“Beautiful”: The overlooked Led Zeppelin song Robert Plant called one of his absolute favourites
Perhaps the absolute brilliance of Led Zeppelin can be defined by the fact that you see one of their song titles, and the singular melody instantly springs to mind. You come across the phrase ‘Immigrant Song’, and a synapse fires thoughts of “Aaaaahaaaa” in a frenzied millisecond. Hell, even their name alone is enough to conjure a few anthemic tunes to mind.
Somehow, their unique sound is stored somewhere in your brain and can be called upon in a flash, like your body storing up adrenaline. Their music cuts through—it can’t be confused for anyone else, and few have attempted to be so bold ever since. However, while anthems like ‘Kasmir’, ‘The Song Remains the Same’ and ‘Whole Lotta Love’ might now stand up as their definitive songs, they were always an albums band in the truest sense, with a vast back catalogue, and lurid depth.
There is one song that stands out among this cherished melee as a moment that defines their oeuvre, but somehow, it doesn’t quite stack up against monuments like ‘Stairway to Heaven’ in the minds of many. Thankfully, it does have Robert Plant fighting its almost-forgotten corner. The lion-like singer has always cited ‘The Battle of Evermore’ as not just one of his favourite Led Zeppelin songs but also a tune that got to the heart of the mystic spell they were casting.
Speaking to Digging Deep, the singer explained, “There was a lot of amazing variety of stylistic influence in everybody’s playing. ‘Battle of Evermore’, just as an instrumental piece, was beautiful.“ The 1971 track from their untitled fourth album arrived at a time when it was dawning on the band just what they were. They’d crafted four albums in only two years, and it gave them little time to realise just how far away from the blues they had truly pulled.
Now, with folk star Sandy Denny singing a duet with Plant, with exotic flavours in the mix and The Lord of the Rings serving as the expansive basis, it was clear that they were doing a whole lot more than a mere twist on the old 12-bars. While this was a dawning moment for the band, they readily admit that it was somewhat overshadowed upon release by gaudier giants on the album like ‘Black Dog’, ‘Rock and Roll’, and, of course, ‘Stairway to Heaven’, a piece that Plant has done his best to deride over the years.
However, he has only ever been full of praise for the intricate ‘Evermore’. Beyond the milling musicianship, he also claims it defines the power of the band beyond any tangible analysis. “The way it sounded—it had some essence of heralding, of drawing people together, of summoning a mindset if you like,” he continued.
Indeed, it was the crux of what was to come in the 1970s. And in some ways, it was always going to have to be a more nebulous, less radio-friendly tune to assert that. Led Zeppelin were a new world to be explored, and beyond headbobbing to the biggest hits, ‘Evermore’ was a come hither calling card. In truth, this was always the fate set for the band: to be the world’s biggest cult hit. They were never really mainstream, and their only crossovers were curious and cultish themselves.
As Jorgen Angel, the photographer who captured their first-ever gig back in 1968, recalled, “When they went on stage, it was something very special and different and spectacular. They were full of energy, and they were different. I had no idea they were going to be big.”
He was right, and in every mystical sense, rock ‘n’ roll doesn’t get much bigger than ‘The Battle of Evermore’, but it was never really built to be big in many other ways.
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