When the Levee Breaks

Led Zeppelin When the Levee Breaks (music video)
Matthew Fuggi
I picked up a copy of Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson at Powell's yesterday. It opens with a few lines from the song When the Levee Breaks, which is as good an excuse as any to post Led Zeppelin's version of it.

When the Levee Breaks Lyrics

If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break

If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break

And the water gonnna come in and we'll have no place to stay

I works on the levee, mama, both night and day

I works on the levee, mama, both night and day

I works so hard, to keep the water away

- Kansas Joe McCoy & Memphis Minnie 

The song dates from 1929.

The first chapter is all about Texas and the feral hog and fire ant problems they have down there, not to mention the flooding in Houston every time it rains.

P.S. I've posted Zepparella's cover of this tune a couple of times, not because it was better (nothing can match Led Zeppelin's version) but because I was shocked that girls would even like Led Zeppelin that much. It was an alien concept.