Led Zeppelin "I Can't Quit You Baby"

More white boy blues but not as loud or gaudy as "You Shook Me." As a blues/rock tune this one is much more reserved, even when they hit the end of the twelfth bar and hammer it home a little louder. It sounds like Led Zeppelin is holding back and we're glad they do because this time we're able to pick up on the subtleties.

Another song that sounds like it was recorded live, listening to "I Can't Quit You Baby" while wearing headphones is a revealing experience that is quite recommended. It will sound like you are in the same room with the musicians, especially the drums. The rhythmic ticking of the high-hat is so crisp that it sounds like it was recorded yesterday.

Jimmy Page's solos are more focused on speed than feeling and you can almost sense him making it up as he goes. Altogether the band sounds tight, another sample of their unchallenged chemistry. Each musician knows exactly where the others are headed, long before they decide to go there. Like athletes who can predict where the puck will go next and be there to take it away, the musical acumen of this band is superior.

"I Can't Quit You Baby" hardly breaks ground and serves more as a tribute to their blues roots and a celebration of its influences than an original journey into the genre. The song ends as quietly as it began, without a powerful coda or crash of drums and guitar. It just ends, before you realize it, and melts into the next track. It's almost as if they were tired of playing the song and wanted to move onto something else. Ranking sub-classic to not-so-classic on the Classic Meter, the studio version of "I Can't Quit You Baby" is still a delight because the recording is so clean and feels so close to the musicians.

The sound check version on the box set is more powerful and the BBC Session recording is a favorite because it is so funky and shows the band in one of those early jazzy grooves. I believe Zeppelin was at their best when they were just jamming - no studio effects, no overdubbing - just four guys together in the same room playing the stuff they love. The Led Zeppelin I version of "I Can't Quit You Baby" is one of the last examples of Zeppelin in their purest form. We'll hear it again later on "The Lemon Song" and on countless live recordings but "I Can't Quit You Baby" feels more like the real thing. The raw, undiscovered talent of Led Zeppelin, before they were rock stars, when they pure and uncorrupted by fame.