Music Blog

UNPLUGGED IN L.A.

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Jim over at Song Lyric Sunday is asking us to get unplugged today by writing about an acoustic rock song.

Of course, my immediate reaction was to go right to the source, the premier #1 acoustic song, the most covered song in the history of songs …. “Yesterday” by the Beatles …. but I changed my mind. Too predictable; anyone who knows me would expect me to go there. So I went with another member of British royalty and selected one of the greatest acoustic songs I’ve ever had the privilege of hearing live.

Led Zeppelin could do it all, including ballads, and the finest has to be “Going to California” from their unchallenged masterpiece, 1971’s Led Zeppelin IV.

This folk-leaning rock song features only Robert Plant on vocals, acoustic guitar by Jimmy Page and the mesmerizing ring of the mandolin by the group’s bassist and multi-instrumental wizard, John Paul Jones.

The track came about after Jimmy Page and some crew members experienced a small earthquake while in Los Angeles. Folk legend Joni Mitchell supplied the “aha moment” for this song by inspiring the line: “She plays guitar and cries and sings”. When playing it live, Robert Plant would sometimes sing ‘Joni’ after this portion of lyrics. Well, he did the night I heard it.

Thanks to Jim for this fantastic prompt today.

NAR © 2023

Going Unplugged

This is Led Zeppelin and “Going To California”

Lyrics

Spent my days with a woman unkind
Smoked my stuff and drank all my wine
Made up my mind to make a new start
Going to California with an aching in my heart
Someone told me there’s a girl out there
With love in her eyes and flowers in her hair

Took my chances on a big jet plane
Never let ’em tell ya that they’re all the same
Oh, the sea was red and the sky was grey
I wonder how tomorrow could ever follow today
The mountains and the canyons start to tremble and shake
The children of the sun begin to awake (watch out)

It seems that the wrath of the gods got a punch on the nose
And it’s startin’ to flow, I think I might be sinkin’
Throw me a line, if I reach it in time
I’ll meet you up there where the path runs straight and high

To find a queen without a king
They say she plays guitar and cries and sings, la-la-la
Ride a white mare in the footsteps of dawn
Tryin’ to find a woman who’s never, never, never been born
Standin’ on a hill in the mountain of dreams
Tellin’ myself it’s not as hard, hard, hard as it seems

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Jimmy Page / Robert Anthony Plant
Going to California lyrics © Succubus Music Ltd., Sons Of Einion Publishing, Flames Of Albion Music, Inc.

“Going to California”
Song by Led Zeppelin
from the album Led Zeppelin IV
Released8 November 1971
Recorded1971
StudioHeadley Grange, Hampshire, England
GenreFolk Art rock
Length3:32
LabelAtlantic
Songwriter(s)Jimmy Page, Robert Plant
Producer(s)Jimmy Page

32 thoughts on “UNPLUGGED IN L.A.”

  6. A great choice for this theme! I saw them live in March 1971. They played this immediately after Stairway, both introduced as ‘here’s a couple off our new album,’ which we then had to wait another eight months for!

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    1. Don’t you just love when groups do that?? NOT!
      When I go to a concert, I want to hear songs I know; nothing wrong with hearing something new …. I mean, they do have to promote their new stuff …. but I don’t want to hear it as an opening number. I think most people would agree with me.

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      1. To be fair, they played them about five or six songs in, and the album had been planned for April release. The American studio where Jimmy Page took the masters for ‘final’ treatment did a job the rest of the band hated, so Jimmy had to do it all over again here after the tour ended. I agree with you, though: mixing new ones in with the favourites is best.

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        1. It is no problem as you can always use the same song that I select and as you pointed out, “we each put our own. spin on it!” At the bottom of my SLS posts, I always say what song I am going to choose for this week and next week, but I am pretty sure that most people don’t actually read what I write.

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          1. Thanks, Jim!
            Regarding reading what you write, I would say ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. I read what you write; today I was careless and didn’t realize there was more to be read and missed the whole last section. If I’d been paying attention, I would have know about your song choice.
            I always know when someone is bluffing their way through one of my stories. Rule of thumb: don’t comment if you haven’t read it. It’s as simple as that.
            I really enjoy doing Song Lyric Sunday, Jim; my husband thinks it’s a great blog and he’s not into much on WordPress.

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            1. I am lucky to have inherited Song Lyric Sunday as the previous host Helen became sick and I volunteered to take over. I started on January 6, 2019, so I have been doing this for almost 5 years now.

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