Sunday, November 11th, 2012

"Dancing Days"

Luna covers Led Zeppelin

Photo via WikipediaWikipediaTrue story – I was letting my iTunes run on random a couple weeks ago, and when the opening guitar riff to this week’s selection rang out, I sat up and thought, “why do I have Stone Temple Pilots in my music library?”. Because, you see, I never listened to Led Zeppelin as a young’n – like really never – and only knew “Dancing Days” because it was released as a single from 1995’s Encomium, a Zep tribute album.

But no, it was my beloved Luna and the track was one that I had forgotten existed, one of the bonuses that came with the late-era Luna digital reissues from earlier this year – their final two studio albums Rendezvous and Romantica, and the Close Cover Before Striking EP, to which this track was appended. It’s pretty faithful in structure – that riff must be lots of fun to play – but is so very Luna from top to bottom. The drums are bigger than you’d usually expect, but Dean Wareham’s slightly detached and deadpan vocals and the swirling, fuzzy guitar tones makes me miss the band so very much.

Celebration Day, the live document of the 2007 Led Zeppelin reunion show, is out on CD and DVD on November 19. If and when we have a Luna reunion, it will probably be a little smaller in scale… but until then, we have Wareham’s first solo record – currently being recorded – to look forward to.

MP3: Luna – “Dancing Days”
Stream: Led Zeppelin – “Dancing Days”

By : Frank Yang at 9:57 am
Category: Chromewaves Radio

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  1. giselle says:

    good grief i miss luna … i’m hoping someone will offer them alot of money and they’ll do a reunion tour … i had no idea this song was a led zeppelin cover either …

  2. bird says:

    sigh, i miss Luna, too.
    i still frequently listen to a crudely recorded boot of “Black Postcards” from the final Bowery Ballroom show (8 years later).