Genre Country rock Label Swan Song | Length 5:16 | |
Released 24 February 1975 (1975-02-24) Recorded Island Studios, London, 1971 Writer(s) Jimmy Page
Robert Plant | ||
"Down by the Seaside" is a ballad by English rock band Led Zeppelin from their 1975 album Physical Graffiti.
Contents
Overview
The song was originally written as an acoustic piece by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant at Bron-Yr-Aur, the cottage in Wales where they went after their 1970 concert tours of North America. It was then recorded in 1971 as an electric arrangement and was intended for release on Led Zeppelin IV but was held over and eventually placed on Physical Graffiti to complete the double album.
The title may be a reference to the Neil Young song "Down by the River" and the somewhat nasal inflection in Plant's vocals may be an homage to Young's distinctive voice. The song alternates between soft and hard-rocking sections and changes in tempo, with the lighter sections employing a tremolo effect on the guitar, or possibly by running it through a Leslie speaker, to give an 'underwater talking' feel. John Paul Jones plays a Hohner "Electra-Piano" electric piano on the track. "Down by the Seaside" was never performed live at Led Zeppelin concerts.
Plant later recorded "Down by the Seaside" as a duet with Tori Amos for the 1995 Led Zeppelin tribute album Encomium.