" Ramble On" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. Co-written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant and produced by Page, and recorded in 1969 at Juggy Sound Studio in New York City, it serves as the seventh track of their second studio album Led Zeppelin II. The song's lyrics were influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings.
The song was not released as a vinyl single in the US or the UK in the 20th century, but the album reached number 1 in both the US and the UK, and over 12 million copies have been sold. When it was eventually released as a digital single, it reached number 66 on the Billboard Canadian Digital Song Sales chart in 2007. Critics have admired the combination of the vocals and the guitar playing on the song.
Composition and lyrics
Style
The song's genre has variously been described as
folk rock,
,
and
blues rock by different critics.
The song is 4 minutes 35 seconds long as recorded on the album.
"Ramble On" was co-written by
Jimmy Page and
Robert Plant; the lyrics were mainly written by Plant.
The song was recorded in Groove Studios, New York City on 1 June 1969, and Juggy Sound Studio on 2 June. Page explained that he achieved the smooth, sustaining violin-like tone on the solo by using the neck pickup on his Gibson Les Paul guitar with the treble cut and utilising a
sustain-producing
effects unit built by the audio engineer Roger Mayer.
Allusions to The Lord of the Rings
The song's lyrics, particularly in the first line and the third verse, were influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien's
The Lord of the Rings, mentioning among other things "the darkest depths of
Mordor",
Gollum, and
Sauron.
Its first line, "Leaves are falling all around", is an adaptation of Tolkien's "Ah! like gold fall the leaves in the wind", the English translation of the first line of his
Quenya (Elvish language) poem "Namárië".
The
musicologist Caitlin Vaughn Carlos suggests that in the song's references to
The Lord of the Rings, Led Zeppelin was relying on its audience's cultural memory "to actively participate in a dialogue of urban criticism and a romanticized vision of rural Britain".
Andy Greene, writing in
Rolling Stone, commented that "the narrator of Led 1969 classic "Ramble On" finds himself in a very bizarre version of
Middle-earth – a land where Mordor appears to be a great place to meet beautiful women, and Gollum and Sauron are more interested in fighting over the narrator's girlfriend than getting their hands on the
One Ring".
Reception
In his book
Led Zeppelin: A Celebration, Dave Lewis wrote that "Ramble On" was "the highlight" of the
Led Zeppelin II album, "slipping effortlessly from quiet mournful passages into an uplifting chorus", and demonstrating the "light and shade dynamism" that became a hallmark of the band.
Martin Popoff, in his book
Led Zeppelin: All the Albums, All the Songs, commented that while the song starts off with a nod to "idyllic West Coast acoustic rock" with Plant playing the "romantic troubadour", its location is seen to be the dark land of Mordor in
Middle-earth, though with un-Tolkienesque events. Popoff calls it "a strange reference", but notes that the music backs it up with the "near-
Renaissance feel" of Page's guitar playing in the key of
E major.
On American Songwriter, Jacob Uitti agreed that Page's acoustic guitar is stirring and Plant's vocals are electrifying, but emphasized that John Paul Jones's less-noticed bass playing is sublime. Uitti called the song "one of the band's best", because of "its dual-pronged sonic attack".
The song was not released as a single in the 20th century, but the album reached number 1 in both the US and the UK, and over 12 million copies have been sold.
Live performances
During Led Zeppelin’s original run before 1980, "Ramble On" was only played as a tease, but never as a complete song.
The full song was first performed live at the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert on 10 December 2007, at the O
2 Arena in London; Page ended the song with a brief section of the bridge from "What Is and What Should Never Be".
Personnel
According to Jean-Michel Guesdon and Philippe Margotin:
Charts
Certifications
See also
Other Led Zeppelin songs which similarly allude to
The Lord of the Rings, both from
Led Zeppelin IV:
-
"The Battle of Evermore"
-
"Misty Mountain Hop"
Bibliography
External links
