Friends (Led Zeppelin song)

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"Friends"
"Friends" cover
Song by Led Zeppelin
from the album Led Zeppelin III
Released October 5, 1970
Recorded May - August 1970
Genre Hard rock
Length 3:54
Label Atlantic Records
Writer(s) Jimmy Page, Robert Plant
Producer(s) Jimmy Page
Led Zeppelin III track listing
"Immigrant Song"
(1)
"Friends"
(2)
"Celebration Day"
(3)

"Friends" is the second track from the 1970 album Led Zeppelin III, the third studio album of English rock band Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant wrote the song in 1970 at Bron-Yr-Aur, a small cottage in Wales where they stayed after completing gruelling concert tour of the United States.

The song starts out with a little noodling and studio chatter before the guitars of Jimmy Page kick in. It is one of a few Led Zeppelin songs that used strings. Bass player John Paul Jones, did the string arrangement, which exhibits some distinctive Eastern influences.

Influenced by Neil Young, similarities have been noticed between "Friends" and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's "Carry On", with the first part of the song being almost identical.

The song was also recorded by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant with the Bombay Symphony Orchestra in 1972, during their trip to India, along with another track, "Four Sticks".

"Friends" was also recorded by Page and Plant on their 1994 release No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded, accompanied by a Middle-Eastern orchestra.

[edit] 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


Led Zeppelin
Jimmy Page · Robert Plant · John Paul Jones · John Bonham
Discography - (Category)
Studio albums: Led Zeppelin · Led Zeppelin II · Led Zeppelin III · Led Zeppelin IV (Led Zeppelin IV) · Houses of the Holy · Physical Graffiti · Presence · In Through the Out Door

Live albums: The Song Remains the Same · BBC Sessions · How the West Was Won
Compilations: Box Set · Profiled · Remasters · Box Set 2 · Complete Studio Recordings · Early Days: Best of Led Zeppelin Volume One · Latter Days: Best of Led Zeppelin Volume Two · Coda

Films
The Song Remains the Same · Led Zeppelin DVD
Other
Peter Grant · Richard Cole · Swan Song Records · The Yardbirds · XYZ · The Firm · Page and Plant · Strange Sensation · BootlegsConcertsSongs
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