Where does Friends end and Celebration Day begin?

[Zep Hed]

So on the third album Friends transitions to Celebration Day via a drone kinda sound. A Moog I believe. So is the drone the end of Friends or the start of Celebration Day? Yes I've heard/read the drone referred as the outro of Friends but you can still hear it under the first guitar notes of Celebration Day (even Robert's vocal intro).

Last night I heard Friends on the radio. Pretty cool! As Friends ends - or does it? - we hear the drone. Hmmm they're gonna play Celebration Day too? Ah but no; that was it. So at least as radio programmers go, the drone is included in Friends. Well, maybe the answer was obvious based on the song timings but I don't have my stopwatch! 🙂

[zeplz71]

Jimmy has the track start at the guitar chords.

 

 

[Strider]

The drone is the segue between "Friends" and "Celebration Day". It's the end and the beginning. Most radio stations would either fade out at the end of the drone if they were playing "Friends" or fade up if they were playing "Celebration Day".

If I recall correctly, Jimmy Page stated that the drone was created to link the tracks because the original intro to "Celebration Day" was lost by the engineer or some other mishap.

[Rodrigo]

If I remember correctly, Friends almost losts.