DAY 13: A SONG YOU LIKE FROM THE 70's.

The vast majority of music in my collection comes from the 1970's. So trying to narrow it down to one song for this post was challenging.

On what basis do I make a choice? What is the criteria for me to choose a song to write about? Does it need to have meant something to me? Maybe contains a message of deep wisdom? Or perhaps go for something statistical, like chart position, total sales, etc?

It's been several days since I posted in the #song-challenge. Partly because I have been really busy this week being a full-time dad, with not a lot of spare time to even work, let alone sit at the desk and write.

One good thing about my time this week was that I spent a lot of time in the car, with the iPod plugged in. As I drove, I kept an ear out for a song to write about. Like I mentioned however, it was a tough choice.

And then yesterday afternoon, this song came one. I instantly knew this was going to be my choice for this post.

Black Dog by Led Zeppelin

from their 1971 untitled 4th album

Listen to this track on the STEEMIT SOUNDS: SLIGHT RETURN soundtrack.

The story of Led Zeppelin's 4th album is fascinating. After rather poor critical reception of their previous (3rd) album, the band took a year off from touring and spent time in the country - Bron-Yr-Aur in Wales where most of the album was written, and Headley Grange in Hampshire where it was recorded.

The album cover famously had no titles or any text on it whatsoever, with each of the band members choosing a symbol to act as a sigil in place of their names. Jimmy Page insisted on this as a direct response to critics, so that in writing about this album, they would need to make reference to the previous albums.

Needless to say, this album became the band's biggest selling album, and one of the most influential and most endearing albums to date. It's accolades are many.

Black Dog

Why this song? It's the opening track of the album, and possibly one of the most Zeppelin-esque songs they ever did.

The opening lines by Robert Plant are simply iconic:

Hey, hey mama said the way you move
Gon' make you sweat, gon' make you groove

At this point we are treated to John Bonham's incredibly massive drums, and Jimmy Page's famous riff, all did together with John Paul Jones' tight bass keeping rhythm alongside Bonham's syncopation.

This video gives us an idea of what it must have been like to see these guys play live at the peak of their creative genius and their career.