Having written a paragraph I’m particularly proud of, I got lost in finding something to so that I could keep pace. I reached for one of my favorites, “When The Levee Breaks” done by Led Zeppelin.

Like most things I like, it has a history that I’ve drilled down into. This song just drives through emotion, plodding through the mud with purpose, with a steady rhythm regardless of what comes. It’s grounding. You’re in the ‘suck’, but you keep moving at a very primal level.

The history goes back to 1927.

The Great Mississippi flood of 1927 has a pretty thorough Wikipedia page. It was the most destructive river flood in the United States. Imagine 27,000 square miles in water up to 30 feet in depth. 500 dead, 630,000 people affected. Population density was lower then.

It’s a song born of, “well this sucks, but I’ll make it through”.