# Led Zeppelin's Heartbreaker/Living Loving Maid **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 8, 2007, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelins-heartbreaker-living-loving-maid/391420 "2007-02-08T22:17:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelins-heartbreaker-living-loving-maid/391420/1 "2007-02-08T22:17:36Z")
I don’t listen to much classic rock radio these days, although I did quite a bit back in high school. I was in a store today and they had one of the local classic rock stations on, and Heartbreaker was playing. As Jimmy Page’s beautifully sloppy guitar solo came to an end, I thought back to how the station I used to listen to back home used to always would play this particular song together with the following track on the album, Living Loving Maid. And sure enough, this radio station did the same thing. Any theories on why this is? Neither song seems unusually short, precluding it from being played on its own (although looking it up, I see LLM is only about 2:40… short, but I don’t think so short it couldn’t be played alone). They don’t really segue into each other; Heartbreaker just kind of abruptly ends, and LLM has a pretty standard-type opening. So I’m wondering why it became a seemingly wide-spread practice to always play these two songs together. ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelins-heartbreaker-living-loving-maid/391420/2 "2007-02-08T22:26:55Z")
I do know that LLM was the b-side to whole lotta love. We Will Rock You & We Are the Champions have the same distinction and are also played back to back more often than not. Can’t tell you why exactly, but, the fact they shared a single probably has something to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelins-heartbreaker-living-loving-maid/391420/3 "2007-02-08T22:28:08Z")
Also: on the original album, they were songs 5 & 6 respectively. So they were again back to back… ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelins-heartbreaker-living-loving-maid/391420/4 "2007-02-08T22:51:05Z")
Partly, it’s because H ends on the same note that LLM starts on, and they have similar “feels” (instrumentation and vocal technique), so after you’ve heard them a few times, it’s hard to hear then end of H without your brain moving on to the start of LLM. ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelins-heartbreaker-living-loving-maid/391420/5 "2007-02-08T22:56:49Z")
HB ends on the supertonic. There’s a little “Ha” at the very end which I think is on the tonic, but it’s so short that it really doesn’t provide resolution. So it would be really irritating to stop at that point. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelins-heartbreaker-living-loving-maid/391420/6 "2007-02-08T22:58:49Z")
I get really peeved when I **don’t** hear them back-to-back. To me, _Heartbreaker_ is just a long intro to the real song here. I don’t start playing air guitar at 70 mph until _LLM_ starts. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SSG\_Schwartz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SSG\_Schwartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSG_Schwartz)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelins-heartbreaker-living-loving-maid/391420/7 "2007-02-08T23:00:07Z")
Thank you for the question, **Anamorphic**. I only had Zepp II on cassette, and the two songs weren’t even on the same friggin’ _side_. I had always wondered about that, but in my Led Zepplin days was too cool to ask. I haven’t thought about that in forever. My ignorance was fought today. 🙂 Sgt Schwartz ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelins-heartbreaker-living-loving-maid/391420/8 "2007-02-08T23:00:11Z")
[QUOTE=Anamorphic] They don’t really segue into each other; Heartbreaker just kind of abruptly ends, and LLM has a pretty standard-type opening. [/QUOTE] Been many, many years since I owned this album (I’m not much of a Zep fan), but isn’t there only the very briefest silence between the two songs on the LP, so that it sounds more like a one-beat rest than the usual several seconds of separation between tracks? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2007, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelins-heartbreaker-living-loving-maid/391420/9 "2007-02-08T23:02:53Z")
It’s not a full “between-tracks” silence. Just a beat, then off we go into _LLM_. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelins-heartbreaker-living-loving-maid/391420/10 "2007-02-09T01:26:32Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] I get really peeved when I **don’t** hear them back-to-back. To me, _Heartbreaker_ is just a long intro to the real song here. I don’t start playing air guitar at 70 mph until _LLM_ starts. 😃 [/QUOTE] You’re not the only one. The [Led Zeppelin boxed set](http://www.amazon.com/Led-Zeppelin/dp/B000002IQ1/sr=1-9/qid=1170983574/ref=sr_1_9/104-7757261-9691168?ie=UTF8&s=music) has “Heartbreaker” by itself without the “Living Loving Maid” follow-up. My brother got this set as a Christmas gift and we both found that hearing one without the other really bugged us. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelins-heartbreaker-living-loving-maid/391420/11 "2007-02-09T01:43:43Z")
My guess is that in the Days of Vinyl, the pause between the two songs was so brief that the DJ couldn’t stop between songs in time anyway. The fact that there’s a natural segue is just another reason to let the two play back to back. And after a while, you get used to hearing them in tandem and it sounds weird when the iPod shuffle or what have you doesn’t do it. The same is true of the last two songs from Pink Floyd’s **Dark Side of the Moon** , _Brain Damage/Eclipse_, always played one into the other… Or _The Happiest Days of Our Lives/Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. 2_ from **The Wall**. Many people who have only heard the song on the radio probably don’t even realize those are really two separate tracks on the album. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelins-heartbreaker-living-loving-maid/391420/12 "2007-02-09T01:49:54Z")
Who thought of putting them together like that in the first place? I’d guess it was Jimmy, since he was also the producer. A well-put together rock and roll album is more than just a collection of songs. Touches like that are one of the reasons why I love the format so much. ---
**Author:** ![Nic2004](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/4491bb/32.png) [@Nic2004](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nic2004)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelins-heartbreaker-living-loving-maid/391420/13 "2007-02-09T02:41:46Z")
I recall an interview with Page and his comment that he never understood why (I don’t remember if he said “people” or “Americans”) think it is all one song. It was never intended to be presented that way. Do any of our Dopers across the pond have thoughts on this? Do those outside of the US also percieve this pair the same way? ---
**Author:** ![Dahnlor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahnlor/32/533_2.png) [@Dahnlor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahnlor)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelins-heartbreaker-living-loving-maid/391420/14 "2007-02-09T06:20:30Z")
Journey’s “Feeling That Way” and “Anytime” is another pair of songs you rarely hear separately. Like the HB/LLM pairing (and “We Will Rock You”/“We Are The Champions”), the first song has a fairly abrupt vocal ending, and the second song begins with vocals. They’re clearly separate songs, but just flow together. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelins-heartbreaker-living-loving-maid/391420/15 "2007-02-09T09:37:21Z")
[QUOTE=Nic2004] I recall an interview with Page and his comment that he never understood why (I don’t remember if he said “people” or “Americans”) think it is all one song. It was never intended to be presented that way. [/QUOTE] Which is probably why they are not back-to-back on the remastered boxed set. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2007, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-zeppelins-heartbreaker-living-loving-maid/391420/16 "2007-02-09T10:08:53Z")
it could be a simple error at the studio end, if you ever had a copy of QueensRyche’s 4 song ep you know exactly what I mean. the gap between the first and second song is huge, between 2 and 3 normal and 3 and 4 is non existant. I really doubt it was planned that way and probably screwed up their chances at getting some airplay as the final track started with the end of the previous one. (not saying thats the case but who knows?)