Although it was an evening to forget for Plant and Page, Young cherished his time on stage with the rock juggernauts, inspiring him to write about his experience in the studio. On ‘Downtown’ from Mirrorball, he relives the performance and sings, “Jimi’s playin’ in the back room, Led Zeppelin on stage, There’s a mirror ball twirlin’, And a note from Page, Like a water-washed diamond”.
Decades prior, Zeppelin had also paid tribute to Young on the track, ‘Down By The Seaside’, which appeared on Physical Graffiti, and took its title from his song, ‘Down By The River’. Although lyrically and sonically, the two songs are vastly different, it shows the appreciation they’ve always held for Young’s work.
Young’s effort, ‘Down By The River’, sounds like he tells the tale of a man murdering his partner. However, the singer-songwriter later clarified the song’s true meaning and explained to Fusion: “There’s no real murder in it. It’s about blowing your thing with a chick. See, now in the beginning, it’s ‘I’ll be on your side, you be on mine.’ It could be anything. Then the chick thing comes in. Then at the end it’s a whole other thing. It’s a plea… a desperation cry.”
Meanwhile, Zeppelin’s sprawling effort takes aim at the societal rat race with Plant singing, “Down in the city streets, See all the folk go racin’, racin’, No time left, to pass the time of day”.
Surprisingly, despite being a classic track, Plant had to fight for the band to release it on Physical Graffiti, and once admitted, “Everybody laughed when I suggested to include ‘Down By The Seaside’ on Physical Graffiti.” Initially, it was recorded around the time of Led Zeppelin 4, but they decided it wasn’t strong enough to include on the LP. Furthermore, their indifference to ‘Down By The Seaside’ was solidified by their decision to refuse to play it live.
