LED ZEPPELIN - FOUR STICKS

'And when the owls cry in the night, baby baby when the pines begin to cry'

Ok, can anyone tell me what Progressive Rock is? And who are/were the advocates? For me, listen to Four Sticks and you get a great idea as to an era and a musical form that was forever moving forward, chasing and exploring. A brilliantly imaginative and unique piece, challenging time, key and mood standards of the day.

Rehearsed in the early winter of 1970, the revolving Page riff, followed by an open tuned motif with some sterling Jonesy bass lines is underpinned by the most remarkable percussion work by John Henry Bonham. One of those ideas that was on the brink but not quite full of that 'magic', Bonzo picked up two sticks in each hand and unleashed a potent rhythm and counter rhythm never heard before.

What made it really work was the use of 5/8 and 6/8 timings, while Jimmy and Jonesy kept a straight course and Bonzo supplied the busy, furtive percussion. It's the juxtaposition to Over The Hills, at the post solo link to the next verse, where John lays down a straight 4/4 for Jimmy and Jonesy to harmonize and weave a path until they all meet at the end perfectly.

Long before Robert had added his nonsense lyrics, the potency and mystical quality of the backing track were palpable. Leaked bootleg takes before Jonesy's synthesizer drones and Robert's wailing show a tight imaginative arrangement, just about holding firm this side of chaos. Brilliant stuff. 

The companion disc release is an bare bones mix dated November 2nd 1970 from Island #2, just 9 days before the first attempt at Levee. Two of the first songs intended for the next album.

Only captured live once,  in Copenhagen On May 5th 1971, there is a chance it may have been played a couple of times during those summer shows but not after that. It would always be very hard to replicate and even fit into a live show.

Heavily bootlegged from the day the tape surfaced in the mid 1980's, there was the red vinyl 10" and the Poles and Sticks 2CD, plus the best quality on the Loose Ends vinyl. Since then of course there is the usual deluge of upgrades and wonderfully packaged CD releases, but basically there is only the one tape source,...

 

The odd tunings and eastern leanings meant it came as no surprise that a bootleg of the Bombay sessions emerged with some wonderful instrumental takes of this. Truly inspiring, the major surprise was that when the final recordings were made available on the Coda companion disc they were from October 19th 72 and not earlier, as for years many Zeppelin scholars had assumed and allocated the session to March1972, on the way home from the Australasian tour. Never assume anything!

Post Zeppelin, it was wonderful that Page & Plant chose this among the tracks to rearrange for the Unledded project. Seeing the versions at the LWT recording sessions, where Robert paid humble tribute to his best friend Bonzo, was an honour and a great moment. Indeed, using the two orchestra's brought it to life, even in a lower key.

World music before it existed, Four Sticks is a landmark recording, a mysterious song from an age of wonder. Released as the flip to US single Rock And Roll, I wonder what unsuspecting listeners though of Robert's other worldly wails and the wonderful sound maelstrom created by the man who played with four sticks...

As you would imagine, the single was released in most countries outside the UK and there are a number of fantastic picture sleeve and promo editions to be found. The most bizarre is the Polish Postcard releases, where there are (at least) 11 variations! 2 are the standard coupling, 6 paired with Black Dog plus 3 (and counting...) with other artists, i.e. 2 variations alongside the New Seekers 'I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing' and one with 'Son Of My Father' by Chicory Tip! 

And of course there's the brilliant cacophony of the cover version on Encomium by the (Henry) Rollins Band!

And Robert has been playing it live too with the Strange Sensations.....