Led Zeppelin "Dazed and Confused"

An absolute Led Zeppelin classic. Part of the band's DNA since before they were Led Zeppelin, it was a Jimmy Page composition during his Yardbirds days that went by the name of "I'm Confused." Revamped and supercharged, it became a staple of the Led Zeppelin concert, from their first tour all the way to the 2007 reunion show at London's O2 Arena, "Dazed and Confused" has resided on the band's set list longer than any other tune.

Is it possible to talk about the studio recording without addressing the many live versions? Doing so would be an injustice to the song because the legacy is live presentation heard on BBC Sessions, The Song Remains the Same, How the West Was Won and countless bootlegs.

"Dazed and Confused" was a song that made people's heads turn early on. Like an early Doors version of "The End," this eerie, spellbinding epic led by Jimmy Page's screeching violin bow and Robert Plant's sexual bawling blew music club audiences away. The song was so weird and so different that it made people look at these four odd musicians on stage and ask, "Who are these guys?"

These skeptical reactions are clearly visible in any of that early footage from the Led Zeppelin DVD, showing emotionless audiences quielty staring as the band rips through the long middle section of "Dazed and Confused" leaving the people...well, dazed and confused. But by the time the band was on top, the live version stretched 12, 20 and even 30 minutes in length, powered by jam sessions and impromptu explorations that would inspire many of the riffs later heard on Led Zeppelin II.

The studio version is merely a blueprint for all of this, the framework that set the stage for the band to go on stage night after night and with limitless boundaries, just turn up the volume, rock the house and hear what happened. A basic rock tune with thundering drum fills, "Dazed and Confused" doesn't get a lot of airplay and is not famous to many who are not diehard Led Zeppelin fans but for those of us in the know, this is a song that the Zeppelin concert can't do without.

It starts slow with a mellow descending baseline speckled with watery natural harmonics before Robert Plant's voice roars alive and wakes the rest of the band for a moment before descending back to the mellow...but only for a moment. Once it kicks into full swing, "Dazed and Confused" becomes a musical odyssey filled with twists and turns, a song unfit for sheet music, a tune that determines its own direction and pulls the musicians along for the ride.

Only in a band with the chemistry of Led Zeppelin is this song possible. It is a song that has never been played the same twice, that sounds different every time. There is a basic rhythm but "Dazed and Confused" gave the band the freedom to innovate and encouraged Led Zeppelin to break new ground. In this sense, it is one of their most important numbers.