Heartbreaker (Led Zeppelin song)
| "Heartbreaker" | |
|---|---|
Italian vinyl single
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| Single by Led Zeppelin | |
| from the album Led Zeppelin II | |
| Released | 22 October 1969 |
| Recorded | A&R Studios, New York City, 1969 |
| Genre | |
| Length | 4:15 |
| Label | Atlantic |
| Writer(s) | |
| Producer(s) | Jimmy Page |
"Heartbreaker" is a song from English rock band Led Zeppelin's 1969 album, Led Zeppelin II. It was credited to all four members of the band, having been recorded at A&R Studios, New York, during the band's second concert tour of North America, and was engineered by Eddie Kramer.
"Heartbreaker" opens Side II of the album, features a guitar riff by Jimmy Page, along with an unaccompanied solo, which he improvised on the spot. It was voted as the 16th-greatest guitar solo of all time by Guitar World magazine. "Heartbreaker" was ranked No. 328 in 2004 by Rolling Stone magazine, in their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The song begins on beat 4, bending the minor 7th (G) up to the root (A), kicking off the riff constructed around the blues scale, followed by a power chord phrase during the verse from not only the guitar but the bass playing power chords also. Robert Plant sings about a woman named Annie, who is up to her old tricks again; the lyrics recall a tale of a man painfully wizened after their encounters.
Following a straight 8ths "rave up" by the band, Page's solo fires off a rapid-fire chain of sextuplet hammer-ons and pull-offs, accented by the guitarist bending the G String behind the guitar's nut. Page plays a few bluesy licks before launching into a "wall of notes" in A, finally, bringing it to an end with a blues cliché "goodbye chord." The rest of the band joins Page for another improvisation as an interlude into the final verse.
In an interview Page gave to Guitar World magazine in 1998, Page stated that:
The interesting thing about the guitar solo is that it was recorded after we had already finished "Heartbreaker" - it was an afterthought. That whole section was recorded in a different studio and it was sort of slotted in the middle. If you notice, the whole sound of the guitar is different.
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Wikipedia