10 Greatest Classic Rock Led Zeppelin Songs
8. The Ocean
What makes Led Zeppelin's music unique is their eclectic mix of influences. Ask any Zeppelin fan to name their favorite tunes, and chances are you would get very different answers from everyone. The band may have been straight-ahead rock, but their complexities were so omnipresent that it's easy to miss them.
"The Ocean" is built on an unusual time signature, with each part being played out over typical 4/4 along with 7/8 time. To the average listener, this would seem extremely confusing, but the band ride the riff so well that you can't help but be engulfed by it. The subtle nuances of the track are also fantastic for music nerds, like the background noise picking up what sounds like a phone ringing in the final mix.
Lyrically, Plant uses the ocean as a metaphor to describe the sea of people that they had played to every night while on the road. Houses of the Holy may have seen the band experimenting with different styles, but this song has just the right amount of Zeppelin swagger to make it a classic. With the song being sampled by countless hip hop acts, it seems that the power of this riff is not going to be going away any time soon.