Moby Dick (instrumental)
| "Moby Dick" | |
|---|---|
Italian single
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| Single by Led Zeppelin | |
| from the album Led Zeppelin II | |
| Released | 22 October 1969 |
| Recorded | Mirror Sound, Los Angeles, 1969 |
| Genre | |
| Length | 4:25 |
| Label | Atlantic |
| Writer(s) | |
| Producer(s) | Jimmy Page |
| ISWC | T-070.112.742-5 |
"Moby Dick" is an instrumental tune and drum solo by English rock band Led Zeppelin, featured on their 1969 album Led Zeppelin II. Named after the whale in the novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, it was also known by the alternate titles "Pat's Delight" (early 1968–1969 version with completely different guitar riff) and "Over the Top" (with "Out on the Tiles" intro section and original closing reprise) during various points of the band's career.
The tune emerged after Led Zeppelin guitarist and producer Jimmy Page would often catch drummer John Bonham jamming in the studio, recorded parts of it and then pieced it all together. Only Page and bassist John Paul Jones play the tune's Drop-D blues-based riff with Bonham's drums—as a power trio—at the very beginning and the very end of the tune, leaving the remainder open for Bonham alone. The structure of the main riff is that of the twelve-bar blues. Singer Robert Plant did not sing at all and in concert would simply introduce Bonham to the audience before the tune started. Studio outtakes from the Led Zeppelin II sessions reveal that the drum solo recorded was edited down from a much longer version.
The guitar riff can be traced back to the BBC unused session track "The Girl I Love She Got Long Black Wavy Hair" which was recorded in the summer of 1969. The riff is also similar to that of Bobby Parker's 1961 single, "Watch Your Step", although the progression is in a different key and tempo.John Lennon also admitted the same Parker riff had been a big influence on The Beatles' 1964 single "I Feel Fine". It was also used as the basis for the opening/chorus riff of Deep Purple's "Rat Bat Blue", from Who Do We Think We Are in 1973 and The Allman Brothers cover of "One Way Out" in 1972. Page's riff was used as the theme to BBC Two's Disco 2 rock show.
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