Musicologists Study of WtLB

[bcarter690]

The Meaning in the Mix: Tracing a Sonic Narrative in ‘When the Levee Breaks’

Prof. Aaron Liu-Rosenbaum

November, 2012

http://arpjournal.com/the-meaning-in-the-mix-tracing-a-sonic-narrative-in-%E2%80%98when-the-levee-breaks%E2%80%99/

[juxtiphi]

In lamens terms, "When The Levee Breaks is really cool!" 

[babysquid]

Zzz....

[IpMan]

Thank god this guy did not break down all of the fourth album, I would be reading his dissertation for the next month.

[kirchzep27]

Thanks for posting this. When i first read this awhile back i immediately self diagnosed myself with attention deficit disorder. But it has alot of great thoughts. Since a kid till now, i never took the songs lyrics as a serious aspect to the song really...it was and still is initially about the beat to me, then the riff and sonic landscape that goes on. But probably the blues lyrics are like the 3rd part of the song that make it interesting to me. A breakthrough moment of song for led zeppelin.

[kirchzep27]

In regards to the origins of this song, the only inklings (to me) of it go back the the paris 69 show, moby dick, where bonham busts into that heavy beat. I can only think of that, imagining them jamming early on, where they realized they could acheive anything with john bonham on drums.

[Mithril46]

One thing not really discussed, just like Traveling Riverside Blues, is production. IMO getting back to Levee yes the

drum sound is noted, but for me there is also the sound and feel of old blues recordings but with much better clarity

and definition. However the definition, though, the track also sounds very dense and thick. Arguments ??