LED ZEPPELIN - IMMIGRANT SONG

'Hammer Of The Gods Will Drive Our Ships To New Lands...'

Led Zeppelin II, 'The Brown Bomber', was a huge success. More deliberately heavy than their eponymous debut, Jimmy's powerful riffs gave Led Zeppelin a unique sexually potent groove, a strut unmatched both on record and on stage. The groove of Whole Lotta Love, the grind of The Lemon Song, the dirty strut of Heartbreaker. All powerful. Nothing on II cloned anything from the debut. Robert may well have lifted lyrics virtually intact from assorted blues songs, but riff wise, Jimmy had those little nuances, tweaks and glides that set them apart. 

Already more than 200 shows into their live career, Led Zeppelin knew the effect the power of those live performances had on their ever increasing audience. But the next elpee had to be different. Although acoustic and folk influences were strong over the first two elpees, 3 of the 18 tracks featured prominent acoustic guitar plus there's the light and shade arrangements of many of the other songs, a rest and change was the order of the day. 

An incredibly fruitful writing session in Snowdonia at the cottage at Bron-Y-Aur was followed by full band rehearsals at Headley Grange, their first visit to the dilapidated former workhouse. It was there that the full band worked on the new riffs and ideas, and the powerful muscular nuances of Immigrant and Out On The Tiles came to the fore.

Bootleg fragments show that during these sessions in May 1970, at least two of the full electric tracks marked for the next album were auditioned and put into shape. The F# octave jerk riff of Immigrant Song was powered along by unison JPJ bass figures and an overwhelmingly powerful Bonzo charge. Over the top Robert wails as otherworldly battle cry, reminiscent of Bali Hai from the musical South Pacific. The crude sound of the rehearsal, Robert some way off in the distance, emphasises the almost military precision of Bonzo's drumming, and the fact that Robert is feeling his way with his battle cry and the Viking lyrics are yet to be penned. At the coda it peters out without a proper finish just as Jimmy begins to test and tease a few licks, something he would expand upon greatly onstage.

The companion disc version was recorded in Olympic Studios No.2 on May 29th 1970, and is more open that the finished version. Extra and alternate vocal nuances shine through. The upcoming trip to Iceland was an obvious inspiration for Robert, and his brilliant widescreen tale of gore and pillage is in place some 3 weeks before they got to Iceland. The finished studio version is tight and concise, and Jimmy adds the nice touch of a build up of echoed and repeated tape hiss that rumbles up and builds until the riff comes crashing in and jolts you back on your heels. Perfect.

Various later issues of III and compilations over the years have omitted the hiss (Shame) including the cut used for its' release as a single across the world. It was also backed with Hey Hey, What Can I Do, the only non-elpee Led Zeppelin track commercially released for many a year. An obvious and immediately outstanding live track, it became the set opener instantly, Robert's battle cry swirling over the heads of the ocean of fans from the off. Probably performed in Reykjavik, it sounded tentative and nervous at Bath and Berlin, the only two recordings we have from the short summer 1970 European shows.

From the on it was nailed down and extended by Jimmy with some finger loosening licks and solos that twisted over a syncopated rhythm and some nights included old 60's riffs like the Yardbirds Mister, You're A Better Man Than I and hints of Shapes Of Things and even Baby Please Don't Go. 
Once Immigrant Song left the set, Over The Hills And Far Away became Jimmy's vehicle for this solo sketch. It remained set opener, linked brilliantly with Heartbreaker via a sudden stop and Jimmy bending the F# or G note up to A to kick in, right up until the summer of '72 and the How The West Was Won string of West Coast shows. After that it briefly appeared as an encore at all but one of the 6 Japanese shows and we have 5 recordings from the following UK shows, the last one being at Bradford on January 18th, 1973.

It was only ever going to be a set opener as long as Robert could hit those high notes, something that was getting harder as the volume and length of shows increased during Led Zeppelin's rise.

Immigrant Song was released as a single in many countries, and there are all sorts of nice (and rare) picture sleeve singles in existence. It also appeared on EP's in Australia, Mexico etc and on Atlantic compilations as well. 

The rarest is the unissued Emidisc 1-sided acetate that quotes catalogue number 2091 043 and a release date of November 27th 1970. Possibly another proposed single nixed by band and management. Among the plethora of cover versions my favourites have to be Dread Zeppelin, Trent Reznor and James Last...