This is the first song from Led Zeppelin's debut album, Led Zeppelin I from 1968. As the title clearly states, the meaning of the song is simple, expressing the downs and ups of a person's life.

The instrumentation of this song is what makes it special: Jimmy Page passed his guitar through a Leslie Speaker to create a swirling effect. The Leslie contains a rotating paddle and was designed for organs, but some musicians used it to process guitars and vocals. Eric Clapton used it on "Badge." John Bonham used a device called a "Triplet" on his bass drum for this song to get a double bass pedal sound. He used the tip of his toe to flick the bass pedal back fast, creating an effect many drummers tried to copy. Page put microphones all over the studio to capture a live sound when they recorded this.

Led Zeppelin played this at their live shows until 1970. When the band reformed for a benefit show on December 10, 2007 with Jason Bonham playing drums in place of his father, this was the first song in the set.

Bassist John Paul Jones told Rolling Stone magazine after they opened with this song at their December 10, 2007 benefit show: "That's the hardest riff I ever wrote, the hardest to play." (Songfacts)

Read also:

• Album Cover Art - "Houses of the Holy", Led Zeppelin
• Led Zeppelin - Moby Dick