Rewind, album: 'Led Zeppelin IV'

Led Zeppelin
Atlantic

Many songs are revered and reviled in equal measure, but only one has both the majesty and grating pretentiousness to provoke both emotions in a single listener.

, probably Led Zeppelin's most famous track, lives a double life. Depending on your mood, it is either a soaring epic of power-chord brilliance played by the greatest band ever, or over-indulgent nonsense screeched by the epitome of rock excess. At any one time is either the best song you've ever heard or right up there with in the list of caterwauling atrocities most likely to drive you to murder.

It's easy to see why it has such a duplicitous relationship with serious music fans. On one hand, it's a remarkably catchy song with what many regard as the greatest guitar solo ever recorded. Also, it was magazine's 31st most important song of all time without ever being officially released as a single.

But on the other hand, it lasts almost three times as long as the average pop song, flits irritatingly between time signatures, and is bogged down in lyrics so juvenile and incomprehensible as to make even children laugh. For example: "If there's a bustle in your hedgerow/Don't be alarmed now/It's just a spring clean for the May queen."

's basic problem is timing. Released on the British stadium rockers' classic fourth album, it was seemingly ahead of its time. With more emphasis placed on the band's folk leanings, the 1971 collection was hailed for moving away from the previous three records' bias towards heavy blues.