No Quarter (song)
| "No Quarter" | |
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"No Quarter" is the seventh song on English rock band Led Zeppelin's fifth album Houses of the Holy, released in 1973. It was written by bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Robert Plant.
Overview
"No Quarter" was recorded in 1972 at Island Studios, London. It was engineered by Andy Johns and also mixed by Johns at Olympic Studios, London. The version that made it to the album evolved out of a faster version they recorded earlier at Headley Grange, an old mansion in East Hampshire, England. Jimmy Page applied vari-speed to drop the whole song a semi-tone, in order to give it a thicker and more intense mood.[1]
From 1973 onwards, "No Quarter" became a centrepiece at Led Zeppelin concerts, being played at virtually every show the band performed until 1980 (it was eventually discarded on their final tour "Over Europe" in that year). The song took on a very mysterious texture on stage as many lights and simulated fog were used.
During live performances Jones would showcase his skills as a pianist, frequently improvising on keyboards and playing bits of classical music. On Led Zeppelin's 1975-onward concert tours, Jones would also play a short piano concerto (on a grand piano) frequently turning the seven-minute song into a performance exceeding twenty minutes. He was particularly fond of playing Rachmaninoff pieces, but sometimes included portions of Amazing Grace and Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez which had inspired Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain. One version of the song, recorded at the Kingdome in Seattle in 1977, lasted thirty-six minutes, where, after the piano solo, Jones leads the group into an R&B based jam, as a lead-in to the guitar solo proper (similar versions can also be heard on the Destroyer bootleg CD, or pirate DVDs of the 1979 Knebworth concerts.) In Led Zeppelin's movie The Song Remains the Same, "No Quarter"'s performance was the thematic music behind Jones' personal fantasy sequence.
Page and Plant recorded a version of the song in 1994, ironically without Jones, released on their album No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded. Robert Plant played a radically different version of the song as the opening number on his solo tour in 2005, as is included on the DVD release Soundstage: Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation. "No Quarter" was also a central part of Jones' solo concerts between 1999 and 2002.
Cover versions
- The Flaming Lips on the Dolby 5.1 release of At War with the Mystics.
- Dread Zeppelin recorded a version of this song on their album No Quarter Pounder.
- It is played as a melding between "No Quarter" and "Unmade Bed" by Sonic Youth from their album Sonic Nurse.
- Tool, on the album Salival.
- Metal band Crowbar on their 1993 self titled album.
- Ayreon on the single Day eleven: Love. Singers for this cover are: James LaBrie (from the band Dream Theater), Eric Clayton (from the band Saviour Machine), Devon Graves (from the band Dead Soul Tribe) and Ekwall.
- My Brightest Diamond has been known to play this song live.
- Maktub plays a cover on Khronos.
- Gov't Mule has played this song live a number of times, including at Bonnaroo 2007 - with special guest John Paul Jones.
- Slash's Blues Ball has preformed this song live.
- Invisigoth on their 2007 debut album Alcoholocaust.
References
- ^ Brad Tolinski and Greg Di Bendetto, "Light and Shade", Guitar World, January 1998.
Sources
- Led Zeppelin: Dazed and Confused: The Stories Behind Every Song, by Chris Welch, ISBN 1-56025-818-7
- The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin, by Dave Lewis, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9
External links
- Review: All Music Guide
