Deconstructing Led Zeppelin's Ramble On (Isolated Tracks)

It's funny, someone telling me exactly why a song is great doesn't make me love it any more than I already do. This has always been one of my top 3 or 4 favorite Led Zeppelin songs and these analysis wont put it ahead of Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You or Whole Lotta Love. But still, I do take satisfaction seeing a great song like this one's rightful recognition. And I must say I've enjoyed the few Beato videos I've seen.

All that's to say, Thanks for sharing, Ed! I'll watch these three videos when I have a bit of time...

 

I do know The bass line is beautiful...but brutal.
My hat is in my hand for JPJ.

 

A song I really like in terms of construction, feel and lyrics - right up until Gollum (the evil one!) appears.

D.H.

 

Ramble On has always been one of my favorite Zep tunes. It distills all the things that made them great in one song -- a little blues, a little English folk, melodic bass, incredible drumming, and the evocative harmonized lead guitar. Even the goofy lyrics and LOTR references are a Zep staple.

 

Great stuff.
I can hear a lot more going on in that acoustic track than I did in the past.
Also. I had an old Eko bolt on the same as this.
Eko Ranger is the model I had
And I concur with Rick B that it’s a cross between an acoustic and electric.
Mine had the pickup in the neck and gave a great arch top sound when plugged in.
Can be had for cheap.

 

Love this song. JPJ drives the bus.

 

Alright, responding to my own post after watching and listening to the 3 videos so I can refute some of what I said. "Doesn't make me love it any more than I already do." Wrong. Okay, I still can't say Ramble On passes my other favorites, but wow, I do have a greater appreciation for the individual playing of each of "the gods", and also the arrangement. Watching Beato breaking down the songs he's like a little boy in the joy he gets from it. It works. I understand it better, how each of the relatively few tracks (he says 8), fit.

-In the 'Deconstructing Led Zeppelin– Ramble On' video, I'm blown away by the brilliance of each of them, isolated. Robert Plant's voice is incomparable.

I'm just starting to get into recording, so I have a couple questions that maybe some of you can answer:
-Is there some kind of program that can isolate each of those tracks from...a CD (like he did in the first video)?

-Is that the order that those tracks were recorded originally (drums, bass, acoustic, electric, voice)? Is that pretty much the typical order of a rock band to lay down tracks?

-So that picture of Jimmy Page playing his Vox acoustic, which tracks would he be listening to through the headphones as he plays? Only drums and bass? I would have thought to get that amazing dynamic the song has going that they'd have to be playing together, at the same time. Guess I'm wrong?

These videos are quite illuminating. I can hear things now I never noticed all these years! Cool!

 

My favorite Led Zeppelin song.

I hear an awful lot of Buffalo Springfield influence in "Ramble On." The really long sustain, the harmonized guitar parts, and a lick that was lifted from "Bluebird" that the Marshall Tucker band used in "Can't You See."

I didn't hear it on the isolated vocal track above, but on some versions you can actually Plant singing "Listen to my bluebird sing" in the fadeout. (Although on the Buffalo Springfield song it's "laugh," not "sing.")