Is it just me or does the song have an almost sinister sound (the guitars) yet also very intoxicating, almost mystical sounding?--like the perfect song for Pagan celebration in summer nights.

There are some Zep songs like that. 
The Immigrant song ( to me ) is like that, "When the Levee breaks" too.

One of my favorite Zeppelin songs!  I'll be singing it all night now!  :)

The "Immigrant Song" is very raw and primal.  It's one of my favorite Led Zep songs.

A lot of Zeppelin tunes struck me as having a 'burning man' or at least a middle ages feel about them. I didn't even like them when they performed in the '70's as they creeped me out as a kid. But in 1980, from age 17, they became my fav band. I bet I've listened to almost all their songs from between 50-500x (D & C'ed, Roy Harper and Crunge be damned!).
I'll tell you what, if I could play that Bron-yr-aur myself off Phys Graf, I'd stay home and play that over and over for an hour or two. Great tune for being alone and just listening. I HAVE listened to it over and over many times in a row a lot...long ago.

Is it just me or does the song have an almost sinister sound (the guitars) yet also very intoxicating, almost mystical sounding?--like the perfect song for Pagan celebration in summer nights.


That whole "Houses of the Holy" album was sooo different than their previous, "Zep IV (ZoSo)" album.
It's only just been recently that I started to like some of the songs off of it.
"Dancing Days" is good, but my HOTH favorites are " The Ocean" and "No Quarter".

From what I've read, Jimmy Page was into the occult.

From what I've read, Jimmy Page was into the occult.

yes.

That whole "Houses of the Holy" album was sooo different than their previous, "Zep IV (ZoSo)" album.
It's only just been recently that I started to like some of the songs off of it.
"Dancing Days" is good, but my HOTH favorites are " The Ocean" and "No Quarter".


Houses of the holy is my favorite Zeppelin album.  Interesting that Zeppelin has a song called "Houses of the holy", but not on that album, it's on a later album.

yes.Houses of the holy is my favorite Zeppelin album.   Interesting that Zeppelin has a song called "Houses of the holy", but not on that album, it's on a later album.


Yes, I thought that was odd, and according to wikipedia:
"Although the name of the song is "Houses of the Holy," the track does not appear on the earlier-released album Houses of the Holy. It was originally set to be the title track of that album but was removed when the band decided it did not fit".

when i got into rock in the lte 70's i dug zep....still do...but black sabbath was my favorite band of that era......

allow me to take all the fun out of this discussion by saying that the main riff in dancing days is in lydian mode.

http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/375496

* "Dancing Days" by Led Zeppelin. The notable guitar intro is in the Lydian Mode. The rest of the song uses a variety of modes and chromaticism.



lydian is a major scale with a raised 4th. that raised 4th gives the scale a floaty, ethereal, vaguely sinister feel. (the raised 4th is the same tonality as the flat 5th, and the flat 5th is, as we all know, THE DEVIL'S TRITONE omgomgomg.) but lydian also has the perfect 5th, so it's a little more grounded than other scales with the tritone in them, like locrian. I think "friends" from LZIII the B side, is also in lydian. a lot of LZ's stuff flirts with weird modes like that.

i really like lydian dominant, it has a raised 4th but also a lowered 7th, which makes it even spacier.