"When the Levee Breaks" is a country blues song written and first recorded by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie in 1929. The lyrics reflect experiences during the upheaval caused by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. In 2026 it was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in the 'Singles/album tracks' category.

"When the Levee Breaks" was re-worked by English rock group Led Zeppelin and became the final song on their untitled fourth album. Singer Robert Plant used many of the original lyrics. The songwriting is credited to Memphis Minnie and the individual members of Led Zeppelin. The song features McCoy on vocals and rhythm guitar. Minnie, the more accomplished guitarist of the two, provided the embellishments using a finger-picked style in a Spanish or open G tuning. Music journalist Charles Shaar Murray identified Joe McCoy as the actual songwriter

Led Zeppelin version

Led Zeppelin recorded "When the Levee Breaks" for inclusion on their 1971 untitled fourth album. When considering material for the group to record, singer Robert Plant had suggested the Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie song. Jimmy Page said that while Plant's lyrics followed the style of the original, he had developed a new guitar riff that set their version apart. John Bonham's drumming is usually noted as the defining feature of the song.

Recording

Before the released version appeared, Led Zeppelin attempted the song twice. They recorded an early version of the song in December 1970 at Headley Grange, using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. This was later released as "If It Keeps On Raining" on the 2015 reissue of Coda. Before relocating to Headley Grange, they tried unsuccessfully to record the song at Island Studios at the beginning of the recording sessions for their fourth album.

Although Page and John Paul Jones based their guitar and bass lines on the original song, they did not follow its twelve-bar blues I–IV–V–I structure, but instead used a one-chord or modal approach to create a droning sound.

Parts of the song were recorded at a different tempo and then slowed down, causing a "sludgy" sound, particularly on the harmonica and guitar solos. It was the only song on the album that was mixed at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California; the rest were remixed in London. Page said the panning at the song's ending was one of his favourite mixes, "when everything starts moving around except for the voice, which remains stationary". The song was difficult to recreate live and the band played it only a few times, in the early stages of their 1975 U.S. Tour.

Critical reception

Music critic Robert Christgau said Led Zeppelin's version of "When the Levee Breaks" was the greatest achievement of their fourth album. He argued that, because it played like an authentic blues song and had "the grandeur of a symphonic crescendo", their version of the song transcended and dignified "the quasi-parodic overstatement and oddly cerebral mood" of their past blues songs. Mick Wall called it a "hypnotic, blues rock mantra". AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, in a retrospective review, commented that the song was the only piece on their fourth album equal to "Stairway to Heaven" and called it "an apocalyptic slice of urban blues ... as forceful and frightening as Zeppelin ever got, and its seismic rhythms and layered dynamics illustrate why none of their imitators could ever equal them." In The Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), Greg Kot wrote that the song showed the band's "hard-rock blues" at their most "momentous". However, group biographer Keith Shadwick noted that the song suffered from "too few ideas added to the ingredients as the minutes tick by, compared with 'Black Dog'" and other songs on the first side of the album.

Other releases

A second version of the song was released in 2014 on the second disc of the remastered two-disc deluxe edition of Led Zeppelin IV. This version, known as "When The Levee Breaks (Alternate UK Mix in Progress)", was recorded on May 19, 1971, at the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio at Headley Grange. This mix runs 7:09, while the original runs 7:08.

Other versions and sampling

Robert Plant performed the song with Alison Krauss on their 2022 tour. One concert reviewer described Plant's vocal as "astonishing, channeling every flood he had seen in his 74 years into the emotional resonance of his voice".

Bonham's drum beat is one of the most widely sampled in popular music, notably in Beyoncé's "Don't Hurt Yourself". According to Esquire magazine's Miles Raymer:

Honor

The original version as recorded by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie in 1929 was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2026, in the 'Singles/album tracks' category.

See also

  • List of Led Zeppelin songs written or inspired by others

Notes

References

  • in Playing For ChangePeace Through Music: A Global Event for the Environment