Driving home the other night, we were listening to Led Zeppelin with the family – I was playing my favorite Zeppelin songs for the kids. I turned on “The Battle of Evermore” and mentioned that it was one of my favorite songs ever but I wasn’t sure why. My wife mentioned that it 
might be because it’s extremely musical, which could be correct. I then played “Ramble On” and “Misty Mountain Hop” and several others, but I recalled that those three were my favorites. They were stuck in my head so I ended up listening to them a lot today – and as I listed to those 3 particular songs I caught several familiar references and realized why I like them so much. In particular, I was curious as to why “The Battle of Evermore” was clearly one of my favorites and why it reminded me of elves.
I suddenly realized that those 3 songs are talking about The Lord of the Rings, then I remembered hearing that long ago, so I looked it up tonight and confirmed it.
“Ramble On” specifically mentions Mordor and Gollum, obvious references. The Battle of Evermore actually is very elven: the Queen of Light, Prince of Peace, angels of Avalon, mentions of mortals and directly mentions ‘ringwraiths’. I realized that the reason I love this song is that it is about several battles in the Lord of the Rings and listening to it reminds me very strongly of Lord of the Rings.Â
I found a great site that lists all the lyrics and analyzes the similarities between Zep songs and LOTR.Â
You may have already known about these connections, and may think I’m dense for not connecting it all earlier but my head was involved in some other entertainment back when I listened to Zep alot! :)Â If you didn’t know about the connection, and you’re a Lord of the Rings and Zeppelin fan well, there you go.
1 comment
Eric Hamilton
December 23, 2007 at 3:17 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Haha. Funny. I posted this yesterday:
Lately, I’ve been lamenting the loss of a once cherished experience — hearing a whole album for the first time, after hearing maybe only one or two tracks from the album (or the artist) ever before. I remember the first time I ever heard Bob Marley’s Legend, or the first time I ever heard Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”.
Back in those days we listened to albums on vinyl records or cassette tapes, and there were fewer distractions. For me, it was almost a religious experience. The first time I ever heard Led Zeppelin’s untitled classic (Led Zeppelin IV, aka Zoso), before I ever heard a note from the album, I was taken in by the huge vinyl album artwork. It was a 24″ long gatefold featuring a character I imagined to be Gandalf peering over a cliff on the Misty Mountains (the album clearly references The Lord of the Rings — the books were written a long time ago, FYI). The puny CD version doesn’t do it justice.
After pouring over the liner notes, and reading every bit of information I could find on it, I gingerly placed the needle on the record, listened in quiet anticipation as the familiar hiss and pops from the vinyl groove jumped out of the speakers, and slowly faded into music — GLORIOUS MUSIC!
I didn’t jump around. There was no skip button on the turntable. I wasn’t multi-tasking on my computer. I was staring at the album artwork, and listening, transfixed, hanging on every word, absorbing every note and over the top drum smash like a kid setting foot for the first time into a candy store.
I miss that feeling. I don’t remember how long it’s been since I’ve unwrapped a new album with the same anticipation, and had such a wonderful first time experience. To this day, every time I hear that album, I’m reminded of that day. It’s one of my fondest solitary memories.