Genre Progressive rock Label Swan Song | Length 8:46 | |
Released 24 February 1975 (1975-02-24) Recorded Headley Grange, Headley, England, 1974
Olympic Studios, London, 1974 Writer(s) John Paul Jones
Jimmy Page
Robert Plant | ||
"In the Light" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin from their 1975 album Physical Graffiti. Most of it was composed by bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones on his synthesizer. It was based on an earlier song the band had written called "In The Morning".
Contents
Musical structure
The unique sound of the intro to the song was created by Jimmy Page using a violin bow on an acoustic guitar, as a backdrop to Jones' opening synthesizer solo. This was one of three Led Zeppelin songs on which Page used bowed guitar, the others being "Dazed and Confused" and "How Many More Times" (although for both of these he used a bow to play an electric guitar). The song "In the Evening" utilized a guitar equipped with a device called the "Gizmotron" to mimic the bow sound.
Everybody Makes It Through
Led Zeppelin also recorded the song with alternate lyrics and a slightly different structure, "Everybody Makes It Through" (In the Light) [Early Version/In Transit]". "Everybody Makes it Through" was released on 23 February 2015, as part of the remastering process of all nine albums.
Live performances
"In the Light" was never played live at Led Zeppelin concerts. According to Jones, Robert Plant was emphatic about wanting to play the song onstage, but because Jones could not reproduce the synthesizer sound properly outside of the studio, he vetoed the idea.
Legacy
In an interview he gave to rock journalist Cameron Crowe, Plant stated that this song was one of Led Zeppelin's "finest moments". Similarly, Page has stated that this is his personal favourite track on Physical Graffiti. He performed this song on his tour with The Black Crowes in 1999. Although not included on their original album Live at the Greek, a version of "In the Light" can be found as a bonus track on the Japanese version of this album, released in 2000.