#8 - Immigrant Song from Led Zeppelin III (1970)
Appeared On: 45 ballots (out of 62 . . . 72.6%)
Total Points: 664 points (out of 1,550 possible points . . . 42.8%)
#1 Rankers: @Andrew74
Top 5 Rankers: @Sinn Fein@AAABatteries@FairWarning@worrierking@jwb@Long Ball Larry@SteevieG@DocHolliday@Joe Schmo@2Young2BBald@jamny DEADHEAD
Live Performances:
LZ: 122 (
Bath Festival - 1970-6-28 (First Performance),
London - 1971-04-01,
Orlando - 1971-08-31, Osaka - 1971-09-29,
Long Beach - 1972-06-27,
Bradford - 1973-01-18 (Final Performance))
Page & Plant: 14 (Intro Riff Only)
Plant: 88 (
Pittsburgh - 1988-10-24,
Knebworth - 1990-06-30,
Reykjavik - 2019-06-23)
Covers: Nirvana,
Beck & Page,
Foo Fighters,
Heart,
Queen,
Aerosmith,
Sebastian Bach,
Umphrey's McGee,
Demons & Wizards,
Stryper,
Saxon,
Diamond Head,
Trent Reznor,
Royal Crescent Mob,
Infectious Grooves,
Gotthard,
Dread Zeppelin,
Zoffy,
Lotus,
Strikeforce,
Slaughter,
Myles Kennedy & Slash,
Joe Satriani,
Chris Cornell,
moe.,
Smashing Pumpkins,
The Offspring,
Steelheart,
Ingrid Michaelson,
Great White,
Incubus,
Sammy Hagar,
Lynch Mob,
Neal Schon,
Heidevolk,
Angra & Sepultura,
Crimson Day,
Vince Neil,
Vanilla Fudge,
Blue Shift
Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 92 songs): 5
Vulture Ranking (out of 74 songs): 8
Rolling Stone Ranking (out of 40 songs): 7
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): 7
Uproxx Ranking (out of 50 songs): 15
WMGK Ranking (out of 92 songs): 3
SPIN Ranking (out of 87 songs): 10
Ranker Ranking (out of 87 songs): 4
Anachronarchy Ranking (out of 80 songs): 6
We say hello to the Elite Eight but goodbye to Led Zeppelin III, which finishes as out 6th most popular album. One person ranked IS as their Zeppelin fave, 3 people had it second, and 3 people marked it down for third. Rounding things out, it saw 13 Top 5 votes, 21 Top 10, and 45 people voted for it. I haven’t researched it, but this may be the first back-to-back songs that were issued as singles. It’s our favorite track with “Song” in the title (Lemon, Wanton, Remains The Same, Rain, or Immigrant). At one point, it had a run of 9 Top 5 votes in 15 ballots. Eight of the 9 outside rankers had it Top.
Some LZ historians believe the band was intent on releasing a lead single from LZ III, and that the foundation of that song was IS in 1969. There apparently was talk of a hard hitting, all out rocker as a single to launch the album. That seems a little odd given that a lot of the album is acoustic.
The song peaked at #16 in the U.S. and was also released in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Jamaica, Mexico, Japan, and the Philippines. It made the Top 10 on 10 different charts.
The song was inspired after an official cultural visit to Iceland on 1970-06-22 and performance at the Laugardalsholl Sports Center in Reykjavik. The song was developed so quickly that it was first performed in their next show, six days later, at the Bath Festival on 1970-06-28. It’s working title was called
Song in F (Overlord).
Alternate Mix,
PulpFusion Mix,
Pendulum Remix
Plant recalls, “We weren't being pompous ... We did come from the land of the ice and snow. We were guests of the Icelandic Government on a cultural mission. We were invited to play a concert in Reykjavik, and the day before we arrived all the civil servants went on strike and the gig was going to be cancelled. The university prepared a concert hall for us and it was phenomenal. The response from the kids was remarkable, and we had a great time. Immigrant Song was about that trip, and it was the opening track on the album that was intended to be incredibly different.”
Ever the historian, Plant built the lyrics around the Vikings and their mythology surrounding their gods. Decades later, the song would appear in, and was used extensively, to promote the MCU film Thor: Ragnarok.
Page added, “It felt right for the album to have a rocky side and a folky side, and the rocky side clearly had to start with Immigrant Song. With the hypnotic riff and Robert’s bloodcurdling scream, I thought ‘That’s the way to open an album.’”
Here was a review of their Bath Festival show from Melody Maker:
“By 8 PM, it was estimated that a quarter of a million people – roughly the population of the city of Leeds – were champing at the bit awaiting Led Zeppelin. Half-an-hour to set up – then the members of THE definitive ‘heavy’ band strode on stage – Robert Plant, looking more like Norse warrior than ever, Jimmy Page looking like Mad Dan Eccles in an ankle length overcoat and yokel’s hat over his ears, John Bonham in purple vest crouched behind his green drums and John Paul Jones in “straight” trendy gear clutched his bass guitar.
They kicked off with a new riff from their next album called Immigrant Song. They actually took some time to warm up the crowd, but this may have been intentional as they built up to a fantastic climax with an act lasting over three hours.
Jimmy produced his violin bow to attack the guitar strings, and John Paul was featured on Hammond organ on Since I’ve Been Loving You. It was after John Bonham’s phenomenal drum solo – violent, aggressive and furiously fast – had brought the crowd permanently to their feet, that the real fun began!
They had contrasted their rock style with the beautiful The First Time (aka That’s the Way) featuring John Paul on mandolin and Jim on six-string acoustic with Robert singing in the most attractive restrained style. Now it was time for the other extreme.
A wild rock medley - How Many More Times. The crowd wouldn’t let them go. Tambourines thrown to the fans. As dusk fell and the lights flickered on the band roared into Communication Breakdown.
ANOTHER ENCORE – at 10:50pm Zeppelin had won. They had made all the hang-ups worthwhile and given the crowd a night to remember – whatever else happened. In their final minutes, they paid tribute to the masters of Rock and Roll with the songs of Little Richard, Elvis Presley, and Chuck Berry.”
SETLIST: Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker, Dazed and Confused, Bring It On Home, Since I've Been Loving You, Thank You, That's the Way, What Is and What Should Never Be, Moby ****, How Many More Times, Whole Lotta Love, Communication Breakdown, Long Tall Sally, Say Mama, Johnny B. Goode, That's All Right, Long Tall Sally reprise.
Lester Bangs of Rolling Stone described Immigrant Song as the closest to being as classic as Whole Lotta Love, praising the song's "bulldozer rhythms and Plant's double-tracked wordless vocal crossings echoing behind the main vocal like some cannibal chorus wailing in the infernal light of a savage fertility rite." Cash Box described the song as "filling the aural spectrum once again with wall to wall power," stating that the song has "biting vocals and an unmatched instrumental impact.
Led Zeppelin originally denied director Richard Linklater permission to use Immigrant Song for the film School of Rock. To try to get permission to use the song in the movie, actor Jack Black videotaped himself singing in front of a huge crowd of people, begging Led Zeppelin to let them use the song. Their over the top effort succeeded. Black said, “It may seem corny, but it worked. The moral of the story is, don't be too proud to beg.”
Immigrant Song was performed 122 times . . . including 25 time before LZ III was released. It remained on the setlist through 1972 with one additional performance in 1973. Plant has played it 88 times (only once in the past 30 years), and Page and Plant played the opening riff as a lead in to other songs 14 times.
Ultimate Classic Rock (5 of 92 songs): Led Zeppelin's third album is mostly known for its stripped-down, acoustic tone. Not this charging song, the opening track that serves as the storm before the calm. It's all vikings, earth-trampling guitars and a stuttering riff that explodes from the speakers. And it hit the Top 20 on the singles chart.
Vulture (8 of 74 songs): The lead off track to III doesn’t rest or flag for 2:26. This Norse mini-epic is perennially prized by metal heads (see, for example, Jack Black in School of Rock) for its attack, cauterizing even by Page standards, its straight-outta-Asgard lyrics, the wild sounds, and its being the source of the definitive Zeppelin aperçu— “Hammer of the Gods?!?!” — delivered by Plant with a hilarious Dr. Evil–esque lilt.
Rolling Stone (7 of 40 songs): No hard-rock song has ever had a more ominous opening line: "We come from the land of the ice and snow." It was inspired by the band's concert in Iceland in June 1970, a month when the sun never fully sets. Plant started fantasizing about vikings and wrote in the voice of a Norse chieftain leading a sea invasion and expecting to die. It "was supposed to be powerful and funny," he said. Page's menacing staccato riff could scare Thor into surrendering, and Plant's Tarzan holler adds another layer of primal barbarism.
Louder (7 of 50 songs): This tune was recorded in Olympic Studios, London, in the summer of 1970, where Jimmy and John Bonham laid down the backing tracks to Immigrant Song inside a small, low ceilinged room that looked more like somebody’s private den than a high-tech studio. The song was just an untitled piece, a relentless, pounding theme, hypnotic in its intensity… Jimmy was slouched over his guitar while Bonham crouched over his kit, glaring at the snare drum. He wasn’t a man to be interrupted while concentrating on a new riff. If Bonham took one thing seriously, it was pleasing his guitarist with the right kind of beat. The pair always worked closely, and Bonham’s propulsive pattern soon helped to shape this unlikely Viking saga.
It had been inspired by a trip to Iceland in June that year when Robert Plant became intrigued by Nordic myths and legends. The tune was unveiled at the Bath Festival in June when the band played in front of 200,000 fans. Jimmy wore his country yokel’s hat and Robert’s beard made him look like a Viking who’d just arrived by longboat. Immigrant Song was released as a single in the US, coupled with Hey, Hey What Can I Do in November. It went on to claim the number one hot spot during a 13-week run in the Billboard chart.
Uproxx (15 of 50 songs): Robert Plant once claimed that all of the big-balled viking imagery in this song is intentionally funny, and I’m inclined to believe him. Immigrant Song, The Lemon Song, The Crunge, Hot Dog - Zeppelin was sillier than they get credit for, probably because Page’s riff and Bonham’s drums are kicking too much ### for anyone to laugh.
WMGK (3 of 92 songs): While Zeppelin never liked being associated with heavy metal, this song did quite a bit to create the template for that genre: Page’s percussive riffing, Bonham’s heavy drumming, and of course, Robert Plant’s banshee vocals telling tales of vikings that come from “the land of the ice and snow.” Plant and Page may wince when asked about metal, but the feeling definitely isn’t mutual.
SPIN (10 of 87 songs): With an opening and riff as classic as either “Love” or “Dog” (and twice as violent), “Immigrant Song” also has the advantage of being under 150 seconds long, an improbably compact shore-invading assault that barely gives you time to process its ###-kicking awesomeness before it gives way to “Friends” on LZIII. Any hockey game where this song isn’t played at least once — and preferably once per goal, home or away — is not giving its attending fans the experience they deserve. (And in terms of geeky metal imagery cliches, norse mytholygy >>>> Frodo.)
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