“Heartbreaker” / “Living Loving Maid (She’s Just A Woman)”

Andrew Reilly
Jul 25, 2017 · 1 min read

I don’t care what the track listing says. I don’t care what the album art says. I don’t care what their own boxed sets, live releases, or compilations say. I don’t care what the mastering says, or the concert history that followed, or what any countdown or cover version or glowing tribute choosing one half over the other has to say about it. I don’t care what even Jimmy Page had to say about it: this is one song. Without the latter, the former is just another sleazy blues riff driven into the ground in service to some jam about some nameless woman; without the former, the latter is just another rock-by-numbers track (also about some nameless woman) filling out the back half of a young band’s album. Taken together—and only when taken together—the two are made nothing short of their excellent whole, six ebbing parts and seven flowing minutes for and into the ages. This may not be how they meant it, but this is how it is. End of discussion.

Grade (“Heartbreaker”): B

Grade: (“Living Loving Maid (She’s Just A Woman)”): B-

Grade (“Heartbreaker”/“Living Loving Maid (She’s Just A Woman)”): A

96-98 St. Mark’s

One man’s guide to the “complete” Led Zeppelin.

Andrew Reilly

Written by

Chicago / andrewreilly.org

96-98 St. Mark’s

One man’s guide to the “complete” Led Zeppelin.

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