Led Zeppelin "Communication Breakdown"

Jimmy Page breaks out the Telecaster and Robert Plant hits his highest notes as the band tears into one of their most radio friendly rock and roll standards. "Communication Breakdown" is a sample of the future of Led Zeppelin as a hard rock band. Short, fast and powerful this song showcases a classic Page riff and blistering guitar solo, Plant's incredible vocal range and the heavy and grounded foundation that made John Paul Jones and John Bonham the most famous rhythm section in rock.

Best are the live versions where the band can often be heard slowing down in the middle section and moving into a funky Motown rhythm. I love when they would get into a groove and play a funk jam for a few minutes. There is nothing better than hearing John Paul Jones's walking baseline carry the band through some jazzy improvisation while Bonham's sifting percussion, Page's guitar licks and Plant's impromptu vocals add color to the music.

The version of "Communication Breakdown" on BBC Sessions shows the band at their funkiest but this version has actually been edited. I have a bootleg from the same show where they break it down halfway through and start playing "It's Your Thing," the popular funk single by the Isley Brothers. I guess it was edited out of BBC Sessions for good reason but if you listen closely you can actually hear where they gave this the chop. After the guitar solo, just as they slow it down and Jones's baseline works in tandem with Bonham's rhythm, right before they go back to the buildup. There's the chop. Instead of letting Plant shout out "It's your thing!" we're rocking "Communication Breakdown."

Edits and live versions aside, "Communication Breakdown" is a mini-classic and one of the last songs to feature the Zeppelin musicians as background vocalists and one of the last 60's era radio friendly tunes. Of course, Zeppelin would redefine the definition of radio friendly and for an up and coming band who had yet to change everything, "Communication Breakdown" shows Zeppelin as conformists, playing the type of song that every hard rock band was playing in the late 1960's. They would quickly shatter this mold and drop" Communication Breakdown" form their set list to make room for bigger and better numbers but the song is still covered today - by bands whose members were not even alive when "Communication Breakdown" (the B-side of "Good Times Bad Times") was sitting in the discount bin at the local record store.