Led Zeppelin "Thank You"
Yet Another Chapter in the Reflective Series: The Legacy of Led Zeppelin
It was one of Led Zeppelin's most important songs for the sole reason that Robert Plant began to come into his own as the band's chief lyricist. Following the tradition of their previous themes of mysticism and romance, "Thank You" is Led Zeppelin's ultimate love song, a song where the lyrics are equal to the musical melodies and not overpowered by the instruments. John Paul Jones once again displays his talent as a musician by playing both the Hammond organ and the bass guitar while Jimmy Page provides a subtle yet articulate acoustic guitar solo. Showing both Zeppelin's hard and soft sides, "Thank You" is a song that would hardly be played live, but was often covered by other bands (by Duran Duran on the Led Zeppelin tribute Encomium and most recently by Chris Cornell and Lizz Wright).
The version of "Thank You" on Page and Plant's No Quarter album years later is quite a treat. Updated and electrified the tune has Jimmy Page playing one of his best solos using a custom gold Les Paul. Heavily relying on his b-string bender, Jimmy's solo screams out in a romantic pain that compliments the song's soft fable of love while never letting you forget that the Led Zeppelin legacy lies mainly in its hard rock adventures. I like the ending better on the Unledded version. It's more climactic and builds to a powerful conclusion while the original studio album fades out to near silence before the organ comes back for a sustaining final chord.
A Mini-Classic on the scorecard, "Thank You" almost doesn't fit on Led Zeppelin II, an album filled with raw, bluesy hard rock numbers dominated by memorable guitar riffs and powerful drumming. Yet the song can exist nowhere else and fits perfectly between two famous guitar powerhouse numbers, gently reminding us that Led Zeppelin was not just a hard rock band but a group of musicians whose tastes and talents could take us anywhere. Providing a preview of what was to come on Led Zeppelin III, "Thank You" serves as an example of how Led Zeppelin provides music for any type of mood.
Published by Mark McGinty
Mark Carlos McGinty is the author of "The Cigar Maker" and a descendant of Cuban cigar makers whose work has appeared in Cigar City Magazine, Maybourne Magazine and La Gaceta. He grew up on ropa vieja, Cuban... View profile
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