There was arguably no one bigger than Led Zeppelin in 1975. The undeniable presence and charisma of Robert Plant, coupled with the mesmeric massaging of guitar strings by Jimmy Page, had the English band on top of the universe. Although they had a distinctly different sound from The Beatles, Led Zeppelin took the baton from the Fab Four and didn’t stop until they lapped everyone else. They were truly in a league of their own.
By the mid-point of the 1970s, they had already churned out five albums, all to critical acclaim, and they had no intention of slowing down. It is their fourth LP, Led Zeppelin IV, which includes the monstrous ‘Stairway to Heaven’ that is often regarded as their magnum opus.
There was no clear ‘Led Zeppelin sound’ by the release of this record in 1971. Tunes such as ‘Friends’ and ‘What is and What Should Never Be’ indicated that the last thing the band wanted to do was release track after track of blues-rock — they were here to experiment, and they weren’t going to stop.
This experimental side of the band truly came out in their recordings for the 1971 album. There were three tracks included in their ’71 sessions which failed to see the light of day until four years later. ‘Boogie with Stu’, ‘Night Flight’ and ‘Down By The Seaside’ all appeared on their 1975 album Physical Graffiti despite being recorded four years earlier. Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2015, Jimmy Page shared the reasoning why these songs were shelved, “If you think about it, you couldn’t have substituted anything off the fourth album with any of those leftover tracks, quite rightly so.”
Out of those three tracks, there was one that came very close to not even making the Physical Graffiti track list. Robert Plant revealed how he had to fight for the release of ‘Down By The Seaside’ after none of his bandmates were willing to grant his request. Inspired by the Neil Young song ‘Down By The River’, the head-bopping rock tune signifies the societal rat race we are all living, with lyrics including “Down in the city streets, see all the folk go racin’, racin’, no time left, to pass the time of day.”
The song, which is now relatively popular within the Led Zeppelin fanbase, was nearly lost forever in the musical vaults. Plant revealed his bandmates’ disdain towards it, “Everybody laughed when I suggested to include ‘Down By The Seaside’ on Physical Graffiti.”
Although the 76-year-old singer got his wish, there is enough evidence that the rest of the band never changed their opinion on the track. Not once have Led Zeppelin played ‘Down By The Seaside’ live, a fact which must haunt Robert Plant to this day. OK, maybe it’s not that serious, I’m sure he had enough fun and success, maybe Plant doesn’t spend all his days reminiscing about what could’ve been if he had played that song to his loyal fans just once… or maybe he does?
