Talk:Four Sticks

Rhythm
This song is also notable for its highly unusual rhythmic structure. The verses are in 5/4, whereas the bridge passages are in 3/4.

(Different person's comment) I saw the transcription with 5/4 & 3/4, in an old Led Zeppelin song book, but a classical musician told me that the 5/4 really should have been transcribed as 10/8. I don't remember his explanation very clearly, but as I recall it involved the fact that relevant section's rhythm is ONE-two ONE-two ONE-two-three ONE-two-three. (Mission Impossible's theme is similar except switched around, ONE-two-three ONE-two-three ONE-two ONE-two). I asked him for an example of authentic 5/4 (besides Philip Glass) and he eventually came up with Paul Bowles' song with Tennessee Williams lyrics "I Walk on Gilded Splinters."

I cannot see how this can be 10/8. Perhaps a classical musician would expect all the beats to be on a beat, in which case ONE-two ONE-two ONE-two-three ONE-two-three fits, but doesn't really show the feel of the riff.

In rock and blues the off-beat is often emphasised, so in 5/4 the beat is:

1  2   3   4   5   1   2   3   4   5 C#  D   E     G     C#  D   E     G

It is because the last note in the riff is on the off beat that gives it a different feel.Other somgs that are in 5/4

I have an "official" music book for Led Zeppelin IV, and it labels the riff as being in 5/8. I, being a guitarist, agree with this, because that's how often the guitar riff repeats itself. I also find this the most easy way to count it when playing it. 69.156.38.100 11:19, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, you're probably right about the off-beat stuff. It was many years ago, I can't ask the guy anymore, and my music-notational skills have long been beginner's level. I played guitar quite a bit in those days and picked "Four Sticks" up early on. Later I got an official LZ songbook for albums 1-5, and years later lost it. I can't remember whether it said 5/4 or 5/8 for the Four Sticks riff. I never really counted it at all. It would take me practice to count 5 with that riff, the offbeat keeps throwing me off. The Tetrast (talk) 00:38, 25 March 2010 (UTC). (P.S. this "Tetrast" stuff of mine has nothing to do with LZ IV or "Four Sticks". Well, maybe just a teensy bit. The Tetrast (talk) 00:38, 25 March 2010 (UTC).


 * At any rate, it is hard to dance to. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 03:29, 7 November 2016 (UTC)

Not written in India
The entry lists the song being written in India, and that is incorrect. It was written and recorded with the rest of the songs from "IV" at Headley Grange in Hampshire, England between December 1970 and January 1971. Plant and Page did go to Bombay, India in March of 1972 to experiment with Eastern musical influences during a short holiday, and the end product was several recorded takes of Four Sticks and Friends (from "III"), however, these have not been officially released.

Live performance in 1994
This Wiki article says that there was only one live performance in 1971, but there is video in Youtube of a live performance in 1994, with the Egyptian Ensemble and the London Metropolitan Orchestra. Grunte (talk) 18:32, 4 August 2023 (UTC)