From “Dazed and Confused” to “Achilles Last Stand” … from “Heartbreaker” to “Ten Years Gone” … Guitar World presents a critical analysis of the classic-rock group’s best tracks.
From “Dazed and Confused” to “Achilles Last Stand” … from “Heartbreaker” to “Ten Years Gone” … Guitar World presents a critical analysis of the classic-rock group’s 10 best tracks.
With the release of Celebration Day, the concert film immortalizing Led Zeppelin’s historic and most likely final reunion concert at London’s O2 Arena on December 10, 2007, guitarist-producer Jimmy Page reminded the world just how profoundly great and enduring his band’s music is.
In homage to what is arguably hard rock’s most innovative group (and certainly its most influential), what follows is a tour of 10 of the most celebrated Led Zeppelin songs, with a focus on the guitar playing, songwriting and arranging genius of the quartet’s visionary founder.
If you'd like to explore this topic further, be sure to check out The 50 Greatest Led Zeppelin Songs, which also was written by Jimmy Brown. Enjoy!
10. “Heartbreaker” (Led Zeppelin II)
With its menacing, octave-doubled blues-scale riffs and sexy string bends, this song epitomizes the “Led Zeppelin swagger.” Interestingly, the verse riff features Jones strumming root-fifth power chords on bass, treated with overdrive and tremolo, while Page alternately lays back on decidedly thinner-sounding thumb-fretted octaves—a signature technique heard in his and Jimi Hendrix’s rhythm guitar styles—and punches barre-chord accents together with the bass and drums.
Page recorded the song with his 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard, which he had recently bought from Joe Walsh, playing the guitar through his newly acquired 100-watt Marshall amplifier. The song also showcases some of Jimmy’s most aggressive, inspired soloing, including a free-form, tantrum-like a capella breakdown