Led Zeppelin - Going To California
Jul 28, 2005 9:39:11 GMT -5
Post by irock on Jul 28, 2005 9:39:11 GMT -5
One of the loveliest ballads I can think of, and from a band not at all known for ballads. From allmusic:
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In a long line of ramblin' man songs comes one of Led Zeppelin's, a 1971 song about leaving one (bad) woman in search of a specific (good) other. This pensive folk ballad is said to be a tribute to Joni Mitchell, the "girl out there with love in her eyes and flowers in her hair," and who "plays guitar and cries and sings." Once in California, however, the narrator seems to find nothing less than the apocalypse: "The mountains and the canyons started to tremble and quake...Seems that the wrath of the Gods/Got a punch on the nose and it started to flow/I think I might be sinking," sings Plant, with a boost in the echo effect in the mix. Interestingly enough, when the band took the finished recordings out to L.A. for mixing, as they entered the airport, a pretty good-sized earthquake was shaking the area. "Going to California"'s simple instrumentation of John Paul Jones on mandolin, Jimmy Page on a Mississippi John Hurt-via- John Fahey fingerpicking acoustic guitar, and Robert Plant on vocals is a nice breather on a record full of heavy moments like "When the Levee Breaks" and "Black Dog." It was recorded spontaneously in a late-night session in a house the band had rented out for the occasion of recording their fourth record. Oddly enough, for such a straightforward pretty folk ballad, there are very few recorded cover versions. The 1980s hair metal bad Great White did a live mimic of the song, right down to the weary Plant vocal delivery, on their 1999 tribute Great Zeppelin: A Tribute to Led Zeppelin.
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In a long line of ramblin' man songs comes one of Led Zeppelin's, a 1971 song about leaving one (bad) woman in search of a specific (good) other. This pensive folk ballad is said to be a tribute to Joni Mitchell, the "girl out there with love in her eyes and flowers in her hair," and who "plays guitar and cries and sings." Once in California, however, the narrator seems to find nothing less than the apocalypse: "The mountains and the canyons started to tremble and quake...Seems that the wrath of the Gods/Got a punch on the nose and it started to flow/I think I might be sinking," sings Plant, with a boost in the echo effect in the mix. Interestingly enough, when the band took the finished recordings out to L.A. for mixing, as they entered the airport, a pretty good-sized earthquake was shaking the area. "Going to California"'s simple instrumentation of John Paul Jones on mandolin, Jimmy Page on a Mississippi John Hurt-via- John Fahey fingerpicking acoustic guitar, and Robert Plant on vocals is a nice breather on a record full of heavy moments like "When the Levee Breaks" and "Black Dog." It was recorded spontaneously in a late-night session in a house the band had rented out for the occasion of recording their fourth record. Oddly enough, for such a straightforward pretty folk ballad, there are very few recorded cover versions. The 1980s hair metal bad Great White did a live mimic of the song, right down to the weary Plant vocal delivery, on their 1999 tribute Great Zeppelin: A Tribute to Led Zeppelin.
