The last great Led Zeppelin epic, recorded four years before the band's sudden end. It came out the same year as Taxi Driver and Rocky.

It centers around a palm-muted guitar pattern that clearly comes out of Zeppelin's funk improv repertoire but becomes almost a pure metal riff, showing how strange musical evolution (and all evolution) is. Thank the savage drumming, I suppose. Bonzo is retromutagen ooze.

Note: Heart absolutely stole this song and repackaged it as the more radio-friendly "Barracuda."

The title suggests mythic themes, similar to Robert Plant's references to Lord of the Rings in older songs. I don't really see much in the lyrics, but I always like how naturally Plant sings them - it seems like his goal was always to give himself good sounds to sing. It's really, really hard to be as consistently good at that as he was.

The solo is one of my favorite Page solos, floating above the disciplined timing of the other instruments.

Anyway, just an awesome heavy-weight hard rock song.