![\"Led](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Led-Zeppelin-Jimmy-Page-Robert-Plant-John-Paul-Jones-John-Bonham-Far-Out-Magazine-02-F-1140x855.jpg\")
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Credit: Far Out \/ julio zeppelin<\/p>\n
Wed 13 May 2026 20:38, UK <\/p>\n
Led Zeppelin\u00a0were never ones to step down from a musical challenge. <\/p>\n
Although their sound was rooted in the simple three-chord structure of the blues, the band contained three of the most technically gifted musicians of all time, along with one of the most versatile vocalists ever. There wasn\u2019t much that Led Zeppelin<\/a> couldn\u2019t handle.<\/p>\n You can hear as such on long structured tracks like \u2018The Rain Song\u2019 and \u2018In My Time of Dying\u2019, along with more ambitiously time signature-bending tracks like \u2018Black Dog\u2019 and \u2018The Crunge\u2019. Led Zeppelin were not a prog-rock band, but they could do epic-length excursions with the best of them. But there was one song where the arrangement was so arduous and confusing that the band only attempted it live a handful of times.<\/p>\n \u2018Four Sticks\u2019 is perhaps the most obscure song on one of the biggest albums of all time, Led Zeppelin IV. Slotted between the slinky fun of \u2018Misty Mountain Hop\u2019 and the gorgeous folk of \u2018Going to California\u2019, \u2018Four Sticks\u2019 is a hard-hitting rocker that seems to go in circles around itself, creating a hypnotic trance. The song\u2019s propulsive 5\/4 main section lifts into a dreamy 6\/8, tumbling back into its insistent main riff. It reveals two sides of Zeppelin that they melded perfectly: the ambitious experimentalists and the thunderous hard rockers.<\/p>\n While recording the track,\u00a0John Bonham\u00a0had difficulty<\/a> wrapping his head around the changes and burned through a number of takes with increasing frustration. According to John Paul Jones, \u201cIt took him ages to get \u2018Four Sticks.\u2019 I seemed to be the only one who could actually count things in. Page would play something and [John would] say, \u2018That\u2019s great. Where\u2019s the first beat? You know it, but you gotta tell us\u2026\u2019 He couldn\u2019t actually count what he was playing. It would be a great phrase, but you couldn\u2019t relate it to a count. If you think of \u2018one\u2019 being in the wrong place, you are completely screwed\u201d.<\/p>\n Jones\u2019 strict musical training had equipped him to handle such situations, but Bonham was completely self-taught and \u201cfelt\u201d music more than he ever explicitly counted it. The results were always incredible, but occasionally it took a bit of time to get there. Bonham had similar difficulties counting in \u2018Black Dog\u2019 and \u2018Rock and Roll\u2019, keeping his sticks clicking during the a cappella portions of the former and borrowing the opening to Little Richards\u2019 \u2018Keep A-Knockin\u2019 to kick off the latter.<\/p>\n In fact, the latter song was created during the recording of \u2018Four Sticks\u2019. After one particularly frustrating discarded take, Bonham began bashing away at \u2018Keep A-Knockin\u2019 just to blow off some steam. \u2018Four Sticks\u2019 was put on hold as the band began improvising around a classic rock and roll chord progression. After the spontaneous writing of \u2018Rock and Roll\u2019, the band returned to \u2018Four Sticks\u2019, eventually nailing the final version as it appears on the album.<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/strong><\/p>\n Speaking of sticks clicking, the unique click-clack sound on \u2018Four Sticks\u2019 wasn\u2019t an overdub: looking to change his approach to the pattern, Bonham grabbed an extra stick for each hand, hence the song\u2019s title. The clattering of those four sticks in Bonham\u2019s hands were picked up on the mics and provided a sort of clattering percussion to complement the song\u2019s twists and turns.<\/p>\n That sense of controlled chaos is part of what gives \u2018Four Sticks\u2019 its enduring mystique among Zeppelin fans. While tracks like \u2018Stairway to Heaven\u2019 and \u2018Black Dog\u2019 became staples of classic rock radio, \u2018Four Sticks\u2019 remained buried slightly deeper in the catalogue, almost functioning as a secret handshake between devoted listeners. <\/p>\n The arrangement feels restless throughout, constantly threatening to collapse under its own weight before snapping perfectly back into place, which only heightened the song\u2019s reputation as one of the band\u2019s most demanding studio creations.<\/p>\n It also served as another reminder of how much Led Zeppelin relied on instinct rather than rigid musicianship. Jones may have been the only member formally capable of counting the shifting rhythms, but the magic of the band rarely came from technical precision alone. <\/p>\n Bonham\u2019s feel, Page\u2019s loose phrasing and Robert Plant\u2019s soaring vocal all pushed against the structure instead of sitting neatly inside it. That tension is exactly what makes \u2018Four Sticks\u2019 so compelling, even if it proved too unpredictable to become a permanent fixture of Zeppelin\u2019s live show.<\/p>\n Even though they eventually got the result they were hoping for, the difficult birth of the song put the band off performing it live. \u2018Four Sticks\u2019 joined the ranks of other classic Zeppelin songs that never got to be played on stage<\/a>, including an outtake from the sessions for Led Zeppelin IV, \u2018Boogie With Stu\u2019. That track was so improvisational and so reliant on Ian Stewart\u2019s piano that it was never busted out live.<\/p>\n Those weren\u2019t the only songs that never got played live by Zeppelin. \u2018Living Loving Maid\u2019, \u2018D\u2019yer Ma\u2019ker\u2019, \u2018The Rover\u2019, \u2018Down By the Seaside\u2019, \u2018Night Flight\u2019, and \u2018In The Light\u2019 were left out of the band\u2019s live sets. Even a song explicitly written about the live Zeppelin experience, \u2018Houses of the Holy\u2019, was never given the live treatment, proving just how fickle Zeppelin was when it came to their live show.<\/p>\n When it came to \u2018Four Sticks\u2019, there\u2019s only one verified take on the track from a 1971 concert in Copenhagen. You can check out that audio down below.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"Led](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Led-Zeppelin-1969-Robert-Plant-Jimmy-Page-John-Bonham-John-Paul-Jones-Far-Out-Magazine-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ \u00a92025ParadisePicturesLtd<\/p>\n
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