'Immigrant Song': How a voyage to Iceland inspired a Led Zeppelin classic

 The ultimate capper for youthful gemstone suckers dipping their bases into the murky world of Led Zeppelin, ‘ Emigrant Song ’ still sounds like nothing differently. Featured on the British gemstone group’s third plant reader, the track is a tempestuous mix of chugging distorted guitar, early measures and soaring falsetto lyrics. Many songs in the gemstone canon boast such a important concinnity between music, lyric and theme, the instigation generated by Robert Plant, John Bonham, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones eliciting images of surge- destroyed vessels sailing across a stormy ocean. 

 

 Written during the band’s stint of Iceland, Bath and Germany in the summer of 1970, ‘ Emigrant Song ’ sees Led Zeppelin at their most dynamic. The spin took them to the Icelandic capital of Reykjavík, where, centuries agone , Viking aggressors had launched vessels in hunt of plunder. In crossing the north ocean from Britain, Led Zeppelin were bearing that same passage in rear. 

 

 Robert Plant, a life-long addict ofJ.R.R. Tolkien, whose The Lord of The Rings trio draws heavily from the Norse myths, was latterly inspired to write lyrics framing Led Zeppelin as Nordic raiders crossing the north ocean to bring their music to these new lands. “ On we sweep with threshing oarsman, ” Factory sings, “ Our only thing will be the western reinforcement. ” 

 

 Explaining the meaning behind the song’s opening line in Led Zeppelin The Stories Behind Every Led Zeppelin Song, Robert Plant said “ We were n’t being pretentious. We did come from ‘ the land of the ice and snow. ’ We were guests of the Icelandic Government on a artistic charge. We were invited to play a musicale in Reykjavik, and the day before we arrived all the civil retainers went on strike, and the gig was going to be cancelled. The university prepared a musicale hall for us, and it was phenomenal. The response from the kiddies was remarkable, and we had a great time. ‘ Emigrant Song ’ was about that trip and it was the opening track on the reader that was intended to be incredibly different. ” 

 

 Factory also incorporated colorful rudiments of Nordic myth into the lyrics. He sings of “ Valhalla ”, the great hall of Asgard, where the spirits of fallen Viking soldiers were said to be taken by winged Valkyries. also there’s the “ hammer of the Gods ”, which is presumably a reference to Thor’s hammer – though Plant’s phrasing also brings to mind the Malleus Maleficarum, or Hammer of The Witches, a composition on necromancy written by medieval German clergyman Heinrich Kramer. 

 

 You can indeed read ‘ Emigrant Song ’ as a kind of gemstone and roll fiat. “ We're your overlords, ” Factory sings, outlining the band’s hunt for world domination. “ So now you ’d more stop and rebuild all your remains/ For peace and trust can win the day despite of all your losing. ” Enough macho stuff, right? You can learn further about how Led Zeppelin drafted ‘ Emigrant Song ’ then.