When The Levee Breaks - Wikipedia
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| "When the Levee Breaks" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Single by Kansas Joe & Memphis Minnie | |
| Released | August–September 1929 |
| Recorded | New York City, June 18, 1929 |
| Genre | Country blues |
| Length | 3:11 |
| Label | Columbia |
| Songwriters |
|
"When the Levee Breaks" is a country blues song written and first recorded by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie in 1929. The lyrics reflect experiences during the upheaval caused by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.
"When the Levee Breaks" was re-worked by English rock group Led Zeppelin and became the final song on their untitled fourth album. Singer Robert Plant used many of the original lyrics. The songwriting is credited to Memphis Minnie and the individual members of Led Zeppelin.[1] Many other artists have performed and recorded versions of the song.
Background and lyrics
[edit]When blues musical duo Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie wrote "When the Levee Breaks", the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was still fresh in people's memories.[2] The flooding affected 26,000 square miles of the Mississippi Delta. Hundreds were killed and hundreds of thousands of residents were forced to evacuate.[3] The event is the subject of several blues songs, such as "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues" by Barbecue Bob (1928).[4]
Ethel Douglas, Minnie's sister-in-law, recalled that Minnie was living with her family near Walls, Mississippi, when the levee broke in 1927.[2] The song's lyrics recount the story of a man who lost his home and his family. Despite the tragedy, biographers also see in it a statement of rebirth.[5]
Recording and release
[edit]McCoy and Minnie recorded "When the Levee Breaks" during their first session for Columbia Records in New York City on June 18, 1929.[1] The song features McCoy on vocals and rhythm guitar.[6] Minnie, the more accomplished guitarist of the two, provided the embellishments using a finger-picked style in a Spanish or open G tuning.[7] Music journalist Charles Shaar Murray identified Joe McCoy as the actual songwriter[1] but, as with all their Columbia releases, regardless of who sang the song the record labels list the artist as "Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie".[8]
Columbia issued the song on the then-standard 78 rpm phonograph record in August or June 1929 with "That Will Be Alright", another vocal performance by McCoy, on the flip-side.[8] The record was released before record industry publications, such as Billboard began tracking so-called race records, but it has been called a moderate hit.[9] "When the Levee Breaks" has been included on several Memphis Minnie compilation albums, and blues roots albums featuring various artists.[10]
Led Zeppelin version
[edit]| "When the Levee Breaks" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Led Zeppelin | |
| from the album Led Zeppelin IV | |
| Released | November 8, 1971 |
| Recorded | 1971 |
| Studio | Headley Grange, Headley, Hampshire, England |
| Genre |
|
| Length | 7:08 |
| Label | Atlantic |
| Songwriters |
|
| Producer | Jimmy Page |
Led Zeppelin recorded "When the Levee Breaks" for inclusion on their 1971 untitled fourth album. When considering material for the group to record, singer Robert Plant had suggested the Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie song.[11] Jimmy Page said that while Plant's lyrics followed the style of the original, he had developed a new guitar riff that set their version apart.[11] John Bonham's drumming is usually noted as the defining feature of the song.[12]
Recording
[edit]Before the released version appeared, Led Zeppelin attempted the song twice. They recorded an early version of the song in December 1970 at Headley Grange, using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. This was later released as "If It Keeps On Raining" on the 2015 reissue of Coda. Before relocating to Headley Grange, they tried unsuccessfully to record the song at Island Studios at the beginning of the recording sessions for their fourth album.[12]
Although Page and John Paul Jones based their guitar and bass lines on the original song,[13] they did not follow its twelve-bar blues I–IV–V–I structure, but instead used a one-chord or modal approach to create a droning sound.[1] Plant used many of the original lyrics, but with a different melodic approach.[14] He also added a harmonica part. During mixing a reverse echo effect was created, in which the echo was heard ahead of the source.[12]
John Bonham's drumming, on a Ludwig kit, was recorded in the lobby of Headley Grange using two Beyerdynamic M 160 microphones which were suspended above a flight of stairs. Output from these was passed to a pair of Helios F760 compressor/limiters which were set aggressively to create a breathing effect. A Binson Echorec, a delay effects unit, was also used.[9][15][16]
Parts of the song were recorded at a different tempo and then slowed down, causing a "sludgy" sound, particularly on the harmonica and guitar solos.[17] It was the only song on the album that was mixed at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California; the rest were remixed in London.[18] Page said the panning at the song's ending was one of his favourite mixes, "when everything starts moving around except for the voice, which remains stationary".[19] The song was difficult to recreate live and the band played it only a few times, in the early stages of their 1975 U.S. Tour.[12]
Critical reception
[edit]Music critic Robert Christgau said Led Zeppelin's version of "When the Levee Breaks" was the greatest achievement of their fourth album. He argued that, because it played like an authentic blues song and had "the grandeur of a symphonic crescendo", their version of the song transcended and dignified "the quasi-parodic overstatement and oddly cerebral mood" of their past blues songs.[20] Mick Wall called it a "hypnotic, blues rock mantra".[21] AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, in a retrospective review, commented that the song was the only piece on their fourth album equal to "Stairway to Heaven" and called it "an apocalyptic slice of urban blues ... as forceful and frightening as Zeppelin ever got, and its seismic rhythms and layered dynamics illustrate why none of their imitators could ever equal them."[22] In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Greg Kot wrote that the song showed the band's "hard-rock blues" at their most "momentous".[23] However, group biographer Keith Shadwick noted that the song suffered from "too few ideas added to the ingredients as the minutes tick by, compared with 'Black Dog'" and other songs on the first side of the album.[13]
Other releases
[edit]A second version of the song was released in 2014 on the second disc of the remastered two-disc deluxe edition of Led Zeppelin IV. This version, known as "When The Levee Breaks (Alternate UK Mix in Progress)", was recorded on May 19, 1971, at the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio at Headley Grange. This mix runs 7:09, while the original runs 7:08.
Other versions and sampling
[edit]Robert Plant performed the song with Alison Krauss on their 2022 tour. One concert reviewer described Plant's vocal as "astonishing, channeling every flood he had seen in his 74 years into the emotional resonance of his voice".[24]
Bonham's drum beat is one of the most widely sampled in popular music.[11][25] According to Esquire magazine's Miles Raymer:
The two-bar break that opens "When the Levee Breaks" is one of the most monumental pieces of rock drumming ever recorded, and one of the most widely sampled pieces of music ever, having appeared in songs by everyone from Eminem and Dr. Dre to New Age artist Mike Oldfield and Sophie B. Hawkins.[26]
See also
[edit]- List of Led Zeppelin songs written or inspired by others
Notes
[edit]- ^ a b c d Murray, Charles Shaar (August 9, 2016). "Led Zeppelin Vs Memphis Minnie: Whose version of When The Levee Breaks is better?". Louder Sound. Archived from the original on August 14, 2018. Retrieved August 13, 2018.
- ^ a b Garon & Garon 2014, pp. 49–50.
- ^ Cheseborough 2009, p. 153.
- ^ Monge 2004, pp. 995–996.
- ^ Garon & Garon 2014, p. 50.
- ^ Garon & Garon 2014, pp. 47, 317.
- ^ Garon & Garon 2014, p. 45.
- ^ a b Garon & Garon 2014, p. 47.
- ^ a b Power 2016, eBook.
- ^ "Memphis Minnie: When The Levee Breaks – Appears on". AllMusic. Archived from the original on August 14, 2018. Retrieved August 13, 2018.
- ^ a b c Lewis 2010b, eBook.
- ^ a b c d Lewis 2010a, eBook.
- ^ a b Shadwick 2005, p. 163.
- ^ Fast 2001, p. 62.
- ^ Welch, Chris (31 October 2013). "Andy Johns on the secrets behind the Led Zeppelin IV sessions". MusicRadar. Future Publishing. Archived from the original on 4 November 2018. Retrieved October 28, 2018.
- ^ Doyle, Tom (October 2019). "Classic Tracks: Led Zeppelin 'Kashmir'". Sound on Sound.
- ^ Case 2007, pp. 105–106.
- ^ Shadwick 2005, p. 150.
- ^ Tolinski 2012, eBook.
- ^ Christgau 1981, p. 222.
- ^ Wall 2010, p. 246.
- ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Led Zeppelin IV – Review". AllMusic. Archived from the original on September 6, 2011. Retrieved August 17, 2011.
- ^ Kot 2004, p. 479.
- ^ Baltin, Steve (August 19, 2022). "Robert Plant and Alison Krauss Deliver a Flawless Night at L.A.'s Greek Theater". Forbes.com. Archived from the original on August 29, 2022. Retrieved August 29, 2022.
- ^ "These are the breaks: The most sampled drum beats in music history". Music. 26 August 2015. Archived from the original on 12 July 2020. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
- ^ Raymer, Miles (December 6, 2013). "5 Rap Songs That Sample Led Zeppelin". Esquire. Archived from the original on December 23, 2014. Retrieved July 12, 2020.
References
[edit]- Case, George (2007). Jimmy Page: Magus, Musician, Man – An Unauthorized Biography. New York City: Hal Leonard. ISBN 978-1-4234-0407-1.
- Cheseborough, Steve (2009). Blues Traveling: The Holy Sites of Delta Blues. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1604733280.
- Christgau, Robert (1981). Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 978-0899190259.
- Fast, Susan (2001). In the Houses of the Holy: Led Zeppelin and the Power of Rock Music. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-511756-1.
- Garon, Paul; Garon, Beth (2014). Woman with Guitar: Memphis Minnie's Blues. San Francisco, California: City Lights Books. ISBN 978-0872866218.
- Kot, Greg (2004). Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). New York City: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0743201698.
- Lewis, Dave (2010a). Led Zeppelin: The Complete Guide to Their Music. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0857121356.
- Lewis, Dave (2010b). Led Zeppelin: The 'Tight But Loose' Files. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-857-12220-9.
- Lewis, Dave; Pallett, Simon (2005). Led Zeppelin: The Concert File. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 1-84449-659-7.
- Monge, Luigi (2004). "Topical Blues: Disasters". In Komara, Edward (ed.). The Blues Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia of the Blues. New York City: Routledge. ISBN 978-1135958329.
- Power, Martin (2016). No Quarter: The Three Lives of Jimmy Page. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1783235360.
- Shadwick, Keith (2005). Led Zeppelin: The Story of a Band and Their Music 1968–1980 (1st ed.). San Francisco: Backbeat Books. ISBN 0-87930-871-0.
- Tolinski, Brad (2012). Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-98573-6.
- Wall, Mick (2010). When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin. New York City: St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 978-0-312-59039-0.
External links
[edit]- "When the Levee Breaks" (Led Zeppelin remastered official audio) on YouTube
- "When The Levee Breaks" featuring John Paul Jones and guests on YouTube in Playing For Change – Peace Through Music: A Global Event for the Environment
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