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[miko2]

Today's Song: When the Levee Breaks by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy

It was pouring rain when I went to bed. It was pouring rain when I got up in the morning. They're predicting flooding for the next three days here in Western Washington, so I thought, what's an appropriate song of the day for this weather?

When the Levee Breaks was written in 1929 by Kansas Joe McCoy to describe the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. This flood destroyed houses everywhere and forced a lot of poor black people to move to the cities of the Midwest -- it contributed quite a bit to the "great migration" of African Americans from the rural South to the cities in the first half of the 20th century.

Still, it might be just another obscure blues tune if not for Robert Plant. In 1970 he reworked the song, adding a new melody and some new lyrics, and Led Zeppelin recorded it. The rest, I suppose you'd say, is history. John Bonham's drum beat from this song is particularly famous -- it was recorded at the bottom of a three-story stairwell to achieve the echo effect.

There are a lot of versions of this song, as it's now been covered many times, including quite a few artists that I really like. Albert Kuvezin and Yat-Kha do an interesting cover. My favorite bluegrass band Iron Horse has done a cover. A Perfect Circle did an interesting cover. Tori Amos has covered it. Kristin Hersh has covered it. Dread Zeppelin, of course, provided their own typical King-sings-Zeppelin-to-a-reggae-beat style. Mojo Nixon has done a cover, and so has symphonic goth metal band Streams of Passion.

Here's the original:

Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy - When the Levee Breaks

Other versions:

Led Zeppelin - When the Levee Breaks
Yat-Kha - When the Levee Breaks
A Perfect Circle - When the Levee Breaks