Immigrant Song is a song by Led Zeppelin, released as a single from their third album, Led Zeppelin III, on this date in November 1970. It reached #16 on the Billboard charts. Immigrant Song was written during Led Zeppelins tour of Iceland, Bath and Germany in mid-1970. The opening date of this tour took place in Reykjavík, Iceland, which inspired Plant to write the song. As he explained: “We werent being pompous ... We did come from the land of the ice and snow. We were guests of the Icelandic Government on a cultural mission. We were invited to play a concert in Reykjavik and the day before we arrived all the civil servants went on strike and the gig was going to be cancelled. The university prepared a concert hall for us and it was phenomenal. The response from the kids was remarkable and we had a great time. Immigrant Song was about that trip and it was the opening track on the album that was intended to be incredibly different.” Just six days after Led Zeppelins appearance in Reykjavik, the band performed the song for the first time on stage during the Bath Festival. The songs lyrics are written from the perspective of Vikings rowing west from Scandinavia in search of new lands. The lyrics make explicit reference to Viking conquests and the Old Norse religion (Fight the horde, sing and cry, Valhalla, I am coming!). In a 1970 radio interview, Plant jokingly recalled: We went to Iceland, and it made you think of Vikings and big ships... and John Bonhams stomach... and bang, there it was - Immigrant Song! First pressings of the US single of the song have a quote from Aleister Crowley inscribed in dead wax by the run-out groove: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. One of the lines from the song became part of Led Zeppelin lore. The line, The hammer of the gods/will drive our ships to new lands prompted some people to start referring to Led Zeppelins sound as the Hammer of the Gods. The phrase was used as the title of Stephen Davis biography of the band, Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga. The lyrics also did much to inspire the classic heavy metal myth, of mighty Viking-esque figures on an adventure, themes which have been adopted in the look and music of bands from Iron Maiden to Manowar.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 04:30:03 +0000
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