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Thursday, August 8, 2013

Led Zeppelin "Whole Lotta Love" Isolated Guitar Track

For all of you guitar fans who love history, here's a look at Jimmy Page's rhythm guitar parts from Led Zeppelin's classic hit "Whole Lotta Love." The song might've ripped off Willie Dixon, but it exposed millions of kids to maybe the world's most basic blues riff. Here are some things to listen for:

1. The riff is doubled (1958 Les Paul Standard through a 100 watt Marshall Plexi) but it's in mono. It's also pretty loose, as you can hear either one or both parts misplayed at a number of places in the songs. Of course, that wouldn't get by today, but did that ever bother any of us before?

2. The bridge begins at 1:24, but the guitar ad libs don't begin until 1:50. At that point the amp noise increases, perhaps as a result from switching in the delay.

3. Something that you don't hear too clearly in the final mix is the new guitar riff that begins at the outro at 4:40.

4. If you listen all the way to the end you'll hear two endings. The first is rather tame, but listen a little more and you'll hear a more wild ending from the previous take at 5:50.



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5 comments:

Brandon said...

Thanks for another great post Bobby! The "guitar ad libs" in the bridge are done on a Moog Theremin rather than on the guitar(typically through an Orange Amp - at least live. Not sure what he used in the studio.)

Ben said...

Nice one. Thanks for this. I’ve always argued that the recording of this song represents the crowning achievement of Western civilization.

Now here at the office we’re trying to determine whether the sounds from 1:54 to 2:50 are actually made by a guitar or by some other device.

I had thought it was maybe a pick scraping along a wound string, but the end of it doesn’t so much sound like that.

Another guy suggested a Theremin, but it sounds to my ear a lot ruder than you can get out of a Theremin.

Is it known for sure how these sounds were made?

Anonymous said...

Looks like You Tube took it down. Is there another way to hear it?

Bobby Owsinski said...

Sorry, I didn't post it to YouTube so I'm not sure where another version might exist. You might want to do a YouTube search.

Anonymous said...

I've uploaded all of the isolated tracks from Whole Lotta Love, as well as a few other Led Zeppelin songs to my channel. Here is the Whole Lotta Love track selection:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuCN_Nbmos471Q-H637hKG6Up_PLDT_Uh

Cheers

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