"Dancing Days" (Led Zeppelin)

"Dancing Days" from Houses of the Holy (1973) is the perfect Zeppelin pop song.  It's a compact, rocking capsule of everything that made the band legendary: a thunderous (yet grooving) rhythm section, layers of exhilarating guitars, preternatural tenor vocals, and a fusion of East and West that blurs musical and geographical boundaries.

From all of the books, articles, and Web blurbs I've ingested and digested about the band since adolescence, I know the track was inspired by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant's travels in India, where the duo soaked up all of the music around them.  In short, the Indian rhythms and tunings they heard organically made their way into Page's undulating riff on "Dancing Days," which, incidentally, got its name because the band celebrated completing the song's backing track by dancing on the front lawn of Mick Jagger's mansion, Stargroves, where a good chunk of Houses of the Holy was recorded.

Lyrically, it's also one of my favorite Zeppelin songs.  Plant strikes a balance between cheeky innuendo ("tadpoles in jars" and whatnot) and bucolic fun, complete with booze-sipping at sunset.  In fact, this ode to summer does more for me than a dozen Tolkien references and ladies purchasing staircases into the clouds combined.