In no particular order…
All My Love
Stairway to Heaven
Kashmir (my ring tone!)
What Is And What Should Never Be
Hey, Hey, What Can I Do
Misty Morning Hop
Black Dog
Ramble On
Immigrant Song
What a voice…
Dazed and Confused from the live album (the film). That’s some very sophisticated music for rock.
Adding to the tracks mentioned upthread: That’s the Way. Trippy underlying rhythm (two dotted quarter notes and a quarter: ONE and two AND three and FOUR).
The Rain Song; Jones on Mellotron is fantastic.
That 3+3+2 rhythm feels like it’s everywhere these days, but I do like how it’s a bit understated in the Zep tune.
I can’t possibly choose. I love their first four albums, they kind of got put by the wayside after that, but I can listen to any of their first four albums today and get chills. “Whole Lotta Love” , “Battle of Evermore”, “Black Dog” “Dazed and Confused” - all are on a level with each other.
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Whole Lotta Love
Immigrant Song
Kashmir
oops, forgot Achilles Last Stand
Oh, and Down By The Seaside, too.
The Song Remains the Same
Four Sticks
What is and Should Never Be
I do wonder how Stairway would fare if this polll was right after the release of the album it had appeared on. I think it suffers a lot from overexposure plus the Seinfeld is Unfunny effect, to the extent that it probably isn’t possible for most people to be truly objective about its quality. In any event it gets my vote.
I think you’re right to some degree and Stairway is high on my list of favorite songs but with groups as great as Zep, Floyd, The Who, The Stones or the Beatles, people are going to have very varied choices.
This
(and get out of my head)
“How Many More Times” (esp. live)
“Since I’ve Been Loving You”
“Jennings Farm Blues”
“Bring It on Home”
This one. Mostly for John Bonham’s powerful, driving drums!! What an animal!
“In My Time of Dying”
Love the drums. After “For Your Life”, I believe it’s JB’s finest work.
Related to the best Led Zeppelin song, anyone who has not seen Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart perform Stairway to Heaven at the Kennedy Center in 2012 with Jason Bonham on drums, while Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones watch, you need to see this. Anyone who has seen it should watch again.
The hats are a tribute to John Bonham.
I’ve always been very fond of “Going to California”, but there’s loads of great Zep stuff.
There is some of that, I’m sure, but in my case, not so much. I bought Led Zeppelin IV when I was 13 or 14 (c. 1989/1990) just so I could finally hear what the hell this “Stairway to Heaven” song I’ve heard people talk about sounded like. (Yes, somehow I had friends who would reference it or hear pop culture references to it, but I had managed not to hear it myself. For some reason, I would never hear it on the classic rock station. Maybe it was too long; maybe I didn’t listen enough. I don’t know.) At any rate, I fell in love with the album, but just not that song.
My favorite hasn’t been noted so far: Trampled Under Foot, for its funky rhythm and the way that the different elements of the song (guitar, synth, voice) pile on top of one another.
The '72 live version on How the West Was Won is joyously transcendent.
“Going to California” is probably my fave.
“Rock and Roll”. The intro is possibly the greatest in music history.
“Hot Dog”. I may be the only Zeppelin fan that loves this song.