You Won’t Believe What Led Zeppelin Song Was Inspired By Neil Young

Led Zeppelin and Neil Young are among rock’s greatest icons to ever walked in the music industry. Many events in the careers of Young and Led Zeppelin are paralleled, more notably, around the time when both were inducted at the prestigious Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the same time in 1995.

Led Zeppelin’s moment occurred on an embarrassing night for the band, as they were inducted but their reunion was obscured by a cutting comment made by John Paul Jones. Jones sarcastically expressed gratitude to his audience, “Thank you, my friends, for finally remembering my phone number,” during his speech, addressing the time when Plant and Page made an album without him. Nevertheless, the night was still exciting with Young and Led Zeppelin playing together to mark the event.

Apart from the simultaneous induction, the two also influence each other’s songwriting and had written songs about one another. Years before, Led Zeppelin wrote, “Down By The Seaside” from Physical Graffiti, which was a homage to Neil Young’s “Down By The River” with its title. Even if the two songs couldn’t be more different from one another sonically or lyrically, the band’s shared admiration for Young’s music is clear.

On another note, Young went back to the time he and Zeppelin performed together in the RRHF in 1995 when he wrote “Downtown” for the album Mirrorball. The lyrics tell us a snippet of that precious moment: “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.”

Listen to “Down by the Seaside” from Led Zeppelin below.