“Four Sticks” is the sixth track on Zeppelin’s fourth album, and the song has that classic, hard-hitting, psychedelic blast that comes with every Led Zeppelin song, but very few people have ever heard it performed live. This is because the song’s creation was a bit more complex than the band members would have liked.
According to Far Out Magazine, the band’s drummer, John “Bonzo” Bonham, had trouble mastering the song. Bonham struggled with the first initial beat, leading to a hard time counting the song in. Bonzo is a master of the drums and entirely self-taught. Being self-taught clearly never held Bonzo back, though his mastery of feeling the music over counting it made “Four Sticks” one of his trickiest tracks. Unfortunately, the headache that “Four Sticks” caused the group during the recording process caused them to shy away from performing the song live, and they’ve only ever tried it a handful of times — and there is only one known recording of the 1971 effort in Copenhagen, per Far Out Magazine.
