zeppelincheetah Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 This is now my 2nd favorite song on their first album after Babe I'm Gonna Leave You (3rd is probably Dazed and Confused). According to Wikipedia it's the only song played every year they toured. Opinions? Trivia? Anything else to add? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badgeholder Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Always a barn-burner live. 'Blueberry Hill' (LA 9/4/70) has a great one which includes a short medley The Central Park gig (NY 7/21/69) is another smokin' one. Too many to choose from, really. For video, I like the 'Tous en Scene' one, off the official DVD (Paris 9/5/69) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaiser Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 This is where they influence heavy metal bands. No "Communication Breakdown" then no "Paranoid" then no... and on & on. I liked the song better when I was younger & I just about never purposely play it anymore but if it do happen to hear it I always turn it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitarmy Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 This is where they influence heavy metal bands. No "Communication Breakdown" then no "Paranoid" then no... and on & on. I liked the song better when I was younger & I just about never purposely play it anymore but if it do happen to hear it I always turn it up. What do you think it is about this song that makes it influence heavy metal? I'm just curious because it doesn't sound like anything I'd call heavy metal today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starbreaker Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 What do you think it is about this song that makes it influence heavy metal? I'm just curious because it doesn't sound like anything I'd call heavy metal today. True, Communication Breakdown sounds in now way like Mastadon or Lamb of God. But the first two Zeppelin Albums (particularly tracks like communication breakdown and whole lotta love) were crucial in the early development of heavy metal. The main riff of communication breakdown includes repetitive, rapid-fire downward stroking that was unseen previously in a guitar riff. So guitarmy, do this: 1) First listen to the studio version of Communication Breakdown. 2) listen to Paranoid by Black Sabbath http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/12/13/houston.mayor/index.html?eref=igoogle_cnn. 3) listen to what is considered to be the first thrash metal song, Exciter by Judas Priest (take in mind this is from 1978) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSCygCYmen0. 4)Then take a listen to Whiplash by Metallica (from their first album released in 1983) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aPkx-wwYgA, and you will see what I mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conneyfogle Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 I Like this version amongst others! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaiser Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 What do you think it is about this song that makes it influence heavy metal? I'm just curious because it doesn't sound like anything I'd call heavy metal today. 1)It's the starting point, the dividing line between before heavy metal & after heavy metal. There were songs that had a metallic feel to them going back to Link Wray's "Rumble" but "Communication Breakdown" is where everything is realized. "Paranoid" is just "CB" slowed down, which recently even Bill Ward admitted to. "Dazed and Confused" is an influence too as you can hear the feel to it on Black Sabbath's signature title song. But "CB" had the speed & frentic pace, the wailing vocals, & heavy crashing all around while remaining tight. That sound became associated with heavy metal early on in the court of public opinion regardless of what hindsight says in Sabbath's favor. I'd say "Communication Breakdown" is the first heavy metal song but the first truly heavy metal band is Black Sabbath. 2)It doesn't sound like heavy metal now just as rock artists don't sound like Chuck Berry, blues artists don't sound like Robert Johnson, country artists don't sound like Hank Williams, etc. The form evolves but there's a starting point. Those artists I just named aren't even the starting points of their specific genre's style but are the more famous examples of their respective time periods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black_Dog_90 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 I like "Communication Breakdown". Definitely one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs ever. The song was very fast and heavy at that time, and still is, just like hard rock really sounds. I think the structure of the song is something that really makes it special and original. I think the song is great live. One of my favorite live versions of the song are Royal Albert Hall performance in 1970, Danmarks Radio performance in 1969, Theater Olympia, Paris (Tous En Scene) performance in 1969 and Earls Court performance in 1975 and others. BBC Sessions versions are cool too. I especially like Royal Albert Hall version with the outro after the solo. I've always wondered what is that, where does that originate? Sounds really cool. And I agree, it's definitely one of the first heavy metal songs, even trash metal songs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BonzoLikeDrumer Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 The speed!!! It's all about the speed of this song man!!!! And then there's the production, bunch of guitar's in there!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeppelincheetah Posted December 15, 2009 Author Share Posted December 15, 2009 personally I think Communication Breakdown sounds more punk than metal. And it pre-dates the year punk broke ('76) by 8 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McSeven Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 I actually like CB live, because Zep puts a funk breakdown with it. The best CB I have heard is from the Royal Albert hall footage from the DVD. Mc7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackDog71 Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 Great song. Over time, i think this song has become my favorite off of Zeppelin I. The energy and hard hitting nature is so fantastic. A great song to turn up loud and jam to in the car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ledzepfvr Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 An exciting and fast rocking piece with roots in Eddie Cochran's Nervous Breakdown. "Communication Breakdown, It's always the same, I'm having a nervous breakdown, Drive me insane!" Communication Breakdown is an affliction that seems to happen around the forum occasionally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Masson Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 It has this huge, long scream in it, which I believe influenced some of the things a few other people did later, like Ian Gillan on DP in Rock (where he's actually screaming too much) and that pretty similar scream in The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deborah J Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 I love CB as it was fast and loud. Jimmy played with a telecaster on this so the sound was high. JPJ 's bass in this is often overlooked. Bonzo as always perfect. Then Roberts voice in this, amazingly high and loud but with a touch of the blues...this was just rock and roll in your face. IMHO yet another in all of their great range of songs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigstickbonzo Posted December 19, 2009 Share Posted December 19, 2009 I prefer live versions more for the outro jam instead of just the outro. Gotta love the Marley references from Earl's Court. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnlennon696 Posted December 21, 2009 Share Posted December 21, 2009 Ah, the track that got me into Zep in the first place, love it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivar Posted December 23, 2009 Share Posted December 23, 2009 Ahh love this song! A perfect early LZ song with such a raw sound that you can taste it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeppelincheetah Posted April 3, 2010 Author Share Posted April 3, 2010 i really never get tired of this song and I can really relate to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ringoffire Posted April 21, 2010 Share Posted April 21, 2010 This is another song that really puts a blast into the record...so much different from anything else on the album or any other song before or since. And I love "Paranoia" but I have never heard the similarity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
annam Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 Great song. Over time, i think this song has become my favorite off of Zeppelin I. The energy and hard hitting nature is so fantastic. A great song to turn up loud and jam to in the car. EHM...ABOUT LZ, particularly CB, in the CAR : Well …with CB I created “a monster”!!!!! my son, 9 years old, discovered LZ in my car when I accompany him to school or to play football….he adores them, all the songs (except for the wonderful blues ballads...I think because he is too young to appreciate these wonderlful pieces, he needs more Energy!!!) but since he has been listening to CB..he makes me crazy because he always wants to listen CB!!!! again and again !!!!Perhaps I’ll hate CB!!! 1(no I’m joking, it’s impossibile!!!! ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackDog71 Posted April 24, 2010 Share Posted April 24, 2010 EHM...ABOUT LZ, particularly CB, in the CAR : Well …with CB I created “a monster”!!!!! my son, 9 years old, discovered LZ in my car when I accompany him to school or to play football….he adores them, all the songs (except for the wonderful blues ballads...I think because he is too young to appreciate these wonderlful pieces, he needs more Energy!!!) but since he has been listening to CB..he makes me crazy because he always wants to listen CB!!!! again and again !!!!Perhaps I’ll hate CB!!! 1(no I’m joking, it’s impossibile!!!! ) Yea, I kind of know what you mean. I can play that song in the car and people who don't like Zep, haven't heard of Zep, or just don't listen to my kind of music will, 9 times out of 10, at the least have a foot or finger tapping to this song. It has an incredible energy to it. Nothing like belting it out while drving down an empty road at 60 miles (or faster ) an hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatbo Posted April 24, 2010 Share Posted April 24, 2010 1)It's the starting point, the dividing line between before heavy metal & after heavy metal. There were songs that had a metallic feel to them going back to Link Wray's "Rumble" but "Communication Breakdown" is where everything is realized. "Paranoid" is just "CB" slowed down, which recently even Bill Ward admitted to. "Dazed and Confused" is an influence too as you can hear the feel to it on Black Sabbath's signature title song. But "CB" had the speed & frentic pace, the wailing vocals, & heavy crashing all around while remaining tight. That sound became associated with heavy metal early on in the court of public opinion regardless of what hindsight says in Sabbath's favor. I'd say "Communication Breakdown" is the first heavy metal song but the first truly heavy metal band is Black Sabbath. 2)It doesn't sound like heavy metal now just as rock artists don't sound like Chuck Berry, blues artists don't sound like Robert Johnson, country artists don't sound like Hank Williams, etc. The form evolves but there's a starting point. Those artists I just named aren't even the starting points of their specific genre's style but are the more famous examples of their respective time periods. i'm with you on this. growing up, this song was as hard and fast as it got. many came later, but the prototype is always the best. i would also agree that it has some validity as a punk song-the speed and energy, if nothing else. like a car with an overbuilt engine, careening all over the mountain road, climbing higher and higher, until: "awwww, suck it!", then the solo climbs higher still, shooting for the stars. as for my fave concert version, i'll go with jan. 11th, 1969 at the fillmore west. any '69 shows have KILLER versions of this song, but this is my favorite... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
annam Posted April 30, 2010 Share Posted April 30, 2010 Yea, I kind of know what you mean. I can play that song in the car and people who don't like Zep, haven't heard of Zep, or just don't listen to my kind of music will, 9 times out of 10, at the least have a foot or finger tapping to this song. It has an incredible energy to it. Nothing like belting it out while drving down an empty road at 60 miles (or faster ) an hour. Oh I am afraid that my son when he grows up will follow your example!! Already he would take off their seatbelts and would like me to run with the car!! But here there is always traffic at all hours and it's impossible to run ... Now for him the obsession with CB and LZ in general has moved from car to home. ...He Uses it to celebrate a sports victory, or for any occasion on which he express great joy and excitement ... .. I really created a monster, I feel guilty !!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross62 Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Strangely enough for such a statement of intent,Communication Breakdown was almost buried on the second side of "Led Zeppelin".The album begins with Good Times Bad Times - but Communication Breakdown is even faster,even looser;an attempt to update the original,delinquent excitement of rock 'n' roll with late 60's technology and power. The song is intertwined with the very roots of Led Zeppelin.As Page remembered,talking about how he put the band together after the end of The Yardbirds:"As soon as I saw Bonzo I knew who the drummer should be.I played him this single called Lonnie On The Move by Lonnie Mack.It's got this drumming that's really super hooligan. I said,this is the sort of angle I'm coming from...." MOJO Magazine ~ July 2014 ~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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