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From album
Led Zeppelin III
Led Zeppelin · 1970 · Track 2
Details
Duración3:55
ÁlbumLed Zeppelin III
Año1970
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The story behind
When Jimmy Page and Robert Plant met at Bron-Yr-Aur, a cottage in Wales in 1970, after a tour of the United States, Friends emerged. This piece, included as the second track on Led Zeppelin III, is a fascinating example of how the band explored sounds beyond conventional rock. Plant himself acknowledged the influence of Indian and Caribbean music he encountered in his youth, seeking to go beyond typical rock themes. Page's guitar on this song uses a C6 open tuning (C-A-C-G-C-E), a technique he also employed on Bron-Yr-Aur and Poor Tom during the same recording sessions. To enhance the acoustic quality of his Harmony guitar, he used an Altair tube limiter, a tip he received from acoustic guitarist Dick Rosmini. Interestingly, this same device would later appear on All My Love, from the album In Through the Out Door.
Friends is distinguished by being one of the few Led Zeppelin songs to incorporate strings. John Paul Jones, the bassist, was responsible for the string orchestration, although he did not receive credit for it in the composition. The only time the band performed this song live was on September 29, 1971, in Osaka, during their tour of Japan. Later, in 1972, Page and Plant recorded a new version of Friends with the Bombay Symphony Orchestra during their trip to India, a session that also included Four Sticks. This reinterpretation was enriched by the presence of tabla and sitar, and was officially released on the remaster of Coda in 2015. Subsequently, in 1994, Page and Plant re-recorded Friends for their project No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded, this time accompanied by a Middle Eastern orchestra. Recently, in 2024, Robert Plant included Friends as the closing song of his tour with The Saving Grace and Suzi Dian. The original recording of Friends took place between May and June 1970, using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio at Headley Grange, Hampshire, and also at Olympic Sound Studios in Barnes, London. The recording engineer was Andy Johns, who also handled the mixing, while Jimmy Page and Peter Grant served as producers.