Guitar World presents a critical analysis of Led Zeppelin's 50 best tracks.

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40. “Dancing Days” (Houses of the Holy)

Page takes a riff-building approach on this light-hearted yet powerful rocker similar to that used by Keith Richards on many Rolling Stones classics, such as “Brown Sugar,” “Honky Tonk Women” and “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking.”

Making great use of open G tuning (low to high, D G D G B D) and the convenient one-finger major barre-chord shapes it affords, he uses his fret hand’s available middle finger, ring finger and pinkie to add harmonic “extensions” and embellishments to index-finger barre chords.

Page’s fascination with the Lydian mode, specifically its s4 interval, manifests itself in a musically compelling way in both the song’s sassy intro riff and its punchy verse and chorus riffs, all three of which convey a strong feeling of tension-and-release, as the harmonically turbulent s4 resolves downward in each case to the stable major third.

Particularly cool is the soaring slide melody, a neatly executed overdub first appearing at 0:56, which requires quick position shifts and carefully attention to intonation (pitch centering).

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