Led Zeppelin (1975) Houses of the Holy

A extremely smooth groove from the biggest band of the 70s, it is peculiar for several reasons the first of which is its crammed into the legendary double album and the pinnacle of their career; Physical Graffiti. Arguably the closest they came to a pop single with its smooth repetitive verses, built around the lead vocals with no guitar solo or extended instrumental break this could of been a radio single easy. Side note: it would've been interesting if Jimmy Page put out the shorter album cuts out to promote the album's compositional depth even if it went against their ethos of making an album a singular work.


 Oh well the other peculiarity is this song dedicated, to their local fan base(their devoted masses being affectionately named in the title), is that this was the namesake track of their preceding album. An in joke done by many other 70s artists like David Bowie and the track Ziggy Stardust, those damn 70s artists! It's all elementary as this track with its sturdy funk rock rhythm snakes along with their usual sensuality. Plant's laid back vocals flirting with the listener before the dynamics pickup with Bonhams cowbell, backing oohs and Plant intensifying come-ons. This track like many others got virtually no attention but it had more melody and energy to it than say the country rock influenced California sound also prevalent at the time.