‘Achilles Last Stand’: How North Africa became Led Zeppelin’s India
There certainly is something to be said about the fact that music has opened us up to other cultures and backgrounds a lot more. Without any information, we are given insight into the way people live and what they enjoy in an instant. In the modern age, thanks to technological advancements, we can experience the music of other countries immediately. However, in the past, this music had to be brought to us, like The Beatles did with India.
“George Harrison, on his own, opened up India to England,” said XTC guitarist Andy Partridge when talking about their influence, “The man brings back a sitar and flirts with sitar lessons and all of a sudden, India means things to people […] Single-handily, George Harrison brought India to English consciousness. In a non-colonial and non-judgemental kind of way.”
In the same interview, Partridge talks about how pioneering The Beatles were as a band but equally how restrictive they were, given nobody could ever match them. “The Beatles made the template for pop groups, and they also spoiled the template for pop groups,” he said. “Because you could never get to the heights that they were at.”
While Partridge certainly has a point, and nobody might have been able to match the heights The Beatles rose to, some bands undoubtedly came close. In the same way that The Beatles opened up the world to music in India, Led Zeppelin did the same thing with music in North Africa.
When Jimmy Page and Robert Plant travelled, they took in the culture of wherever they were, which meant listening to local music and being inspired by it. When they travelled to Morocco, they found themselves fully blown away by the power of the rhythm of music on display and the complex time signatures which were implemented in various pieces. Their mystic and alluring blend would become what Plant later called ”Moroccan’roll”.
This can be heard in many Led Zeppelin songs. One of the most prevalent is ‘Achilles Last Stand’. While the myth of Achilles inspires the track’s themes and overall narrative, the music was wholly inspired by Flamenco and Moroccan music. It’s an incredibly engaging listen that combines poetry and music, which also opened up the minds of people in England as many experienced North African music for the first time.
Granted, if people genuinely want to experience the sound of various countries, the most authentic way they can do that is to listen to music from artists who are a part of that culture. That might be the best way now, but in the ‘60s and ‘70s, music from other countries wasn’t as accessible as that, and The Beatles and Led Zeppelin taking on these sounds was one of the most effective ways that people could initially experience them.
The Beatles and Led Zeppelin’s ability to incorporate sounds from other cultures and implement them in a way that stayed true to the band’s originality was incredibly impressive. It set the foundation for cultures crossing in various aspects of music. It’s now something that people in music do frequently, resulting in a more prosperous and broader sound.
It also helped to keep their own sound fresh in the process. Morocco served as a vital escape for Led Zeppelin after a gruelling run of nine straight shows at Earls Court. As Page would later explain, ”I went to Morocco with Robert Plant and stayed at La Mamounia Hotel in Marrakech. We had many an adventure in Ouarzazate, Essaouira, Guelmim and also Agadir.”
He added: ”But it was the intoxication of the Jemaa el-Fnaa, the medieval central market square of Marrakech that we would return to some twenty years later in 1995 to perform Yallah (The Truth Explodes) during the recording of the Unledded Page & Plant project.” In the interim years, their initial wave of influence had meant that North African music was already awash in the sounds of Western pop culture—the case continues today with the likes of Glass Beams and Khruangbin creating a sound indebted to Led Zeppelin’s fateful blend.
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