Tangerine (Led Zeppelin song)
| "Tangerine" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Led Zeppelin from the album Led Zeppelin III | |
| Released | 5 October 1970 |
| Recorded | Headley Grange, England, 1970 |
| Genre | Folk rock |
| Length | 3:12 |
| Label | Atlantic |
| Writer(s) | Jimmy Page |
| Producer(s) | Jimmy Page |
"Tangerine" is a folk-rock song recorded by English rock band Led Zeppelin and released on their 1970 album Led Zeppelin III. "'Tangerine' had been written by [Jimmy] Page years earlier and The Yardbirds had attempted to record it on at least one occasion". It features a strummed twelve-string acoustic guitar rhythm with pedal steel guitar fills that give it a "country-tinged, Neil Young-inspired" flavour. "Tangerine" has been performed in concert by Led Zeppelin at different points in their career and has been recorded by other musicians.
As with some Led Zeppelin tunes, "'Tangerine' was a song dating back to Jimmy's Yardbirds' days". Page explained "I'd written it after an old emotional upheaval and I just changed a few of the lyrics for the new version". It has been suggested that it may have been influenced by his relationship with Jackie DeShannon, whom he had been involved with around the time. On April 4, 1968, the Yardbirds recorded "a very similar demo called 'Knowing That I'm Losing You'" during their last recording sessions at the Columbia Studios in New York City. Page composed the music and the Yardbirds' singer Keith Relf contributed the words. The lyrics, that "smack[ed] of the classic flower-child-isms of Keith Relf", included:
However author and music documentarian Bob Carruthers writing in Led Zeppelin: Uncensored on the Record, claims it was a sole composition by Jimmy Page.
"Knowing That I'm Losing You", along with the other demos recorded during their last sessions, have been seen as half-hearted attempts by the Yardbirds to meet contractual obligations.
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