Under the thunder that opens Led Zeppelin's 'When the Levee Breaks'
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This week 50 years ago, rock music fans lost their minds over this.
(SOUNDBITE OF LED ZEPPELIN SONG, "WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS")
MARTIN: Led Zeppelin released their fourth album, "Untitled," with a picture of a man carrying sticks on the cover.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
"Stairway To Heaven" remains one of the most beloved anthems of all time. And other songs on that album, like "Black Dog" and "Rock And Roll," became staples of rock radio.
MARTIN: But there's another song here that made history in a different way. At the beginning of the last track, drummer John Bonham made this sound.
(SOUNDBITE OF LED ZEPPELIN SONG, "WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS")
MARTIN: This is "When The Levee Breaks." And that opening drum section has been sampled by other musicians on more than 200 different songs.
INSKEEP: Two hundred. You hear it everywhere. The Beastie Boys used it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RHYMIN AND STEALIN")
BEASTIE BOYS: (Rapping) Because mutiny on the bounty's what we're all about. I'm gonna board your ship and turn it on out.
MARTIN: Beyonce borrowed the beat for "Lemonade."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DON'T HURT YOURSELF")
BEYONCE: (Vocalizing).
JACK WHITE: (Singing) When you diss me, you diss yourself.
INSKEEP: It's on Sophie B. Hawkins' biggest hit.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DAMN I WISH I WAS YOUR LOVER")
SOPHIE B HAWKINS: (Singin) Damn, I wish I was your lover.
MARTIN: A song Quentin Tarantino used in "Kill Bill" is the John Bonham sample, too.
(SOUNDBITE OF TOMOYASU HOTEI'S "BATTLE WITHOUT HONOR OR HUMANITY")
TOM MOON, BYLINE: John Bonham, he subdivided the space between backbeats in ways that very few other drummers did.
INSKEEP: Music writer Tom Moon says "When The Levee Breaks" was the product of an experiment in the use of echo.
MOON: The engineer, Andy Johns, recorded the drums from above, as was common at the time. And they used a device that Jimmy Page had called the Benson Echorec. It really gives this track a lot of life. There's a lot of presence. You almost do feel that it's the drums from the highest point in the mountaintop just thundering away.
(SOUNDBITE OF LED ZEPPELIN SONG, "WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS")
MARTIN: And because Bonham's drums are already thundering on the mountaintop, as Tom Moon says, artists have turned to this beat to amplify their own performances. But Tom prefers the samples that play against that or warp the sound.
MOON: Aphex Twin, the great electronic producer, uses it in this way. It's called "Taking Control."
(SOUNDBITE OF APHEX TWIN'S "TAKING CONTROL")
MOON: When you hear it at a different tempo, there's something powerful about that in and of itself. And he just uses it in a way that makes you appreciate Bonham differently.
(SOUNDBITE OF APHEX TWIN'S "TAKING CONTROL")
MOON: And then also, that German sort of worldbeat, new age-y (ph) band Enigma used it on a track that was a hit called "Return To Innocence." And that's very interesting, too, because the beat itself is very majestic, very locked down, but what's around it is atmospheric and beautiful and very different from some of the other appropriation samples.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RETURN TO INNOCENCE")
ENIGMA: (Vocalizing).
INSKEEP: This rhythm is not so lavish or extravagant, but Tom Moon says it keeps attracting more musicians.
MOON: This guy, in this four measures, tapped into something that laid the foundations for much more music than he could have ever anticipated.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS")
LED ZEPPELIN: (Singing) If it keeps on raining, levee's going to break.
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