Led Zeppelin's Heartbreaker

A pure rock powerhouse, one of their best songs and possibly the greatest classic guitar riff ever invented, "Heartbreaker" is a classic rock and roll song that is still in heavy rotation on the radio and receives more airplay than almost any other Zeppelin song.

Aside from the legendary riff the guitar solo is simply outstanding. Recorded separately from the rest of the song and inserted later it's famous for that descending finger plucking at the end that's followed by some brief feedback. But the majority of the solo just rips with Jimmy Page playing some of his most fierce electric guitar, showing how fast he could play and that while his solos may have been light on melody and nuance, they were never short on speed and intensity. He played fast, very fast, but he never missed a single note.

After the solo it's obvious that Page switches guitars - just listen to the difference in tone between the guitar solo and the guitar that leads into the jam session that follows. With heavy use of orchestration here, Page uses two guitars as background rhythm while ripping through another famous solo. A particularly heavy part at 3:25 hears what sounds like a fourth guitar adding another payer of power before the solo crescendos and goes back into the rhythmic power chords and verses.

Led Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker" is another example of John Paul Jones's command of music, both on stage and in the studio. His bass line holds everything intact and add another layer of power to a song that's vastly crusted with rock and roll subtlety.

The live version on How the West Was Won is awesome. Very powerful and a great tune to play in concert the live version on this album is Led Zeppelin on their best night. Merciless and intimidating this live version of "Heartbreaker" shows a very confident group of musicians playing one of their favorite numbers and loving every minute. There can be no doubt that the members of Led Zeppelin are having the time of their life onstage while ripping through "Heartbreaker" for tens of thousands of screaming fans.

The song ends on an upward note as Robert Plant calls out the word "Heart!" finishing so quickly that radio stations are unable to prevent the album's next song "Living Loving Maid" from starting immediately. Most radio stations just let the two songs play back to back and I grew up thinking they were the same song. It was not until I read the jacket to my father's Led Zeppelin II LP did I realize that they were two separate numbers.

One of the best rock and roll numbers of all time, "Heartbreaker" grabs your attention right away and never lets go. As I listen to the song nearly twenty-five years after hearing it for the first time, it still sounds fresh and unique. Though there have been thousands of attempts to reproduce the magic ascending riff of "Heartbreaker" and the song's overall heaviness, none have come close to articulating the sheer exhilaration that one feels when hearing one of the best songs from the world's greatest rock and roll band.