There may be some debate about which band ruled the 1970s. But if you lived through the first half of that decade, you probably know my answer.
Led Zeppelin. Hands down.
Oddly enough, one of my favorite Zeppelin songs arrived just before the decade began. “Ramble On” appeared on the band’s second album, Led Zeppelin II, in 1969.
The song contains nearly everything Led Zeppelin did brilliantly. Jimmy Page’s delicate acoustic guitar and John Paul Jones’s wandering bass line give the verses a light, restless feeling. Then John Bonham and the electric guitars arrive, and the chorus takes flight. The contrast between restraint and power is the secret: the song does not merely ramble—it repeatedly gathers itself and charges forward.
Robert Plant also takes his journey into Tolkien country, singing about Mordor and Gollum as though The Lord of the Rings naturally belongs in a rock song. With Zeppelin, somehow it does.
“Ramble On” is hardly obscure. Zeppelin fans know it, Tolkien fans know it and classic-rock radio has never completely abandoned it. But familiar songs sometimes become background music. We recognize them without really listening to them.
So take this opportunity to listen closely—and then crank it up.