How William Blake inspired a classic Led Zeppelin song
When I first think of Led Zeppelin, two things usually come to mind: the term “classic rock” and the famous scene from Wayne’s World in which the hapless protagonist declares, “No stairway, denied”. However, the British quartet were much more than simply the shaggy-haired rockers who created one of rock’s very first epics. They had real substance, and this was why led Zep became so successful and seamlessly filled the hole that The Beatles left behind.
The increasingly expansive sound that Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham formed cut through the morass of sugary pop and limp psychedelia like butter. They showed listeners that the future of rock ‘n’ roll was a much more pulsating, multifaceted and surprising one than most of what was presently offered.
All four members brought a considerable amount of talent to the fold, with Page one of the greatest guitarists of all time, John Paul Jones, a fine bassist and multi-instrumentalist and the late John Bonham, a drummer for the ages. However, regarding the undoubted substance of the band, much of this has to be attributed to the lyrics, or poetry, of Robert Plant.
Whether it be writing about the diverse West Midlands area he grew up in, drawing heavily on European mythologies, or even referencing the works of the eminent J.R.R. Tolkien, Plant cast a wide net when looking for inspiration for his words. He had a particular penchant for delving into literature when conceiving his prose. For one of the band’s best-loved pieces, he looked to two famous myths and one of the greats of English poetry.
The song in question is ‘Achilles Last Stand’, a track taken from Led Zeppelin’s seventh album, 1976’s Presence. For the material, he mentioned the story of the Titan Atlas, condemned to hold up the sky for eternity, and that of the Greek hero Achilles, the central character of Homer’s epic, Illiad.
The tale told that Achilles was dipped in the river Styx as a child by his mother to make him immortal. However, she held him by the heel, meaning that this was the chink in his armour. Eventually, he was killed by Paris of Troy with an arrow through the said heel. That became his titular last stand.
Plant wrote the lyrics when the band were tax exiles from the UK in 1975, travelling around Morocco, Greece and Spain. Although his words and the group’s music are drenched in the essence of the ancient Mediterranean, Plant also harked back to old Britain by including the line, “Albion remains / sleeping now to rise again”.
Interestingly though, the line was a reference to William Blake, the seminal British poet and artist considered the pinnacle of the Romantic Age. Specifically, it references Blake’s engraving, The Dance of Albion, with the song coming with a poem that channels his famous prose style.
The following extract demonstrates the extent to which Plant was inspired by the concept of Albion rising again: “Albion rose from where he labour’d at the Mill with Slaves / Giving himself for the Nations he danc’d the dance of Eternal Death“.
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