Led Zeppelin is one of those bands, like Pink Floyd, that we’re expected to outgrow.
Every teenage boy has a Led Zeppelin phase, right? But how many listen to the band as adults?
Or maybe I’m just generalizing based on my own experience. I know I gobbled up all of the Zeppelin albums in high school and college but haven’t listened to one of them all the way through since.
Hearing a great song like ‘When the Levee Breaks,’ I wonder why I lost track of the band. This is essential rock music, as is the entire Led Zeppelin IV album.
I kind of envy the teenagers who will discover this song and other Led Zeppelin classics and declare, minds blown, that all the best music was released before they were born.
If it keeps on raining, levee’s going to break, [X2]
When the levee breaks I’ll have no place to stay
[Bridge]
Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan, [X2]
Got what it takes to make a mountain man leave his home
Oh, well, oh, well, oh, well
[Verse]
Don’t it make you feel bad
When you’re trying to find your way home
You don’t know which way to go?
If you’re going down South
They go no work to do
If you don’t know about Chicago
[Bridge]
Crying won’t help you, praying won’t do you no good
Now, crying won’t help you, praying won’t do you no good
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move
[Outro]
All last night sat on the levee and moaned, [X2]
Thinking about me baby and my happy home
Going, going to Chicago… Going to Chicago… Sorry but I can’t take you
Going down… going down now… going down
I suspect there are still adults listening to a steady diet of Zeppelin and Floyd. They are working in the last surviving record stores around the country.