POLL: Best Song on Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy

Has anybody ever covered The Rain Song with real strings instead of the Mellotron? I'd love to hear a mega-lush version of the song.

Love mellotron strings tho.

predictably "Over the Hills" for me, but honestly I just love listening to this thing as a whole. was my favorite Zep for a very long time. maybe still is.

"No Quarter" a close second.

Rain Song is indeed amazing though

Love this album sm but it's still Over the Hills in a heartbeat

I wouldn't call the 1994 Page & Plant rendition of "Rain Song" a cover, right? But the below as well as 'Four Sticks" and "Friends" are stirringly rendered by the accompaniment of an Egyptian orchestra and a moroccan string band… I think that P&P project was pretty fucking awesome, including Walking through Clarksdale, and Unledded is the only unplugged exponent that is worth more than a syphlitic dog testicle… like, I never thought a version of "Kashmir" associated with the Unplugged franchise could possibly be any good, but with the accompaniment I mentioned above, it is DEVASTATING.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeDylD8dV7U

for some reason the one song I could never quite get a handle on here is “dancing days”… there’s barely any harmonic movement or energy shifts, it’s weird

This was the first Zeppelin album I bought, and it's still my favorite. I love every song on it, including "D'Yer Maker." That said, my pick is "No Quarter." However, almost nothing rocks harder than "The Ocean" (even more so the version on How the West was Won).

Jimmy Page looks like Rosanne Bar there

Barr even

The TPL review of it is amazing. Even tho it barely mentions my favourite.
https://nobilliards.blogspot.com/2011/06/led-zeppelin-houses-of-holy.html

I think this poll mostly gets it right, but I can't stand Dancing Days - I find it dull and plodding, and it sounds like they tried really hard to write a single. The short harmonized guitar solo/bridge is probably the only thing that saves it for me.

I like it but you can't dance to it

I think I could sign off if The Ocean and Dancing Days were swapped. DD is still better than Crunge - which is kind of a throwaway - and Dyer Maker, which is deeply irritating at this point.

I like "Dancing Days". I don't like either "The Crunge" or "D'yer Maker", despite Marcello's best efforts.

i think a big part of the problem with D'Yer Maker is the lyrics sound like Sting wrote them

Agree about Unledded, it was a current release when i was getting into this band and i think the second LZ-related album i bought (after IV) or maybe even the first. i haven't heard it in years but i listened to the studio recording of No Quarter over the summer with the Unledded version in mind and it was disappointing. I wish there were more classic rock dudes who were trying to be Najma Akhtar.

Sting couldn't have written them b/c the song has no awkward polysyllabic word.

I think this poll mostly gets it right, but I can't stand Dancing Days - I find it dull and plodding, and it sounds like they tried really hard to write a single. The short harmonized guitar solo/bridge is probably the only thing that saves it for me.

Not uniquely, no.

I’m the biggest fan on my block but I have 0.0 pct interest in hearing Clarksdale or Unledded

both are duds

I forgot about the Page & Plant version of Rain Song, and also forgot that I have the Gallows Pole CD single with Rain Song as a b-side.

That middle eastern version of Four Sticks kills me.

I just listened to this album and Over The Hills And Far Away is indeed a worthy winner.