanation is that Robert Plant described Chicago as a place where the groupies were particularly aggressive with the band, and consistent with "When the Levee Breaks" as a song of sexual temptation.
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Memphis Minnie - Queen of the Blues
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| Compilations of Original Versions |
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| When the Levee Breaks by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe is included on Early Blues Roots of Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin's Sources of Inspiration, Led Astray and Zeppelin Classics. |
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| Notes |
| 1. | | Steve Calt, liner notes for Roots of Rock, Yazoo 1063 (1991) | | 2. | | Chris Welch, Dazed and Confused: The Stories Behind Every Song (New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1998), pp. 70-72. |
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The Blues and Folk
Roots of
Led Zeppelin's Music |
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