No Quarter

I spent a month in Cleveland the middle two weeks of January 1997. The company I was working for sold our software to our competitor, in order to focus all of our attention on a single product line.

During this visit to Ohio, I had a Saturday where I didn't go home for the weekend. I hung out in Cleveland, and went to check out the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum, and see what else was going on there (not much).   During that visit, I saw costumes worn by the Beatles, guitars played by various artists, a lot of gold records and posters and other memorabilia.  But the one thing that still stands out to me this day is the notebook that James Hetfield used when writing the Metallica album which was released in 1991.  The book was open to the page where he was working out the lyrics to "Enter Sandman." Seeing that open page, his doodles and notes and working out the lyrics was as a picture into the mind of Hetfield. 

After my trip to the Hall, I started going to record shops, seeing if they had any Led Zeppelin bootleg CD.  At one store, I found a couple concert CD's, and another had a CD called Studio Daze.   The final three tracks on this CD are "No Quarter (Instr. Rehearsal)," "No Quarter (Instr. Rehearsal)," and "No Quarter (Final Take)."   I bought it. What were these Instrumental Rehearsals? 

Keep in mind, this was 1997.  No iPods, and I didn't have a laptop at the hotel to listen to this CD on.  I didn't have my Discman with me.  The rental car I had didn't have a CD player in it either.  So I had to wait 6 days to get home to give this a listen.

I finally got home.  I had a pile of mail to sort through, laundry to do, but the first thing I wanted to do was hear these 3 versions of "No Quarter."  I loaded up the CD, fast forwarded to track 7, turned up the volume and sat down.

And was blown away.

Never mind the drumstick taps and Bonham's singsong "Pictures of Lily" at the start of the track.  The song opens as we're used to, with Jones on the synthesizer.  This was followed by the drums and guitar coming in, but no vocals.

This is already an ominous song, but now hearing it played without vocals, the tune took on a slightly more portentous tone.  And the tone just soaked into me. 

I'd listened to Zeppelin for years, and songs had taken hold but this night I just sat and listened to these three tracks over and over and over again.

I played in band in high school, and these rehearsal tracks opened a new area of appreciation for me. I've sat through hundreds of rehearsals and lessons and practice, and have an appreciation for what it takes to put something together. Everyone's part is important, has a role and voice, and it takes a lot for it to come together.  

These audio tracks became for me what the Hetfield notebook I saw in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum was:  an audio picture into the minds of Page, Jones, Bonham and Plant as they worked through things to develop this great song, and was more insightful to me than any interview I had read.