This song is a tribute to James Brown, including out-of-time breaks (4/4 with an extra beat exclamation every few lines such as when Robert says and! and Hey!).
On James Brown recordings, the song would follow Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Chorus structure and on many recordings Brown dictates “...
[Intro - Spoken]
"Do you want to take it away, John?"
"If you like, Jim"
[Verse 1]
I wanna tell you about my good thing
I ain't disclosing no names, but
He sure is a good friend, and
I ain't gonna tell you where he comes from, boy
If I tell you, you won't come again-oh, hey
I ain't gonna tell you nothing, but I do will, but I know, yeah!
Now let me tell you about my girl
I open up a newspaper, and what do I see?
[Chorus]
Ah, ah
See my girl, ah, looking at me
[Verse 2]
Ooh, and when she walks, she walks
Let me tell you, when she talks, she talks
And when she looks me in my eye
She's my baby, Lord, I wanna make her mine
Ooh, tell me, baby, what you want me to do
And you want me to love you, love some other men?
Ooh, ain't gonna call me Mr. Pitiful, no!
Ah, I don't need no respect from nobody, no, no
[Chorus]
Ah yeah, no, no
Ah
[Verse 3]
I ain't gonna tell you nothing, I ain't gonna tell you no more, no!
She's my baby, let me tell you that I love her so and, and!
She is the woman I really wanna love, and let me tell you more
Ooh! She's my baby, let me tell you, she lives next door
She's the one a woman, the one a woman that I know
I ain't going, I ain't going, I ain't going to tell
I ain't going to tell you one thing
That you really ought to know, boy!
She's my lover, baby, and I love her so, and
She's the one that really makes me whirl and twirl, and!
She's the kind of lover that makes me feel the whole world, and
She's the one who really makes me jump and shout, oh!
She's the kind of girl, I know what it's all about!
Take it on
Take it, take it, take it
[Bridge]
Ah, excuse me
Oh, will you excuse me?
I'm just trying to find the bridge!
Has anybody seen the bridge?
Please!
(Have you seen the bridge?)
I ain't seen the bridge!
(Where's that confounded bridge?)
The Crunge was written by Robert Plant & Jimmy Page & John Paul Jones & John Bonham.
The Crunge was produced by Jimmy Page.
Led Zeppelin released The Crunge on Wed Mar 28 1973.