![]() ![]() That was not the complete picture, however. ![]() In addition to playing guitar pretty well he wrote some of the genre’s most enduring riffs riffs that at the time defined what Heavy Rock was. Jimmy Page is one of rock guitar’s premier legends for several reasons. If one listens closely an acoustic guitar can be heard throughout and personally I think it’s best to learn it acoustically first, but, of course, the choice is totally yours. As Page has related in various interviews, the song was recorded acoustically all the way through and then all of the other guitar parts were overdubbed later. In the 70s and 80s, the acoustic guitar intro was a favorite many players had in their “bag” of stuff to play. It’s difficult to play the entire song well note-for-note, but even guitarists of middling abilities can get the basic parts down pretty easily. While many Zeppelin songs would make a great GuitarSong, a final reason to pick Over the Hills and Far Away is that it is fairly easy to play on the “basic” level. This was a winning formula Zeppelin had a Harry Potter /Hobbit component to their image long before Harry Potter was even an idea and Over the Hills and Far Away certainly belongs to this “group” of songs. Some of the band’s best songs conjure up images of castles, dark forests, dragons, quests, pots of gold, fair maidens, courageous warrior men with long hair and flowing beards… or is it flowing hair and long beards? Celtic musical qualities in composition came easily to the band and Robert Plant often illustrated real and imagined history ( Ramble On, The Battle of Evermore, No Quarter, Immigrant Song, Gallows Pole) in his lyrics. When discussing (or dismissing) the band and their appeal, one factor I don’t see acknowledged that much, especially with all of the critics who love to disparage them, is that Led Zeppelin were quintessentially British. Over the Hills and Far Away may have been based on the traditional English song of the same name that dates back to the 17th century and, depending on the version, tells the tale of young lovers, travel to lands far away, and soldiers who…leave their lovers and journey to lands far away. How many people got married to? Buried to? Toasted and roasted? Honored and carried away to Stairway to Heaven, the most popular song on rock radio for most of the 70s and 80s? Older people didn’t understand (and many of those people still don’t), but “the kids” who came of age in the 70s and cruised along with the band on their epic ride absorbed, accepted, and cheered every deviation from well-trod musical paths as an affirmation of the band’s role as musical icons and, in some cases, spiritual leaders. To many of Led Zeppelin’s fans this was and is part of what made the community the band engendered a full-on secret society. Naming a song that seemed to have nothing to do with the lyrics or naming an album that didn’t have a song of the same name and other methods of expanding the boundaries and the borders of songs and structure fascinated me when I was a teenager. ![]() The musical changes throughout the song echo the “journey” theme of the lyrics and dynamically it merges the band’s acoustic sound with their famous electric crunch and punch. ![]() For example, the title itself Over the Hills and Far Away doesn’t appear in the song’s lyric at all and the lyric structure doesn’t contain the familiar verse/chorus/bridge of most pop and rock songs, yet it flows effortlessly along with the music. The song serves as a great illustration of how the band’s unique approach to composing, recording and producing music differed from others of the 70s rock era or any era and how this, combined with all of the mysterious forces that seemed to always surround them, resulted in an often otherworldly aura. Over the Hills and Far Away is one of Led Zeppelin’s most iconic songs and is a window into what made the band special, a musical universe unto themselves. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |