This week for Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday,
the theme is “Unplugged”. The challenge?
To write about an acoustic version of a song
that was originally performed as electric.
Tag: Acoustic
Light My Fire Unplugged
Written for Song Lyric Sunday.
Here’s what I have to say.
UNPLUGGED IN L.A.
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
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 | |
| Released | 8 November 1971 |
| Recorded | 1971 |
| Studio | Headley Grange, Hampshire, England |
| Genre | Folk Art rock |
| Length | 3:32 |
| Label | Atlantic |
| Songwriter(s) | Jimmy Page, Robert Plant |
| Producer(s) | Jimmy Page |
The Elephant's Trunk 