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“We’ve done four already but now we’re steady, and then they went 1, 2, 3, 4!

Growing up, I dreaded piano lessons. They happened on a weekly basis, and were a constant reminder of how little I had practiced during the week. My teacher drove in from Long Island to give me and my friends Calvin and Ernie hour-long lessons at my home; we’d always argue about who would go first when it was really just a futile act of prolonging the inevitable. Ernie and Calvin were a few years older than me and were therefore into things that I hadn’t yet heard of. Ernie’s music tastes, in specific, intrigued me. I’d spend many of those afternoons watching tv and waiting for my lesson, while Ernie would usually have headphones over his ears listening intently to his walkman. I eventually mustered up the courage to ask him to make me a tape of whatever he was listening to. The next week he brought me a cassette that was filled with songs from the Canadian prog-rock band Rush, a group that I’ve grown to love. The very last track, however, was a song by Led Zeppelin. It was called “The Ocean.”

20+ years later, I still can’t get enough of that song. I’m not sure if it’s the unorthodox time signature, the doo-wop at the end, the crunchiness of Jimmy Page’s riffs or John Bonham’s squeaky bass pedal that continues to captivate me time and time again; I suspect it’s all of those things and more. To me, “The Ocean” might be one of the greatest rock songs of all time – and like my hatred of cilantro, I will defend that opinion vigorously.

There were times when I blundered and got the dreaded look from the lads. But that was a good sign. It showed I’d attempted something I’d not tried before.