The Led Zeppelin song so good Robert Plant called “ridiculous”
Formed from the ashes of the Yardbirds in 1968, Led Zeppelin consisted of four immensely talented musicians: Robert Plant as the lead vocalist, Jimmy Page on guitars, John Paul Jones as bassist and keyboardist, and John Bonham behind the drums.
By the end of the 1960s, Led Zeppelin had released their first two albums and were already a huge presence rivalling The Rolling Stones for the rock throne. All-time classics like ‘Good Times Bad Times’, ‘Dazed and Confused’, ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and ‘Ramble On’ had already arrived, but the best was still yet to come.
Through the early 1970s, Led Zeppelin released their most critically and commercially favoured albums, beginning with Led Zeppelin III. The album began on a powerful note with the rather violent and martial-sounding ‘Immigrant Song’.
The track was written on an aeroplane while the band travelled back from Iceland. Although they were hardly sailing across the North Sea in longships, Led Zeppelin were inspired by the idea of a Viking invasion. “It made you think of Vikings and big ships … and John Bonham’s stomach,” Plant was quoted as saying in Led Zeppelin: The Biography by Bob Spitz. “And bang, there it was — ‘Immigrant Song.'”
“What a shame ‘Immigrant Song’ isn’t easy for kids to play, by the way,” he added in a 2023 interview with Vulture. “Everyone gets it, young and old. It’s a great song. Not only slightly ridiculous but ridiculous. Considering that we wrote it in midair leaving Iceland — a fantastically inspiring gig and an adventure, beyond which there will be no books written.”
“I thought ‘Immigrant Song’ was great because it goes back to the Dark Ages effect on my being,” he said. “I’m sitting here looking out into the darkness in the building that was built in the 15th century. It’s not a fancy building, it’s just a building that’s been brought back from a thousand different deaths. I know that before the Civil War, before Cromwell came through here, and before everybody would hide. Before, before, before, before, before, before. That Viking side of stuff is very funny.”
Plant noted that the track was always a big hit with children and has been used in movies like Shrek the Third and School of Rock to great effect. “To give it to the kids is important,” he added. “Send it up, send it down, and just keep sending it. Just dig it because there’s no hierarchy.”
Funnily, though, it isn’t Plant’s favourite track from Led Zeppelin. That honour is given to ‘Kashmir’, “I wish we were remembered for ‘Kashmir’ more than ‘Stairway to Heaven’”, he told Louder Sound, “It’s so right; there’s nothing overblown, no vocal hysterics. Perfect Zeppelin.”
That’s not the only one, either; a similar sentiment can be applied to the luscious ‘All My Love’. It is an anthem that Plant poured his heart into following the unexpected death of his Karac in 1977. “It was just paying tribute to the joy that [Karac] gave us as a family, and in a crazy way, still does,” he told AXS TV.
While Jason Bonham remembers things differently, “His favourite was… ‘Tea for One,’ he still loves, and ‘Achilles Last Stand.’ He said, ‘If I ever play somebody something from Led Zeppelin… This is it. Listen to this, this is what we had.’ He’s very proud of that. So that was a wonderful thing to have.”
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