[Baynative]

I was working in the Bay Area the first time I heard "When the Levee Breaks". I was in a steel warehouse and it was raining like crazy. The DJ introduced the song and said, "If God played the drums, this is what it would sound like!"

[sirchtruth]

Wow! That’s a great story! I believe it was Stairway for me. When I heard the way Bonzo breaks in with those flams and the smooth flow I was floored!

[kreitzer]

There is a 2 disc dvd set released in 2003 of previously unreleased concert footage that every Zep fan should own. I was too young to have seen them live but putting those dvd’s in and blasting the stereo system always makes for a good day.

[wardaddy]

It was spring of 1971 before I heard it...it had been released as an album around Christmas time but most all folks heard was Black Dog and Stairway to Heaven...and Rock and Roll some too that winter and early spring....I mean Stairway absolutely ate up summer of 1972 radio like Freebird would two summers later.

I can't recall first time exactly I heard Levee but it had something to do with bonfires and beer and of course weed being around and it was still chilly at night.

Girls and those old navy low rise bell bottoms and stuff...long straight hair and flat tummies

I was only 14 and it all seemed so exotic, just like Bonham’s perfect drum ride into the song...and that wailing harmonica

Perfection...that song sounds like a dark Mississippi night with rain and gloom

which was where I was precisely...minus the gloom

My kids not 40 years later love ..I mean love...that song too

Thanks John...and Minnie too...