10 Legendary Songs That Were Completely Improvised

As rock was starting to tap into its harsher side, Led Zeppelin were leading the way for riff based rock and roll. Having been raised in the kind of blues bands that swept across England, every single riff to come out of Jimmy Page's guitar became the handbook for up and coming guitar heroes, from the bluesy Whole Lotta Love to the bombastic side of Kashmir. For a song that's all about celebrating the kind of lifestyle they were going through though, there wasn't really a lot of thought put into Rock and Roll.

When Zeppelin actually went into the studio for this session, Rock and Roll didn't even exist, looking to just nail down a version of the John Bonham showcase Four Sticks. As the band started to get into the groove though, Bonzo didn't want to cut it to just one song and launched into the drum intro from Little Richard's Keep a Knockin. As everyone else went along with it, Zeppelin created a whole new song underneath their feet, with Robert Plant riffing like a bluesman possessed half of the time.

You can really hear that unstoppable energy on that actual record too, especially when Jimmy kicks into his guitar solo and climbs up the fretboard until there's virtually no room for him left to go. Although this is the same album that brought us epics like Stairway to Heaven, this was nowhere near as calculated. This was just about getting into a room with your fellow musicians and having a good time.