Walter's Walk

"Walter's Walk" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin. The music was recorded at Stargroves in May 1972 during the sessions for the group's fifth album, Houses of the Holy, but it remained unreleased until 1982 when it was included on the album Coda.^[1]

The date of Robert Plant's performance on the song is debatable, but it was certainly recorded later than 1972, as his tone in this track is far more reminiscent of In Through the Out Door than the rest of the material recorded during the Houses of the Holy era. Some have suggested that Plant's vocals may have been recorded at Jimmy Page's Sol Studios in 1982.^[1] It is quite likely that the song existed only as a basic backing track until Coda was assembled. It's also possible that the song was only written in 1972 and recorded at a later date, as many say that the music sounds more like the band's 1976 album Presence, since this song contains a short guitar riff that also ended up in the song "Hots On for Nowhere" from that album.^[1]

"Walter's Walk" was never performed live in its entirety at Led Zeppelin concerts, though instrumental snippets of it were regularly included into "Dazed and Confused" during the band's 1972 and '73 concert tours.^[1] and also occasionally during 1975. One example of this arrangement is presented on the live album How the West Was Won, where it also appears with "The Crunge" during a 25-minute version.

Reception

In a contemporary review of Coda, Kurt Loder of Rolling Stone found Page's "frantic, trebly chording" on "Walter's Walk" "impressive", and found his guitar work reminiscent of "Paul Burlison's steaming leads with Johnny Burnette's Rock 'n' Roll Trio in the mid-Fifties."^[2]

Sources

• Lewis, Dave (2004) The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9
• Welch, Chris (1998) Led Zeppelin: Dazed and Confused: The Stories Behind Every Song, ISBN 1-56025-818-7

References

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics