FAS: "Ramble On" by Led Zeppelin

For the next three weeks we will be choosing songs done by each of the savant guitarists featured in It Might Get Loud, which includes Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Jack White (White Stripes, The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather), and The Edge (U2). If you are a guitarphile or simply interested in people who take their craft to a whole other level, this movie is a must see.

This week is from, in my opinion, the greatest rock n roll band of all time, Led Zeppelin.

“Ramble On” by Led Zeppelin

I could go on and on and on and on about the history of this band (a super group), the scandalous stories that surrounded their career (the “shark” incident), and the recording intricacies (headphone bleed throughs and squeaky drum pedals that you can hear on certain songs), but I will leave that for your own study because it requires a much much much longer post than what this is for. You’ll just have to buy me a beer sometime and listen to me wax poetic about them. Right now we will focus on the song alone.

“Ramble On” is from Led Zeppelin’s 1969 album Led Zeppelin II and is listed in the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. But this song is famously known not only for its catchy acoustic intro and “bongos” throughout (it is actually Bonzo hitting a plastic trashcan), but for its heavy use of The Lord of The Rings references. Speaking of either Frodo Baggins as he travels to Mordor, or that of Aragorn as he has to choose between staying with his love Arwen or going to destroy the Ring in Mordor:

“Mine’s a tale that can’t be told,
My freedom I hold dear,
How years ago in the days of old,
When magic filled the air.
Twas in the darkest depths of Mordor
I met a girl so fair.
But Gollum, and the evil one crept up
And slipped away with her.”

Also the opening line - "Leaves are falling all around" - is guessed to be a paraphrase of the opening line of Tolkien's poem "Namárië". The poem may also be the inspiration for the entire first verse.

And now ladies and gents,

“Ramble On” by Led Zeppelin


Cheers,