183. Song Nos. 2,744–2,746: “Down by the Seaside”
Led Zeppelin: Physical Graffiti, 1975; Power of County: From the Land of Ice and Snow: The Songs of Led Zeppelin, 2010

I absolutely love this band that whips out its raging libido just as confidently as allusions to fantasy series whose pages number in thousands, and I love those moments that exemplify just how wide-reaching Zep’s range is. They can rock out with the best of ’em, they mastered anthemic, authentic declarations of love all kinds, they can genre-switch with astounding success, and “Down by the Seaside,” a twangy, breezy bluegrass-infused send-up befitting the quintessential master of folk who inspired it, proves that thes British blokes can go toe-to-toe with any North American song-slingers when it comes to creating an unmistakably ‘Cross the Pond sound (though I suppose the band’s propensity for nicking Black men’s music and claiming it as their own was that skill’s original indicator, if we’re being brutally honest here).

I cannot possibly overemphasize just how perfectly and fully Physical Graffiti feels like spring. It’s a terrible thing of aborted hope and the sharper edges of seasonal depression when winter is just settling in for the long haul but, more importantly, it’s just not the first invitingly warm night of the year without a visit from my favorite Zeppelin album, especially the songs from its latter half. And maybe a drink.

I think, aside from how profoundly I’ve personalized this song and its album, it just sounds and rolls along like the shore at is best: a preseason day cloaked in weeks and weeks of 5 a.m. solitude and quiet that more than makes up for in clouds what it lacks in the persistent buzz of tourists. It is walking the abandoned beach in a swimsuit and a hoodie or shambling down the boardwalk and hearing every word the gulls screech because there’s not another soul in earshot for miles. Which I guess isn’t such an accidental association for a song that was written in a rustic, isolated Welsh cottage filled with equal parts excellent acoustics and post-tour musical decompression.

And nothing embodies all of the album’s magical invocations like “Down by the Seaside.” It is instantly recognizable in just a handful of notes the way that anything you love that hard comes riding in on an intimately familiar molecular-level joy that immediately feels like the unmistakable comfort of home.