Friday, February 14, 2014

"D'yer Mak'er" (Led Zeppelin)

"D'yer Mak'er" from the 1973 album Houses of the Holy is probably one of the poppiest songs in Led Zeppelin's massive catalog.  But I wouldn't call it "lightweight" by any stretch of the imagination.  Sure, it doesn't blaze with leaden, electric blues fire like "Whole Lotta Love" or "Heartbreaker," but it's still a heavy groove, largely due to John Bonham's thunderous-yet-swinging drumming and John Paul Jones's insistent bassline.  What's more, Jimmy Page's understated riffing throughout, Jones's syncopated piano overdubs, and Robert Plant's pleading (almost vulnerable) delivery give it a certain sexiness that make it the ideal song for fogging up the windows of your hooptie with someone special.
Which is the perfect segue into talking about the title of the song.  It's pronounced "Jer-maker," not "Dire Maker," as people often think.  
It comes from the punchline of an old Cockney joke:
Man 1: My wife's going on 'oliday.
Man 2: D'yer mak 'er?  (As in, "Jamaica?" but spoken so fast and with Cockney r's inserted so that it comes out sounding like "Did you make her?")
Man 1: No, she's going on 'er own accord.
So it's a reference to "Jamaica," because the song is stylistically a take-off on dub reggae, as well as the phrase "Didja make 'er?" meaning...well, y'know.


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