Led Zeppellin

Bass cover played along to a backing track of "D'yer Mak'er" by Led Zeppelin from their 1973 album entitled Houses of the Holy.

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Backing track available at:
http://www.karaoke-version.com/custombackingtrack/led-zeppelin/d-yer-mak-er.html

Tabs available at: http://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/l/led_zeppelin/dyer_maker_btab.htm
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Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed as the New Yardbirds in 1968, the band consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist / keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. They are widely considered to be one of the most successful, innovative and influential rock groups in the history of music.

After changing their name, the band signed a favourable deal with Atlantic Records that allowed them considerable artistic freedom. Led Zeppelin disliked the releasing of tracks as singles, preferring their albums to be viewed as indivisible, whole listening experiences, helping to promote the concept of album-orientated rock. Their first two albums, with their heavy, guitar-driven blues rock sound, led to Led Zeppelin being regularly cited as one of the progenitors of heavy metal and hard rock, even though the band's individualistic style drew from varied sources and transcends any single music genre. Their next two albums incorporated wider musical influences, particularly from folk music; the fourth, untitled album, which featured the track "Stairway to Heaven", is among the most popular and influential works in rock music, and it cemented the status of the group as "superstars". Subsequent albums saw greater musical experimentation and were accompanied by record-breaking tours, which, like the group's previous tours, earned them a reputation for excess. Although they remained commercially and critically successful, in the later 1970s the band's output and touring schedule were limited by the personal difficulties and circumstances of the members. Led Zeppelin disbanded following Bonham's sudden death in 1980.

Since 1980, the surviving members have pursued solo careers and have also been involved in a series of collaborations and one-off reunions. In 2007, 27 years after the group disbanded, the surviving members of Led Zeppelin reunited (along with John Bonham's son, Jason) for the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert at The O2 Arena in London. The band were honoured with the "Best Live Act" prize for their one-off reunion at MOJO Awards 2008, where they were described as the "greatest rock and roll band of all time".

D'yer Mak'er was meant to imitate reggae and its "dub" derivative emerging from Jamaica in the early 1970s. Its genesis is traced to Led Zeppelin's rehearsals at Stargroves in 1972, when drummer John Bonham started with a beat similar to 1950s doo-wop, and then twisted it into a slight off beat tempo, upon which a reggae influence emerged. The distinctive drum sound was created by placing three microphones a good distance away from Bonham's drums. A few members of the band have noted that part of the inspiration for this style came from listening to Dee Dee Warwick's version of "Foolish Fool".

"D'yer Mak'er" is one of the few Led Zeppelin songs where all four members share the composer credit. The sleeve on the album also gives tribute to "Rosie and the Originals", a reference to the doo-wop influence which was evident in the song's style.

This track, as well as another song entitled "The Crunge", was initially not taken seriously by many listeners, and some critics reserved their harshest criticism for these two arrangements. In an interview he gave in 1977, Page referred to this negative response:
I didn't expect people not to get it. I thought it was pretty obvious. The song itself was a cross between reggae and a '50s number, "Poor Little Fool," Ben E. King's things, stuff like that.

Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones has expressed his distaste for the song, suggesting that it started off as a joke and wasn't thought through carefully enough. Upon the album's release, Robert Plant was keen to issue the track as a single in the United Kingdom. Atlantic Records went so far as to distribute advance promotional copies to DJs (now valuable collectors' items). While it was released in the US, and the single peaked at #20 in December 1973, it was never released in the UK. (Wikipedia, June 2012)