LED ZEPPELIN
The members were Jimmy Page (1944), Robert Plant (1948), John Paul Jones (original name John Baldwin; 1946), and John Bonham (1948-1980).
Initially called the New Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin was formed in 1968 by Jimmy Page, the final lead guitarist for the legendary British blues band the Yardbirds. Bassist and keyboard player Jones, like Page, was a veteran studio musician; vocalist Plant and
drummer Bonham came from little-known provincial bands. The group was influenced by various kinds of music, including early rock and roll, psychedelic rock, blues, folk, Celtic, Indian, and Arabic music. Some of their best-known songs are: Stairway to heaven, Whole lotta love, Immigrant song and Black dog. They disbanded in 1980, after John Bonham’s death.
RAMBLE ON - Led Zeppelin 1969
Leaves are falling all around
It's time I was _____ _______ _______
Thanks to you I'm much obliged
For such a pleasant __________
But now it's time for me to go
The autumn _______ lights my way
For now I smell the rain
And with it pain
And it's headed my way
Ah, sometimes I grow so tired
But I know I've got one thing I got to do
Ramble on
And now's the time, the time is now
To sing my song
I'm goin' 'round the world, I got to find my girl
On my way
I've been this way ten years to the day
Ramble on
Gotta find the queen of all my dreams
Got no time for spreadin' roots
The time has come to be gone
And though our health we drank a __________ ____________
It's time to ramble on
Chorus
Mine's a ______that can't be told
My ________ I hold dear
How years ago in days of old
When magic filled the ________
'T was in the darkest depths of Mordor
I met a_________so fair
But Gollum, and the evil one
Crept up and slipped away with her
Her, her, yeah
Ain't nothing I can do, no
I guess I keep on rambling
[…]
"Ramble On" from Led Zeppelin II is a prime example of Zeppelin’s journey into Tolkien’s alternate reality as the group step into “the darkest depths of Mordor”. In the track, the narrator finds love in Middle Earth and also namedrops “Gollum and the evil one”.
On Houses of the Holy, Zeppelin paid tribute to Tolkien once more on ‘Over the Hills and Far Away’. The song takes its title from a poem penned by the writer in 1915.
JRR TOLKIEN
JRR Tolkien was born on 3rd January 1892, in South Africa. When he was four years old, the family moved to England. He was very good at languages. He studied not only Latin and Greek, but also Gothic and Finnish. He studied Anglo-Saxon (Old English), Germanic languages and classic literature. Tolkien taught English language and literature at the University of Leeds. Later he became a professor at Oxford University. There he started a writing group called The Inklings. One of the members of this group was C.S. Lewis (‘The Chronicles of Narnia’), who became one of Tolkien’s closest friends. They shared great enthusiasm for the myths, sagas, and languages of northern Europe. Over the course of his life he invented several languages, such as „Elvish“, „Dwarvish“, „Entish“ and „Black Speech“, purely for fun.
In summer 1930 he saw a blank piece of paper on his desk. Suddenly inspiration came and he wrote the first sentence of The Hobbit: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit“. In 1937, Professor Tolkien published The Hobbit, with his own drawings. He wrote it as bedtime stories for his own children. The book became immediately successful and the publisher asked Tolkien if he had more material. It took him seventeen years to publish The Lord of the Rings, in 1954. The Lord of the Rings was written for older children, the same audience who had grown up since The Hobbit was published. As it was quite a big story it had to be published in three parts. It became a global bestseller at once.
J. R. R. Tolkien died from a stomach ulcer on 2nd September 1973, at the age of 81.
A film version of The Lord of the Rings by New Zealand director Peter Jackson, released in three parts (2001–03) achieved worldwide critical and financial success. The films won 17 Academy Award nominations, and The Return of the King (the 3rd part) holds the record for most Oscars ever. Jackson then also adapted The Hobbit as a trilogy (2012-14) with three Academy Award nominations which also became a hit among the Tolkien’s fans worldwide.
OVER OLD HILLS AND FAR AWAY - Tolkien 1915
It was early and still in the night of June,
And few were the stars, and far was the moon,
The drowsy trees drooping, and silently creepingS
hadows woke under them while they were sleeping.
I stole to the window with stealthy tread
Leaving my white and unpressed bed;
And something alluring, aloof and queer,
Like perfume of flowers from the shores of the mere
That in Elvenhome lies, and in starlit rains
Twinkles and flashes, came up to the panes
Of my high lattice-window.
Or was it a sound?
I listened and marveled with eyes on the ground.
For there came from afar a filtered note
Enchanting sweet, now clear, now remote,
As clear as a star in a pool by the reeds,
As faint as the glimmer of dew on the weeds.
Then I left the window and followed the call
Down the creaking stairs and across the hall
Out through a door that swung tall and grey,
And over the lawn, and away, away!
It was Tinfang Warble that was dancing there,
Fluting and tossing his old white hair,
Till it sparkled like frost in a winter moon;
And the stars were about him, and blinked to his tune
Shimmering blue like sparks in a haze,
As always they shimmer and shake when he plays.
My feet only made there the ghost of a sound
On the shining white pebbles that ringed him round,
Where his little feet flashed on a circle of sand,
And the fingers were white on his flickering hand.
In the wink of a star he had leapt in the air
With his fluttering cap and his glistening hair;
And had cast his long flute right over his back,
Where it hung by a ribbon of silver and black.
His slim little body went fine as a shade,
And he slipped through the reeds like mist in the glade;
And laughed like thin silver, and piped a thin note,
As he flapped in the shadows his shadowy coat.
O! the toes of his slippers were twisted and curled,
But he danced like a wind out into the world.
He is gone, and the valley is empty and bare
Where lonely I stand and lonely I stare.
Then suddenly out in the meadows beyond,
Then back in the reeds by the shimmering pond,
Then afar from a copse were the mosses are thick
A few little notes came a trillaping quick.
I leapt o’er the stream and I sped from the glade,
For Tinfang Warble it was that played;
I must follow the hoot of his twilight flute
Over reed, over rush, under branch, over root,
And over dim fields, and through rustling grasses
That murmur and nod as the old elf passes,
Over old hills and far away
Where the harps of the Elvenfolk softly play.
Can you retell this story with your own words?
Who do you think Tinfang Warble is?
- Let’s now compare this “magic visit” with another mythological “visit” in British Literature. Have you ever heard about the poem “A visit from St. Nicholas” (1823)?
Back to Led Zeppelin and Tolkien now. Although the lyrics of “Over the hills and far away” aren’t particularly aligned with the works of Tolkien, and the song is a folk-rock love track, the title speaks volumes about his lingering influence.
OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY - Led Zeppelin 1973
Hey lady, you got the love I ________
________ more than enough
Oh darling, darling, darling
Walk a while with me
Ohh, you've got so much, so much, so much
Many have I loved, and many times been bitten
Many times I've gazed along the open ________
Many times I've lied, and many times I've ________
Many times I've ________ how much there is to know
Many ________ come true, and some have silver linings
I live for my dream, and a pocket full of ________
Mellow is the man who knows what he's been ________
Many, many men can't see the open road
Many is a word that only leaves you guessing
Guessing 'bout a ________ you really ought to know, oh, oh, oh, oh
Really ought to know (oh, oh, oh)
[…]
However, 1971 was the group’s most intense year of infatuation with Tolkien, as they wrote two songs with links to his fantasy land: “Misty Mountain Hop” named after Bilbo Baggins’ hang-out spot in the Misty Mountains of Wales and especially “The Battle Of Evermore” (1971), based on The Return of The King (from the Lord of the Rings).
MOVIE SCENE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lwJOxN_gXc
The Queen of_________ took her bow
And then she turned to go
The Prince of _________ embraced the gloom
And walked the night alone
Oh, dance in the dark of night
Sing to the morning light
The _________ Lord rides in force tonight
And time will tell us all
Oh, throw down your plow and hoe
Rest not to lock your homes
Side by side we wait the might
Of the darkest of them all
I hear the horses' thunder
Down in the _________ below
I'm waiting for _________of Avalon
Waiting for the eastern glow
The apples of the valley hold
The seeds of happiness
The ground is rich from tender care
Repay, do not _________, no, no
Oh, dance in the dark of night
Sing to the morning light
The apples turn to brown and _________
The tyrant's face is _________
Oh the war is common cry
Pick up you swords and fly
The_________ is filled with good and bad
That mortals never know
Oh, well, the night is_________
The beads of time pass slow
Tired eyes on the _________
Waiting for the eastern glow
The pain of war cannot exceed
The woe of aftermath
The drums will shake the _________wall
The ringwraiths ride in black
Ride on
Sing as you raise your bow
Shoot straighter than before
No comfort has the fire at night
That lights the face so cold
Oh dance in the dark of night
Sing to the mornin' light
The magic runes are writ in gold
To bring the balance back
Bring it back
At last the _________ is shining
The clouds of blue roll by
With _________ from the dragon of darkness
The sunlight blinds his eyes
Oh, bring it back, bring it back
- What references to the book and the movie scene can you find in the lyrics above?