"Your Time is Gonna Come"

"Your Time is Gonna Come" is the fifth track off of Led Zeppelin's debut album. The song itself is about a man scorned by a woman, and quotes the Ray Charles song "I Believe to my Soul" when Robert Plant cries out "One of these days and it won't be long / You'll look for me but baby I'll be gone". The song was never played by the band live except on one occasion in Tokyo on September 24, 1971 during the "Whole Lotta Love"medley.

This song is allegedly also Guns N Roses guitarist Slash's favorite Led Zeppelin song. Record producing icon Rick Rubin remarked about "Your Time is Gonna Come" and why it belongs in the Led Zeppelin pantheon: "It's like the drums are playing a big rock song and the guitars are playing a gentle folk song. And it's got one of the most upbeat choruses of any Zeppelin song, but the words are so dark."

Jimmy Page & Slash

The song itself is the first acoustic Led Zeppelin track, and to record it Jimmy borrowed a Gibson J-200 from his old buddy Big Jim Sullivan. Jimmy loved the guitar, and giving it back pained him, "It was a beautiful guitar, really great. I’ve never found a guitar of that quality anywhere since.  I could play so easily on it, get a really thick sound; it had heavy gauge strings on it, but it just didn’t seem to feel like it". Jimmy also played a lap steel guitar on "Your Time is Gonna Come", and actually learned how to play it especially for this album. Jimmy used an out of tune Fender 10 string lap steel.

Jimmy with Big Jim's J-200

Onto the song itself! This track begins with John Paul Jones playing a solo organ intro for a full minute before Jimmy and Bonzo come into the fray. Jimmy finger-picks through the verses of the song and strums chords through the chorus' with little lap steel fills thrown in at periodic intervals. Anywho, it looks a little something like this.

This is played after the organ intro, and is actually the model for all the

verses to the song. Thus all you need to do to get the basics of this song

down is to play this part over the verses. 

e|--------2--------3--------0--------3--------0----------------------------|
B|------3--------3--------3--------3--------3-----------3-----3------------|
G|----2--------0--------0--------0--------0--------------------------------|
D|--0-------------------------------------------------0-3--0--3b-----------|
A|-----------3--------3---------------------------0-3----------------------|
E|-----------------------------3--------3----------------------------------|

Here's a little bridge before the chorus:

e|--------5---------7--------5--------3--------3--------5--------3---------|
B|-------7---------5--------5--------5-------5--------3--------3-----------|
G|-----7---------6--------6--------5-------5--------4--------4-------------|
D|---0---------0--------0--------0-------0--------0--------0---------------|
A|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
E|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|

The Chorus, basically just an A chord and a G Chord:

e|----2-2-2-2-2-2-2------3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3---------------------------|
B|----3-3-3-3-3-3-3------0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0---------------------------|
G|----2-2-2-2-2-2-2------0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-    ----------------------|
D|----0-0-0-0-0-0-0------0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0- x3 ----------------------|
A|-----------------------2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-    ----------------------|
E|-----------------------3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3---------------------------|

That's basically it, I don't have a lap steel guitar, and thus can't play those parts, but if you wan to play this song, those are really the only three parts you need to know, verse, bridge, chorus, and repeat. It's a great song, very cool, and wasn't too difficult to master