When the levee breaks

Angefixt durch diesen DF-Beitrag habe ich mal in meinem Rechnerarchiv gekramt, was ich bisher zu diesem Song

zusammengetragen habe, und muss feststellen, dass die Erinnerungen der Beteiligten und Analysten unterschiedlich ausfallen. OK, ist ja auch mittlerweile 37 Jahre her und wenigstens in zwei wichtigen Aussagen ist man sich einstimmig sicher:
Bonzo’s Drums wurden räumlich & fett im Treppenhaus aufgenommen und der zweitaktige Trommelbeginn wurde mit einem Binson Echorec rhythmisiert.

>>We had actually tried to record [„Levee“] in a regular studio and it just didn’t happen, but we knew there was something there, that we just had to try another attempt. When we got to Headley Grange, Bonzo’s drumkit was set up in the hall. Right from the first album the whole object was to try and make the drums sound like drums, but this hall made them sound like super cannons. It was a three-story entrance hall with a staircase going all the way around it. The minuite we heard that we said, ‚Let’s try Levee Breaks and see what happens!‘ And of course, that gave the backbone to the overall sound.<<
Jimmy Page in „Musician magazine“, Nov 1990

>>According to engineer Andy Johns, the drums for „When the Levee Breaks“ were done in a large circular stairwall, and he used two Beyer M160 ribbon mics – one hung about 10 feet above the kit, the other from 20 feet. „That was me putting two M160s on the second floor with no other microphones at all because I wanted to get John Bonham the way he actually sounded. And it worked! Page would say that he made me do it , but he was down at the pub.“<<
homerecording.com

>> [Jimmy] Page has been quoted saying something like „Oh, we just hung a mike over the drums and away we went“ which is surely and oversimplification. There are very likely two (or more) mikes over those drums, and another in front of the kick drum. The drum tracks as a whole are stereo; the reverb especially spreads around the stereo spectrum a bit, although the drums themselves don’t move much within it. This stereo sounds to me like the natural sound of the room, with the drums miked from a far distance (like ten or more feet above them). And to get stereo, at least two mikes are needed. The kick drum has plenty of oomph, and was certainly treated with an additional mike, probably fairly close to it. And Page, that sneaky guy, has place a close-mike on the snare and hi-hat, too, and he’s performing some aural sleight-of-hand. Check it: way off on the right side of your head, buried in Page’s guitar, a snare drum is banging away. Then, just to be fancy, he pumps it up a little during the first verse. At 1:35, he whacks it up and down to accentuate one hi-hat hit. From 1:43 to 1:47, in that break between stanzas, he cranks it up to balance against the harmonica on the other side.<<
Bill O’Neil

PS. der Levee-Break wurd laut the-breaks.com auch schon prominent elektronisch weiterverarbeitet:
Beastie Boys – „A Year and a Day“, „Rhymin‘ and Stealin'“, „So What’cha Want“
Coldcut – „Beats and Pieces“
Depeche Mode – „Get Right with Me“, „Never Let Me Down Again“
Derek B – „Bad Young Brother“
Dr. Dre – „Lyrical Gangbang“
Eminem – „Kim“
Enigma – „Return of Innocence“
Freaks of Desire – „Beast Inside“
Get the Fist Movement – „Get the Fist“
Ice T – „Midnight“
Massive Attack – „Man Next Door“
Penthouse Players Clique – „Nathen’s Changed“
Puff Daddy – „Come with Me“
Raw Fusion – „Live from the Styleetron“
Robert Plant – „Tall Cool One“
Sophie Hawkins – „Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover“
Tekken Tag Tournament – „Unknown Theme“
Typical Cats – „What You Though Hops“

PPS. beim Led Zeppelin Titel „Heartbreaker“ (1969) soll dasselbe Echorec auch schon mal eingesetzt worden sein…