Led Zeppelin: 10 Best Songs

7. In My Time Of Dying

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1Dhz90oJXo You may be surprised to hear this, but there are a number of songs in Led Zeppelin's repertoire that originated from external sources or were initially recorded by other artists. One such song is In My Time Of Dying - with its origins in gospel music and officially first performed by Blind Willie Johnson in 1927 (Johnson was also the first to sing Nobody's Fault But Mine). Multiple artists formed their own version of Dying between its inception and Zeppelin's interpretation (released on their 1975 album Physical Graffiti) but Page's distorted slide guitar and Bonham's distinctive reverb'ed drumming made it a commercial hit, achieving RIAA 16x Platinum status. If you've done what every Zeppelin fan should do and whacked the volume up to ten before snapping the knob off (that's not a masturbation metaphor) you'll be able to hear Bonham's untimely coughing fit at the end, followed by him saying, "That's gonna be the one isn't it?" ... Yes John, that's the one. (Now, even if you haven't started playing the song from the link above, you will now, and you might skip right to the end simply to hear what I just transcribed ... It's not really why I put the song up in the first place but go on, I understand.) I have to say that the live versions of this song are the best - less structure and more feel in Page's playing (just listen you'll get what I mean) my favourite being track 4 on the 2012 live Celebration Day album. Obviously the studio recording ain't half-bad either, and as it's the longest Led Zep studio track out, you can start playing it from Waterloo and it'll still be on by the time you get off at Clapham Junction - a perfect reason to be at number 7.
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