Dazed and Confused (song) - Led Zeppelin

"Dazed and Confused" is a song written and performed by Jake Holmes. It was covered by the Yardbirds, and later reworked by Led Zeppelin

Singer-songwriter Jake Holmes wrote and recorded "Dazed and Confused" for his debut solo album "The Above Ground Sound" of Jake Holmes, released in June 1967. Like the other tracks on the album, the song does not include any drums. It was recorded entirely with the trio of Holmes on guitar, keyboard and vocals, Ted Irwin on guitar and Rick Randle on bass.The song has been incorrectly labelled as a tale about a bad acid trip. Holmes himself has confirmed that this is not the case. In 2001 he gave an interview to Shindig! magazine and said this about "Dazed and Confused".

“No, I never took acid. I smoked grass and tripped on it, but I never took acid. I was afraid to take it. The song’s about a girl who hasn’t decided whether she wants to stay with me or not. It’s pretty much one of those love songs,” Holmes explained.

Asked whether he remembered opening for the Yardbirds, Holmes laughed.

“Yes. Yes. And that was the infamous moment of my life when ‘Dazed & Confused’ fell into the loving arms and hands of Jimmy Page,” he said.

When the Yardbirds disbanded in 1968, Page planned to record the song yet again, this time with Led Zeppelin. According to Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, the first time he heard the song was at the band's very first rehearsal session at Gerrard Street in London in 1968: "Jimmy played us the riffs at the first rehearsal and said, 'This is a number I want us to do'." Led Zeppelin recorded their version in October 1968 at Olympic Studios, London, and the song was included on their 1969 debut album Led Zeppelin. "Dazed and Confused" was the second song recorded at the Olympic Studios session.

Page used a 1959 Fender Telecaster on the recording. This was one of three Led Zeppelin songs on which Page used a bow on his guitar, the others being "How Many More Times" and "In the Light". The intro of the song "In the Evening" utilised the Gizmotron rubber wheel string exciter to achieve the violin-like effects. Many often mistake this for his use of the bow.



The Led Zeppelin version was not credited to Holmes. Page used the title, penned a new set of lyrics, and modified the melody. The song's arrangement, however, remained markedly similar to the version performed by the Yardbirds the previous year.Holmes' publisher Universal Music declined to get involved. In June 2010 Holmes filed a lawsuit in United States District Court, alleging copyright infringement and naming Page as a co-defendant.The 2012 live album Celebration Day attributes the song to "Page; inspired by Jake Holmes", although the writer's credit with ASCAP remains unchanged.

Led Zeppelin live performances:

"Dazed and Confused" was widely popularized by, and is still heavily identified with, Led Zeppelin. It became the centerpiece for the group at Led Zeppelin concerts, at least through the release of "Whole Lotta Love" from their second album. When performed live, it was (except for the fast middle section) played at a slower overall tempo, and gradually extended in duration (up to 45 minutes by 1975) as a multi-section improvised jam. Although initially performed in a manner similar to the studio version, some noticeable differences were gradually developed in live performances. By June 1969, in the section where Page plays guitar with a violin bow, the rest of the band dropped out completely, allowing him to perform a lengthier free-form improvisation, though by January 1970, the main structure of the section was already formed. By 1972, another improvised section had been added between the verses and this. The fast section was extended to allow changes in dynamics and volume, as well as changing the beat, sometimes segueing in and out of another song altogether. There was a short jam at the end of the song after the final verse.



A live version of "Dazed and Confused" was featured in Led Zeppelin's 1976 concert film, The Song Remains the Same, as part of Page's fantasy sequence. Other live recordings are also found on the official releases Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions (featuring two different versions), How the West Was Won, the Led Zeppelin DVD, and the reissued version of Led Zeppelin.

"Dazed and Confused" is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. It became one of Led Zeppelin’s signature numbers and was emblematic of their staggering success.  Led Zeppelin and “Dazed and Confused” are identified so strongly with their times that Richard Linklater used “Dazed and Confused” as the title of his film about coming of age in the 1970s. Now that the lawsuit is over, “inspired by Jake Holmes” is probably the only change to the credits that will occur, even if it isn’t right. The song was also used as the basis for the title of the 1993 film Dazed and Confused, which chronicled the lives of various American youths on their last day of high school in 1976.

No Quarter (Song) - Led Zeppelin & Covers

"No Quarter" is a song by Led Zeppelin that appears on their 1973 album Houses of the Holy. It was written by John Paul Jones,Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. The song became a centerpiece at all Led Zeppelin concerts thereafter, until their final tour. It appears in both the film versions and both live album versions of The Song Remains the Same released in 1976 and expanded in 2007.

"No quarter" is a pirate phrase meaning "no mercy." It could also refer to the US Revolutionary War when Great Britain enforced a policy requiring colonial Americans to house British soldiers and offer them food and a bed during the cold of winter. If this policy was refused to a British soldier, this "No Quarter" policy allowed the British soldier to invoke severe punishment (death, sometimes) on the American who refused him. This was only one of the many ways in which Britain attempted to legitimize their treatment of Americans in their effort to interrupt their recapture of the colonies. 

The title is derived from the military practice of showing no mercy to a vanquished opponent and from the brave act of not asking for mercy when vanquished. This theme is captured in several of the song's lyrics. The entire vocal track was run though a chorus filter, and a leveler.

"No Quarter" was recorded in 1972 at Island Studios, London. It was engineered by Andy Johns and also mixed by Johns at Olympic Studios, London. The version that made it onto the album evolved out of a faster version Led Zeppelin had recorded earlier at Headley Grange, an old mansion in East Hampshire, England


Jimmy Page applied vari-speed to drop the whole song a semi-tone, in order to give it a thicker and more intense mood. In addition to the pitch change, the album version featured a very highly compressed guitar track, giving it a tone unique to Led Zeppelin. The effect is achievable today by means of running a dry signal through circuitry, at a much higher amplitude than the device is rated to handle. This phenomenon is commonly observed in Fostex and similar multi-channel recording equipment, dating back to the early 2000s. Likely a by-product of Page's compression, there are radar needles throughout the guitar track. Very little is known to the exact origin of the tone Page used, or how/why it was done. The guitar solo effect was achieved by direct injection and compression.

It appeared once more in 1994 on Page and Plant's reunion album as the title track. It also appears on Led Zeppelin's 2012 live album Celebration Day, which documented their 2007 reunion performance at the O2 Arena in London. It was re-released in the deluxe edition of Houses of the Holy.

Jimmy Page applied vari-speed to drop the whole song a semi-tone, in order to give it a thicker and more intense mood. In addition to the pitch change, the album version featured a very highly compressed guitar track, giving it a tone unique to Led Zeppelin. The effect is achievable today by means of running a dry signal through circuitry, at a much higher amplitude than the device is rated to handle. This phenomenon is commonly observed in Fostex and similar multi-channel recording equipment, dating back to the early 2000s. Likely a by-product of Page's compression, there are radar needles throughout the guitar track. Very little is known to the exact origin of the tone Page used, or how/why it was done. The guitar solo effect was achieved by direct injection and compression. The song features a brief Shepard scale at the close of the solo section at around the 4:45 mark. With his electric piano, John Paul Jones achieved a Fender Rhodes-like oscillator effect, as well as a real-time bass synth line, done on early Moog Taurus foot pedals in sequence with the keyboard track, which requires an amount of dexterity. Along with full-range intonation, the depression-sensitive bass pedals were then able to be modulated in-time with the riff, opening up the filter cut-off, rhythmically, judging by the amount the pedal is depressed. The result is a swampy, hollow, and deep bass sound, which was also compressed in the final cut.

No Quarter (Live):

When played live, the "No Quarter" is played a half step up in D minor as opposed to C♯ minor from the studio version. From 1973 "No Quarter" became a centerpiece at Led Zeppelin concerts, being played at virtually every show the band performed until 1980 (it was eventually discarded on their final tour "Over Europe" in that year). The song took on a very mysterious texture on stage as many lights and simulated fog were used.

During live performances Jones would showcase his skills as a pianist, frequently improvising on keyboards and playing parts of classical music. On the band's ninth North American tour in 1973, performances of the song lasted twice the length of the studio version. On Led Zeppelin's concert tours from 1975 onwards, Jones would also play a short piano concerto (on a Steinway B-211 grand piano) frequently turning the seven-minute song into a performance exceeding twenty, sometimes thirty, even forty-plus minutes, in a handful of cases. Page and Bonham would always join him later in the song. He was particularly fond of playing Rachmaninoff pieces, but sometimes included Joaquín Rodrigo'sConcierto de Aranjuez which had inspired Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain. One version of the song, visually recorded (and available on sites such as YouTube) at the Kingdome inSeattle in 1977, lasted thirty minutes, where, after the piano solo, Jones led the group into a blues jam, as a prelude to the guitar solo proper. (Similar versions from that year where the song was extended to another ten minutes compared to 1975 can also be heard on the Destroyer bootleg CD, or bootleg DVDs of the concerts at Knebworth in 1979.)
In Led Zeppelin's concert film The Song Remains the Same, "No Quarter" was the thematic music behind Jones' personal fantasy sequence, in which he played a haunting masked horseman or highwayman roaming the graveyards. Jimmy Page also used a short segment of theremin as an added sound effect while playing the song live, as can additionally be seen in the movie.

Page and Plant recorded a version of the song in 1994, ironically without Jones, released on their album No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded. Robert Plant played a radically different version of the song as the opening number on his solo tour in 2005, as is included on the DVD release Soundstage: Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation. "No Quarter" was also a central part of Jones' own solo concerts between 1999 and 2002.

Best " No Quarter " Cover :
Tool covered this on their 2000 album Salival.


The cover of Led Zeppelin's "No Quarter" was originally recorded for the soundtrack of Private Parts, but Tool subsequently decided against allowing it to be used, leading to criticism from Howard Stern, who had previously endorsed the band