Houses of the Holy is one of my favorite Led Zeppelin albums, and even if this song is a wtf for some people, I just love it.

I wanna tell you bout my good friend
I ain't disclosing no names but--
He sure is a good friend and!
I ain't gonna tell you where he comes from, no!
If I tell you you wont come again! Hey!
I ain't gonna tell you nothin but I do will, but I know, yeah!
I should do but I know now let me tell you bout my girl:
Open up a newspaper and what do I see? Ahh, ah
See my girl, ah, looking at me
Ooh, And when she walks, Ooh, lemme tell ya:
She walks and when she talks, she talks and
When she looks at me in the eye
She's my baby lord I wanna make her mine
Tell me baby what you want me to do!
You want me to love you, love some other man too?
Ain't gonna call me Mr. pitiful, no!
I don't need no respect from nobody...

I ain't gonna tell you nothing I ain't gonna no more, no!
She's my baby let me tell you that I love her so and
And! She's the woman I really wanna love
And let me tell you more, oooh!
She's my baby she lives next door
She's the one a woman the one a woman that I know.
I ain't gonna... tell you one thing that you really ought to know ooh!
She's my lover baby and I love her so and
She's the one that really makes me whirl and twirl!
And she's the kind of lover that makes me me fill the whole world and
She's the one who really makes me jump and shout, ooh!
She's the kind of girl - I know what it's all about!
Take it all
Take it, take it, take it!

Oh excuse me!
Oh will you excuse me?
I'm just trying to find the bridge...
Has anybody seen the bridge?
Bridge?

(Have you seen the bridge?)
I ain't seen the bridge!

(Where's that confounded bridge?)

A bit of wikipedia about this song:

"The song evolved out of a jam session in the studio. John Bonham started the beat, John Paul Jones came in on bass, Jimmy Page played a funk guitar riff (and a chord sequence that he'd been experimenting with since 1970), and Robert Plant started singing. For the recording of this track, Page played on a Stratocaster guitar and it is possible to hear him depressing a whammy bar at the end of each phrase.

This song is a play on James Brown's style of funk in the same way that "D'yer Mak'er" (which it backed on a single release) experiments with reggae. Since most of James Brown's earlier studio recordings were done live with almost no rehearsal time, he often gave directions to the band in-song e.g. "take it to the bridge" - the bridge of the song. Plant pays tribute to this at the end by asking "Where's that confounded bridge?" (spoken, just as the song finishes abruptly). The song also contains references to songs written by Otis Redding, specifically "Respect" (later popularized by Aretha Franklin) and "Mr. Pitiful."

A voice is audible at the beginning asking Bonham if he's "ready to go." The voices that can be heard talking on the recording just as Bonham's drums begin on the intro are those of Jimmy Page and audio engineer George Chkianz."

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I don't usually like songs I can't get my head around. And I sure as hell can't figure this song out to save my life.

Funk you can't dance to ain't funky at all.

It's the weekest cut on the album, for sure. I never totally disliked it, being it was the last song on that side it was no problem for me to skip it at times, but most times I just listened straight through.

Houses of the Holy is one of my favorite Led Zeppelin albums too.

Always dug this tune. My old band used to cover this. Bonzo is killin' the drums on this cut.

Everytime I hear this song I always visualize Rerun pop locking in the soda shop.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I love the Zep. I love Houses of the Holy...but I do not like this song. This song was apparently inspired by Bonzo's love of James Brown. A British rock band's attempt at funk....and it wasn't successful.

The bass line is dope tho.

SherryJackson said:

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I love the Zep. I love Houses of the Holy...but I do not like this song. This song was apparently inspired by Bonzo's love of James Brown. A British rock band's attempt at funk....and it wasn't successful.

The bass line is dope tho.

I feel that Zeppelin was very funky! 'The Ocean', 'Kashmir', 'Fool in The Rain', Hots On For Nowhere' 'Out On The Tiles' and 'Trampled Over Foot' just too name a few. They weren't funk in the 70's tradition with a horn section kinda funk. But in terms of raw big beats and sick grooves, they had that vibe on a lot of their stuff.

With that said, I don't believe that Zeppelin was as funky as Grand Funk Railroad. Those were some fonkay white boys!!!

[Edited 7/2/10 0:02am]

The Crunge gets its own thread?!

No no no no no!

Great band, superb album....terrible song!

It's just a half-finished demo idea, never gets going, doesn't say anything, doesn't have the funk, doesn't rock...what's to like?!

sunlite said:

SherryJackson said:

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I love the Zep. I love Houses of the Holy...but I do not like this song. This song was apparently inspired by Bonzo's love of James Brown. A British rock band's attempt at funk....and it wasn't successful.

The bass line is dope tho.

I feel that Zeppelin was very funky! 'The Ocean', 'Kashmir', 'Fool in The Rain', Hots On For Nowhere' 'Out On The Tiles' and 'Trampled Over Foot' just too name a few. They weren't funk in the 70's tradition with a horn section kinda funk. But in terms of raw big beats and sick grooves, they had that vibe on a lot of their stuff.

With that said, I don't believe that Zeppelin was as funky as Grand Funk Railroad. Those were some fonkay white boys!!!

[Edited 7/2/10 0:02am]

Not to go too off-topic, but as far as 70s rock bands that didn't get their funk-due, I don't think most people know The SWEET had a major edge on the funk. Much funkier than Zep, take my word for it.

sunlite said:

SherryJackson said:

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I love the Zep. I love Houses of the Holy...but I do not like this song. This song was apparently inspired by Bonzo's love of James Brown. A British rock band's attempt at funk....and it wasn't successful.

The bass line is dope tho.

I feel that Zeppelin was very funky! 'The Ocean', 'Kashmir', 'Fool in The Rain', Hots On For Nowhere' 'Out On The Tiles' and 'Trampled Over Foot' just too name a few. They weren't funk in the 70's tradition with a horn section kinda funk. But in terms of raw big beats and sick grooves, they had that vibe on a lot of their stuff.

With that said, I don't believe that Zeppelin was as funky as Grand Funk Railroad. Those were some fonkay white boys!!!

[Edited 7/2/10 0:02am]

Ok,

"The Ocean" was funky, I'll give ya that.

"Kashmir"?????? That was the Zep making their Requiem. Their defining piece of work (that and Stairway to Heaven). Very progressive style of rock. Hardly would call it funky. But's a great song tho.

"Fool In the Rain" and "Hots on For Nowhere" were more "pop" like than funky.

"Out On The Tiles"....gimme a more defined bass line and we have funky. But still, mostly hard rock.

"Tramped Under Foot"...yes, most definetely funky. That keyboard work was badass.

Sooo, I'd say that the Zep had the capacity to be funky. Yes, not in the classical sense of 70's funk, but they could do it when they weren't trying for it. The Crunge is when they were trying to copy JB's style of funk. To which that was a disaster. Just sayin'

I like it. It's kind of stiff but they were always stiff. That's what makes it "hard rock" right? They play the blues real stiff, they play the funk real stiff, they play the folk real stiff.

It sounds like what it is... a bathroom break between proper sessions. But it's fun, funny and short.

And HOTH is my favorite Zep too.

Awesome song

Led Zeppelin have their share of classics, but I like The Crunge because no Led Zeppelin fan was expecting to find this in the album following LZ IV - sure everybody wanted Starway to Heaven again and again and again, but instead they recorded what they wanted - they weren't the funkiest thing in town, but I feel like they were having a good time recording this song, and I like that vibe.

.