Celebration Day

For Led Zeppelin's concert film and live album, see Celebration Day (film).

"Celebration Day"
Song by Led Zeppelin
from the album Led Zeppelin III
Released	5 October 1970 (1970-10-05)
Recorded	May–June 1970 (?); 3 June 1970 [1]
Studio	Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, Headley Grange, Hampshire; Olympic Sound Studios, London [1]
Genre	Hard rock [2] funk rock [3]
Length	3:29
Label	Atlantic
Songwriter(s)	Jimmy Page Robert Plant John Paul Jones
Producer(s)	Jimmy Page

"Celebration Day" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin, and the third track from their 1970 album Led Zeppelin III . The band's last concert film and album, released on 19 November 2012, took their name from this song.

Composition and recording

The song starts with guitar chords played over a monotonic drone created by a synthesiser. This connects the song musically with the preceding track on the album, "Friends", which ends with the same drone. Originally, one of John Bonham's drum tracks was to be used in the intro of "Celebration Day", but an engineer accidentally erased the recording. Unable or unwilling to re-record it, they used the synthesizer drone from the end of "Friends" to fill up the gap. ^[4] The recording took place at Headley Grange, England, with the Rolling Stones' mobile recording studio.

Robert Plant's lyrics were inspired by his initial impressions of New York City. On Zeppelin's 1971 concert tour of the United States, he would sometimes introduce it as "The New York Song". "Celebration Day" was often played live in Led Zeppelin concerts from 1971 to 1973, and was returned to the band's setlist at the Knebworth Festival in 1979, where Page performed the song using his Gibson EDS-1275 double-necked guitar. ^[5]

Record producer Rick Rubin has said of the song: "["Celebration Day"] feels like a freight train, even though it's not one of their heavier songs. There's tremendous momentum in the way they play together. The bass playing is beyond incredible and the guitars interact really well—there's a heavy-riffing guitar, which is answered by a funky guitar." ^[6]

Other versions

A live version of the song from the band's 1973 U.S. tour was recorded and included on their concert soundtrack The Song Remains the Same . The album's accompanying film of the same name, released in 1976, did not include a live video of "Celebration Day". However, when the album and the film were reissued in 2007 (the latter in DVD format), both featured the song. This reissued version is slightly different from the one that was included on the 1976 album, in particular featuring a different guitar solo.

Page performed "Celebration Day" on his tour with the Black Crowes in 1999, and another version performed by them can be found on the album Live at the Greek .

Reception

In a contemporary review of Led Zeppelin III, Lester Bangs of Rolling Stone described "Celebration Day", along with "Out on the Tiles", as "production-line Zep churners that no fan could fault and no one else could even hear without an effort." ^[7]

Personnel

According to Jean-Michel Guesdon and Philippe Margotin: ^[1]

• Robert Plant – vocals
• Jimmy Page – guitars, Moog synthesizer (?)
• John Paul Jones – bass, Moog synthesizer (?)
• John Bohnam – drums

See also

• List of cover versions of Led Zeppelin songs § Celebration Day

References

1. Guesdon & Margotin 2018, p. 176.
2. Dimery, Robert; Lydon, Michael (23 March 2010). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (Revised and Updated ed.). Universe. ISBN   978-0-7893-2074-2.
3. Shadwick, Keith (2005). Led Zeppelin: The Story of a Band and Their Music 1968–1980 (1st ed.). San Francisco: Backbeat Books. pp.  133–134. ISBN   0-87930-871-0.
4. Interview with Jimmy Page Archived August 9, 2016, at the Wayback Machine , Guitar World magazine, 1993
5. Dave Lewis (1994), The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin, Omnibus Press, ISBN   0-7119-3528-9.
6. The Playlist Special: Fifty Artists Pick Their Personal Top 10s Archived December 11, 2010, at the Wayback Machine . Rolling Stone . Retrieved 2 January 2011.
7. Bangs, Lester (26 November 1970). "Led Zeppelin III". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 13 August 2017.

Bibliography

• Guesdon, Jean-Michel; Margotin, Philippe (2018). Led Zeppelin All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track. Running Press. ISBN   978-0-316-448-67-3.