Shortly after Keith Relf and Jim McCarty left the Yardbirds in mid-1968 , Jimmy Page searched for new musicians for a successor band . When the future members of Led Zeppelin rehearsed together for the first time in 1968 , the first song they played was " Train Kept A-Rollin ' " . In '' When Giants Walked the Earth '' , biographer Mick Wall quotes Page : The song was included in their early performances as " the New Yardbirds " and was featured as their opening number in Led Zeppelin 's 1968 and 1969 tours , and was included on several bootleg albums . In an interview , early MTV video host J.J. Jackson , who pointed out that he does not characterize Led Zeppelin 's music as heavy metal , described a bootleg recording from their first American tour , " if this were the only recording somebody ever heard of them , it does n't get much more ' heavy metal ' sounding than this , does it ? " They later revived it for their final tour " Over Europe " in 1980 . Though a studio version was never recorded by Led Zeppelin , as a solo artist Page recorded , during his '' Outrider '' sessions in 1988 , a version similar to the Led Zeppelin 1980 version
Over Europe
Tour Over Europe 1980
Train Kept A-Rollin'