Saturday, March 12, 2011

Bad Ass Song of The Day: "In the Evening" by Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin

"In the Evening" is the first song on Led Zeppelin's eighth studio album, In Through the Out Door, released in 1979. The track has a synthesizer-driven sound backed by a gargantuan guitar repetition.

The track features an extended droning introductory section led by Jimmy Page on guitar. Page used a Gizmotron to create the droning effects and sliding solo at the beginning of the song, as well as a Mellotron to create the 'slamming door' effect heard at the onset of the guitar solo.(Page would play a very similar section to the intro of "In the Evening" during "Dazed and Confused" using a violin bow, as can be heard on bootleg recordings of Led Zeppelin's concert at Tampa Stadium in 1973).

During live performances 1979-1980, Page's violin bow incorporated a laser strobe, which added to the visual effects. "In the Evening" was also one of the few songs that he performed on his 1964 Fender Stratocaster. The Stratocaster's whammy bar was used giving that riff a distinctive diving sound during the solo. John Paul Jones played bass pedals instead of bass guitar (he was playing synthesizer simultaneously).

The creation of this song can be traced largely to Led Zeppelin bassist and keyboardist, John Paul Jones. When the band was recording this album, Page and drummer John Bonham would usually show up at the studio very late and work through the night. In their absence, "In the Evening" started out with just drums and keyboards created by Jones, who had a new drum machine to work with.

The song was performed live at Led Zeppelin concerts during 1979 and 1980. During the 1979 performances, this song would be played directly after Page's guitar distortion solo. One such live version, from Led Zeppelin's performance at Knebworth in 1979, can be seen on the Led Zeppelin DVD. Performances on the Tour Over Europe 1980 could last more than eight minutes.

Plant revived the song on his Now and Zen solo tour in 1988. Also, in 1996, this song was played on some concerts of Page and Plant's tour.

* Robert Plant - vocals
* Jimmy Page - guitars
* John Paul Jones - bass guitar, keyboards
* John Bonham - drums



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