“In the Evening” by Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin opened In Through the Out Door, their 1979 album on Swan Song, with "In the Evening", and the first sounds out of the speakers barely register as guitar: Jimmy Page ran his through a Gizmotron for that eerie drone and the sliding solo at the start. Page produced it himself, with Leif Mases engineering and Peter Grant as executive producer, while Robert Plant takes the lead vocal, John Paul Jones holds down the bass and John Bonham drops drums and percussion on it like falling masonry.

Charles M. Young, reviewing the album for Rolling Stone, rated it the best thing on the record. On stage in 1979 it came right after Page's violin-bow showpiece, laser strobe and all, and the Knebworth version made it onto the Led Zeppelin DVD; on the 1980 European tour it sometimes ran past eight minutes. Plant dusted it off for his Now and Zen solo tour in 1988, and he and Page played it again in 1995 and 1996.

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