Talk:When the Levee Breaks

Writing credit for Led Zeppelin version
According to official sources (i.e., ASCAP, the National Music Publisher's Association, CD sleeves, etc.) Led Zeppelin's version was written by Page/Plant/Jones/Bonham/Minnie. Please do not vandalize the page because you feel in your heart that someone else wrote the song. ScottSwan 03:59, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Banned from radio?
What radio stations in your area, if any have banned this song from airplay due to Hurricane Katrina? CoolKatt number 99999
 * I doubt its been banned as such but a dj playing it at the moment would be seen to be displaying very poor taste and judgement, not to mention a total lack of respect. I guess a dj looking to get the sack might give it a spin but otherwise you won't be hearing it for a while much like Tsunami by the Manic Street Preachers. --LiamE 02:22, 3 September 2005 (UTC)
 * Well it looks like I was wrong on that count! --LiamE 11:57, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Harmonica
The article in saying Page "recorded" the harmonica part suggest he played it. I don't know for sure but as an educated guess Plant played it. If someone can confirm that perhaps the line should be changed to Page "mixed" the harmonica part or similar. --LiamE 02:22, 3 September 2005 (UTC) I'm pretty sure John Paul Jones plays harmonica for Led Zeppelin

I can confirm for you that Robert Plant played the harmonica on that, and all Led Zeppelin songs. He actually made a mention to that very fact at a recent concert, telling the audience how it was the best harmonica line he wrote, before playing the song

Alternative Tuning for Page's Guitar
I have heard that Page used an alternative tuning to record this song. I won't put that into the article becasue I cannot confirm that at this time and I don't know what the actual tuning was.

edit by other wiki member:

the tuning for page's slide guitar was open F (C F C F A C)

although many incorrectly use (FCFFAC) when playing the song, it does sound good lower page used several tunings for this song including guitar tracks in standard tuning, all merged together on top of one another

source is jimmy page himself —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.48.41.172 (talk) 17:25, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

memorable finale..? for some
Saying ""When the Levee Breaks" makes for a memorable finale.", is not very encyclopedia-worthy. It is a subjective judgment. This whole sentance should probably be taken out as it is really unnecessary. (or it could be replaced by some objective evidence)

sampled?
Coldplays "In My Place" should not be under Songs That Have Sampled "When The Levee Breaks"
 * I agree, I removed it. That whole list bugs me, each song needs citation.  The only one I can vouch for is "Rhymin and Stealin"  Alcuin 15:20, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
 * The history shows that Coldplay was added after the rest of the list. The rest apparently comes from here.  I dispute most of the songs I'm familiar with.  While "Tall Cool One," for example, does in fact sample several Zep songs (Black Dog, The Ocean, Custard Pie, etc) at the end, the 'Going Down' vocal sample sounds freshly recorded, not sampled to me.  "Battle without Honor" does have a similarly menacing beat as "Levee", but to me the timbre of the beat is different.  "Never let me down again" by Depeche Mode sounds like a drum machine to me, though perhaps an individual note was sampled.  Anyway, I wanna see individual citations for each song, or else it should go.  Alcuin 15:38, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
 * From Recoil.co.uk (Alan Wilder's website): http://recoil.co.uk/editorials/8698/mftm/mftm_08.html "There was also significant use of real orchestral sounds such as strings and horns as well as Led Zeppelin drum samples to flesh out the backing." A bit of Googling suggests that WtLB was the partiular song being sampled (and you can definitely hear the actual similarities) 110.174.65.202 (talk)
 * This is also supported by Dave Brascombe, Co-Producer and Mix Engineer of Depeche Mode's Music For The Masses album, 18:05 into Part 1 of an YouTube interview of Dave by @VaughnGeorge, 2020-04-22. (MixzkjNGL2k?t=1084) [Depeche Mode - Interview with Music For The Masses Producer Dave Bascombe (Part 1)] "[The snare on Never Let Me Down Again] is from When The Levee Breaks by Led Zeppelin. And I know it's been used a billion times, but I don't think it'd ever been used, maybe once. But as a kid, I'd always thought, like lots of kids, it was the most fantastic, exciting drum sound in the world. And I'd always wondered if there'd been a way to use that. [...] We [with Alan Wilder] added a couple bits with them because they're lo-fi." Plkstn (talk) 19:06, 6 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Removed; here is the original text:
 *  notably including Enigma's Return to Innocence, Tomoyasu Hotei's Battle Without Honour Or Humanity from the Kill Bill soundtrack, "Army of Me" by Björk, "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover" by Sophie B Hawkins, "Lyrical Gangbang" by Dr. Dre off his record-breaking debut recording, The Chronic,One X by Three Days Grace from their alblum One X, the demo version of "Where Will You Go" by Evanescence, the second theme song of the Pokémon anime series, the Beastie Boys' "Rhymin & Stealin" from their 1986 album Licensed to Ill and The Sisters of Mercy's "Never Land" from their album Floodland. The song has been referred to by many music authorities as "The Rock and Rollin'est song ever known to mankind."
 * Any of that coming back into the article should have a specific citation for that song's inclusion. I'm not sure that the-breaks.com is reputable enough to satisfy, though I'm willing to be educated. -- nae'blis 00:22, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Bjork? sampled?
I do not believe that Bjork's "army of me" Samples the song. Although the drumbeats are similar, they are distinctly different in their use of hi-hats. This claim also does not appear to be cited —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 192.43.227.18 (talk) 01:55, 13 April 2007 (UTC).
 * "Army Of Me" definitely samples "When The Levee Breaks". The drum beat is sped up and chopped but it's definitely straight from the Led Zeppelin record. 71.111.57.196 05:56, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Possible cover reference?
"In 2004 an alternate version leaked to the bootleg community that had essentially the same instrumentation but a different vocal from Robert Plant with alternative lyrics and some verses out of order" could be refering to the cover of the song released in 2004 by A Perfect Circle, in which some verses are out of order and Maynard James Keenan provides vocals. Shouldn't it be listed so?
 * Talking about covers, I found it kinda incoherent to have the first half of cover versions listed in one sentence and the covers in the later half getting an own paragraph each. I've written it all as a list now as I think it's more concise and consequent. If you disagree, just revert it. Anyway, I couldn't find the song on the Ice Age 2: The Meltdown soundtrack's track list, but I guess the song Dam Breaks could be the song referred to in the article. Can anyone confirm this and add it to the article? Promonex 12:52, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Cultural Meaning
The entire section is unsourced and largely personal interpretation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.229.116.95 (talk) 14:37, 8 November 2007 (UTC)


 * In fact it is entirely personal interpretation; even if the song's meaning seems self-apparent from reading the lyrics, it still needs to be sourced from somewhere else, perhaps the books listed in the references section. There's also Songfacts.com, which repeats similar information, but the problem with Songfacts is that it's made out of user submissions, just like Wikipedia, and is therefore unsound. -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 17:58, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

For sure, this section appears to be written by a stoned sophomore soc sci major. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.170.68.234 (talk) 21:57, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

Covers
Any band that does a version of this song will undoubtedly be influenced by and perhaps reacting against or responding to the Led Zeppelin version, but should we assume that any given band's "Levee" is a cover of the Zeppelin version and not of the Kansas Joe / Memphis Minnie original? It would be in the shadow of Led Zeppelin, of course, but a band may well feel that they're "plugging into" the original. Thoughts? (I haven't got any specific examples in mind.) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tzetzes (talk • contribs) 15:22, 29 August 2015 (UTC)