For all their hard rockiness, Led Zeppelin pulled off acoustic, folk rock pretty damned well. “That’s the Way” off of Led Zeppelin III (often referred to as the acoustic album, even though it’s not) was written in a much different environment than most of Zeppelin’s early work.
Up until this point in 1970, the band had been touring and recording material on the road non-stop. It was after their fifth concert tour of North America in merely two years, Robert Plant invited Jimmy Page to a small cottage he owned in Wales, named Bron-Yr-Aur. It had no running water and no electricity - the perfect place to stretch those artistic legs!
Jimmy commented on the experience of living with his band mate in a secluded environment such as this:
“...was the first time I really came to know Robert [Plant]. Actually living together at Bron-Yr-Aur, as opposed to occupying nearby hotel rooms. The songs took us into areas that changed the band, and it established a standard of travelling for inspiration... which is the best thing a musician can do.”
The lyrics purportedly are written from the perspective of a young boy who is told he cannot be friends with another boy due to his appearance and for being from the “darker side of town”. On the heels of the civil rights movement, the British group uses this song to embrace the flower-power culture. They would typically sit on wooden stools for the live performance of the song and utilize instruments like bongos and mandolins for a truly soothing experience.
“That’s The Way” is one of the few songs in the Zeppelin catalog where I can honestly say “less is more”. In college, I had a playlist that I would put on every night as I went to sleep. The sequence was selected randomly, but I can remember intentionally starting with “That’s The Way” as the intro to my slumber more often than not. If you close your eyes while listening, you can see the river and the rolling hills of Wales.
I include this song at number 16 on my top 25 not just because it moves me, but as proof that the “Heaviest Band Of All Time” (as ranked by Rolling Stone) is much, much more than that.
As is a ‘zeppelin’ made of ‘lead’- the perfect balance of ‘heavy’ and ‘light’.
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