Led Zeppelin are one of the most respected bands in history. But there is one track the rock icons stopped playing live due to its intricacy and unusual time signature.
Led Zeppelin stopped playing their track “Four Sticks” live after 1971 because of its extreme rhythmic complexity and shifting time signatures. To an untrained ear, the song doesn’t sound chaotic, but its frenzied sound is hard to achieve live.
Far Out Magazine notes that |”The drumming pattern lifts from a 5/4 verse section to a 6/8, and in the studio,’ it proved to be quite the challenge for Bonham to get his sticks around.”
According to bassist John Paul Jones, it took “ages” to get a “grip on the song.“ Appearing on Led Zeppelin IV, allotted between the “Misty Mountain Hop” and “Going to California,” “Four Sticks” is a hard-hitting, hypnotic rock track inspired by Ginger Baker.
“I seemed to be the only one who could actually count things in. Page would play something, and [John would] say, ‘That’s great. Where’s the first beat? You know it, but you gotta tell us…’ He couldn’t actually count what he was playing. It would be a great phrase, but you couldn’t relate it to a count. If you think of ‘one’ being in the wrong place, you are completely screwed,” Jones admitted.
Song Facts writes that Jimmy Page claimed the band only did two takes of the song for the album “it was physically impossible for [Bonham] to do another.” Because of the extra set of drumsticks, the band decided to title the song “Four Sticks.”
“Four Sticks” caused the group so many issues during the recording process that they rarely played it live. In fact, Far Out Magazine notes that only one live recording exists of the track from Copenhagen, live on May 3, 1971, at the K.B. Hallen in Copenhagen.
“We’ll try something we’ve never done before,” Robert Plant prefaced the performance, per Ultimate Classic Rock. “There’s every chance that we will fall apart.”
