#365songs (191 / 365)

Weird Al notwithstanding, this was one of the earliest entries in my pattern of getting at incredibly well-known music via some peculiar back road or other. Would you believe that I heard this before I heard the original? Or, at least, before I really came to know the original. Can that be right? Do I believe that? I'm seeing that this was released in 2006 but I thought my brief Led Zep phase was in the early oughts. But I'm quite sure the first time I heard this it did not sound at all familiar to me.

In any case. Whether or not I heard this cover before the original, it was one of my earliest introductions to the notion that you can stretch a cover pretty far and really make it your own and still have it be faithful, in a way, or at least recognizable. Plus Rodrigo y Gabriela was probably one of the earlier instrumental albums I got into in any capacity whatsoever.