Misty Mountain Hop

Album: Led Zeppelin 4 (1971)
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  • Walkin' in the park just the other day, baby
    What do you what do you think I saw?
    Crowds of people sittin' on the grass with flowers in their hair said
    Hey Boy do you want to score?
    And you know how it is
    I really don't know what time it was oh, oh
    So I asked them if I could stay awhile

    I didn't notice but it had got very dark and I was really
    Really out of my mind
    Just then a policeman stepped up to me and asked us said
    Please, hey, would we care to all get in line
    Get in line
    Well you know
    They asked us to stay for tea and have some fun
    Oh, oh, he said that his friends would all drop by, oh
    Why don't you take a good look at yourself and describe what you see
    And baby, baby, baby, do you like it?
    There you sit, sitting spare like a book on a shelf rustin'
    Ah, not trying to fight it

    You really don't care if they're coming oh, oh
    I know that it's all a state of mind, oh
    If you go down in the streets today, Baby, you better
    You better open your eyes
    Folk down there really don't care, really don't care
    Don't care, really don't
    Which, which way the pressure lies
    So I've decided what I'm gonna do now
    So I'm packing my bags for the Misty Mountains
    Where the spirits go now
    Over the hills where the spirits fly, oh, I really don't know Writer/s: James Patrick (jimmy) Page, John Paul Jones, Robert Anthony Plant
    Publisher: Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 68

  • Shagmasterfunkerbean from UsaIf I remember correctly Plant talks about being in NYC and going for a stroll in Central Park and a bunch of hippies on table invited him to enjoy some mushrooms. After some enjoyment the Police chase the lot out. Also he's describing NYC and it's lawlessness and culture.
  • JodieRoger, The Mines of Moria were located in the Misty Mountains. Erebor, the Lonely Mountain, was quite a ways away. So they were related in the sense that they were both in mountains and both in Middle-earth.
  • Maxwall Play it backwards and hear satan say I hate your fing guts ,I’m flying off to misty Mountains
  • Roger from UsThe Misty Mountains are the mountains that the dwarves want to reclaim as theirs. It just so happens there is a dragon that happens to be its new owner. Gandalf had marked Bilbo's door with a mark in elvish that referred to a burglar and that is why they showed up at Bilbo's door.
    Jimmy Page was more of a fan to Tolkien's world than Plant. I had always wanted a movie that would be able to show the story in its whole and not a cartoon. I do like Bashky but this story was not meant to be either a cartoon or a musical. I imagined Zeppelin to do the music with the exception of Jimi Hendrix's All Along the Watch Tower. Peter Jackson should never have been given the rights to Tolkien's work. He rewrote the entire story and left out the anti-climax. I do love Tolkien and the time he spent on creating his work. I have read the Lord of the Rings eight times. I have read the Silmarillion four times. The latter was just a culmination of notes that Tolkien had written about the history of middle earth and how it came to be. And after he died his son tried to put them together so he could publish them as a novel. That book is harder to read than most third level history classes that are taught in college. A lot of people believe that the fourth album was named Stairway to Heaven. It wasn't.
    Like the three before, the album's name was just the same as the first three, so its real name is Led Zepillen four.
  • Ben from New York, NyHow is this based on The Hobbit? Easy. What The Hobbit is about a timid creature, Bilbo, who happens upon Gandalf who helps him become an adventurer and gets into crazy situations,etc. Misty Mountain Hop is about what appears to be an uptight person who happens upon some hippies who introduce him to the 60's/70's counter culture. It's taking a classic story and translating to then modern terms. The line "So I'm packing my bags for the Misty Mountains" alludes to this. The Misty Mountains are a magical place for Bilbo and the place where he finds the one ring which starts the entire transformation, so the narrator is saying they're preparing to emerse themselves in the hippy lifestyle. Now, what do I win?
  • Matt from Madison, OhNot sure where all this tolkein reference comes from. Goin for a walk in the park, seeing a bunch of hippies chilling. Hey boy do u wanna score? -could be a sexual reference but most likely not, id say a drug reference. lookin to score ya kno? losing track of time, pretty messed up in the head, potentially tripping. best to chill wen ur that lucid, "so i asked them if i could stay awhile" times flying by, gets really dark, and your really outa your mind. funny stuff, trippin too hard. cops messing with the park hippies. when trippin u might confront things you dont like about yourself, but will u try and fight it? "i know its all a state of mind" now thats legit, goin far out. "you better open your eyes" wen u ingest LSD your eyes are known to be 'open' in a different way. packin bags for misty mountains? he aint kidding, talking about where the spirits go down. Literally spirits going down. we all have our idea about spirits going up or down.
  • Joe from Grants Pass, OrNote to Adrian - Wilmington, Va __ I saw Foreigner in concert with Jason Bonham drumming -- did this song for the 25th anniversary of Bonzo's passing, WAY COOOL -lasted 'bout 15 mins. !!!!!
  • Ricky from Fort Worth, TxI was one of those flower children waiting in a police line after spending the day at the free concert in Trinity Park the Summer of '69.
    Circles of friends with flowers in their hair passed the jays around and drank the sparkling coolaid. Sitting around half naked trying to
    ignore the heat as afternoon continued into evening when the cops started rousting us minors out after curfew. It was a great place to score whatever you like and watch the sky as it passed into night.

    There, it is all about the mood at the time with a Tolkein-inspired metaphor. Let's "hop" over "the Misty Mountains" and get out of here. Not unlike Bilbo but for entirely different reasons. He didn't get the wonderlust, he got drafted.
  • Ekristheh from Halath, United StatesI believe listeners may be attempting to collate this song with Ramble On and Battle of Evermore. The only possible connection to Tolkien in this besides the title is at the end. If it's there, it's to the essay "On Fairy-Stories" in which Tolkien talks about what escape really is -- wanting to go some place where the spirits fly isn't so crazy.
  • Brad from Lexington, KyCan you people just enjoy the song without writing HUGE interpretations that are going nowhere? I love the song, but some of you are writing really long meanings, most of which don't make sense, and it's a waste of my time and yours to try to read them. Pointless, really.
  • Anna from Myrtle Beach, ScI love this song!!! The keyboards are cool!
  • Peter Griffin from Quahog, RiThis was frequently played live together with "Since I've Been Loving You".
  • Peter Griffin from Quahog, RiHOW is this about the Lord of the Rings? The band said it was about a bunch of hippies getting busted. The Misty Mountains reference could be entirely coincidetal.
  • Ronné from La Ciudad De La Reina De L.a., CaSince Tolkein's Misty Mountains are mythical (tepid apologies to ye trilogy geeks) and no one in the trilogy could even remotely be described using "policemen" as metaphors, I'm going to have to fall on the side of reason. The only way Tolkein can be interpreted as the inspiration for MM'Hop, is if "it-simply-HAS-to-be" to satisfy the rabid Tolkein fetish within the person interpreting. So many of you (us?) simply throw out other quite viable meanings and keep blindly beating the Tolkien drum. Plant, or whom ever he is speaking through was "Walkin' in the park"; wasn't all of Middle Earth a sort of park? Uh Oh! Now I've stepped in it; a clear Tolkien reference! (NOT!) Perhaps someone can please explain what it is elves or hobbits would be "scoring" in the park. No trilogy character could logically be compared to a "policeman"; anyone holding allegiance to Sauron was definitely going to kill you, without bothering to ask that you "get in line". So far as elves "often wearing" flowers in their hair, and another poster's question above: "Flowers in hair...hmm ring a bell?" Bell? What kind of bell? As in a trolley bell; a San Francisco trolley bell? Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco Treat? Robert Plant singing those lyrics was (and I don't need to ask him) a direct and obvious referencial tribute to the song "San Francisco" and likely a tribute as well to the one-hit-wonder author of that same song. Released in 1967, it was a prescient and early "cattle call" to the Summer of Love from a psychedelic pied-piper by the name of Scott McKenzie. Psychedelic? Summer of Love? Flower Children? "Flowers in your hair"? Hmmm... ring any bells? I read the above reference to Seattle; I have no knowledge of that story but regarding the park and the policeman, it seems to make sense. Anyone who's seen the Cascades at any time of the year can easily see why they'd remind one of the phrase "Misty Mountains" no matter which "Misty Mountains" (fact or fable) you're referring to. My response to Simon from Littleton, CO is simple: Simon; "Simple is as simple does"... Simon. You reek of hobbit-grease! Anyone still convinced Misty Mountain Hop was inspired by Tolkien should easily be able to tell me how my "made in Indiana" Toyota Avalon was inspired by the trilogy and how Gandalf provoked the Toyoda dynasty into painting mine a "misty" silver. What made the asset recovery crew at Lockheed paint my Starrett machinist's vice silver before they auctioned it off? It WAS, the only silver vise there that day. (Leaves rustle, yet there's no breeze!" Why do I get "misty" when I hear Clare Torry wail in "The Great Gig In The Sky"? Perhaps she is "of the mountains"? (Yeaah... right!) I don't have all day to be regulating flying monkeys! So ye monkeys... get off the Hobbit Sauce and quit wishin'! Now I've got to go smack up some bitches who think Led Zeppelin's "Going to California" is some kind of Middle Earth metaphor too! Freakin' Morons! My very first listen I knew it was about Joni Mitchell and also about Zep's little known time spent in a custom built practice (not recording) studio here in (drum roll, wait for it...) California! Middle Earth indeed! Addendum: As for Bonham being the greatest drummer? What is "greater"; a Formula One car, an offroad rally car, a drag racer or a world speed record attempting salt flats car? They all have their finer (or coarser) points and are suited to their specific purpose. JB was a power drummer who could not be denied and would not go unheard. One of my drummer friends made light of him... until he was given some tapes with everything but the drums EQ'd way down. He told me he caught himself looking at Bonham's kit in various old pictures and upon trying to duplicate some of JB's licks he found a new respect for the man's work. I didn't want to burst his bubble by suggesting he try to follow recordings featuring Steve Gadd. Gadd has got to be one of the most respected and most versatile drummers extant. Last chance to stump the Seer ye Tolkien-ettes: How did Tolkien's trilogy inspire Gourmet Editions to select 80's porn starlet Barbii as cover girl for A**f_ _ked Blondes #2? I mean it must have, right? (I hope UC my klever usage of assterisks.) Now... would you all please "Get in line". Credentials: Saw all 4 moptops onstage in monkey suits at the Hollywood Bowl (sans roof) in the earliest 60's. Times seen: Zappa- 4, The Who- 1, BB King- 2, Tull- 2, Stones- 1, Thorogood- 1, Bonny Raitt- 1, Gary (whutta joke) Wright- 1, ELP- 1, The Mystic Knights of the Oingo-Boingo (before they were "Oingo Boingo")- 3 (spectacular shows)WAR- 1, Sly and the Family Stone- 1, JGeils- 1, Prince (early career and horrible)- 1, Charlie Daniels- 1 --> Just walked into a pretty small bar in Tey-Hoss (Texas) and there they were onstage! Rufus feat. Chaka Khan- 1, Steel Eye Span- 1, Johnny Winter- 1, Todd Rundgren- 1, Kinko the Clown- 1. Was on my way to see Led Zeppelin with a friend who bought my ticket and "knew the way" to the venue. Using HIS (mental) directions we were nearing the Orange County line on the Golden State Fwy when he told me where we were headed. Not long out of highschool I didn't have the command of Los Angeles Freeways I now possess so I only knew I-5 or 405 to get there. The radio announced that the concert had started 20 minutes ago. Passing the 605 I knew there was only one honorable thing to do. It was my friend "Mr. Ticket's" birthday so I peeled off the freeway onto Norwalk Boulevard and we went to a strip club I'd heard my older brother talking about. The ladies were late-1970's figured, bordering on voluptuous but never into "Rubenesque" (which is also never bad). All told, my friend had a great evening and probably saw more boobage timewise than we'd both collectively seen to date. Rats! I'd give several good experiences and a couple ex-girlfriends to have seen Zeppelin! Later Hobbits!
  • Chris from Somewhere, United StatesOkay, so while I do believe that a great deal of early seventies music contains totally meaningless lyrics that are, more often than not, over analyzed (Stairway to Heaven being one of the foremost examples), this song, Misty Mountain Hop appears to me to have a very clear meaning.

    It is however, also over analyzed, but not because it doesn't have meaning. It is over analyzed in terms of its inferences to The Hobbit. Yes, there are Misty Mountains in The Hobbit. There are also Misty Mountains in Wales. The reference to The Hobbit has been admitted, however if you read these lyrics carefully in reference to the musically historical time frame within which they were written, the meaning becomes very specific, and pretty clear to me.

    All reference to The Hobbit aside, picture the musical world of Rock at the time, and the Hippie culture that for years before it had been so much a part of it. Then picture the Seventies, after the deaths of Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, Joplin, Hedrix, and Morrison, and even more importantly, the death of the Summer of Love. Picture the fact that the hippies who were there in San Francisco during the birth of the Summer of Love, actually held a mock funeral commemorating its death.

    The reason they did this is that the happy go lucky atmosphere of LSD induced euphoria and imagined Utopia had by then disintegrated into a chaotic mass of teenage runaways with no money, bus tours for the gawking pubic to come see the spectacle, and crime. Hippies had begun to carry weapons because they no longer felt safe. That was just San Francisco, but the same had been happening in hundreds of other cities around the world.

    Another story about this song is that the events in it actually took place in London. The Hobbit reference is there, and can also be applied to the real Misty Mountains in Wales.

    Forget, for the moment, the Hobbit reference (or at least take it context, and try not to read any more than necessary into it), and read it in its historical context instead.

    This song is specifically addressed to the Peace and Love ideal, and the very real world that Plant and Page were seeing. "If you go down in the streets today baby, you better open your eyes. Folk down there really don't care. Why don't you take a good look at yourself and describe what you see? Do you like it? Folk down there really don't care, so I'm packing my bags for the Misty Mountains, where the spirits go."

    This song is really about looking at the promise of a Utopic world and seeing the reality of people still being pretty much the way they've always been. It's about disillusionment, disappointment, and the decision to escape it all. It's saying, in effect, "Look what all this peace and love got us. It's all a bunch of hogwash, and I'm so fed up with it, I'm just going to go get thoroughly wasted and lost in a fantasy world of my own."

    That, in effect, was really what the Seventies were all about to many of us who were there.

    Misty Mountain Hop is a perfect description of how a lot of us were feeling then, and Led Zeppelin were the veritable Gods of that ideal.

    True, many of their songs had no meaning at all.

    This one did.

    Unfortunately, the real meaning is getting lost with all the speculation and over analyzing of its connection with Tolkien. Sure, Page was a fan, and there is a reference, but that's all it is. Just a reference.
  • Hendrixlover from Does It Matter?, Caabout 1:13 seconds into the studio version, page messes up. if you listen, they go into the main riff after the verse and at first, page plays it harmony then kinda scratches and goes into the melody riff. listen, its there.
  • Joel from Columbia, ScThe song is a direct reference to LOTR. Just check out the lyrics. BTW there is a Tolkien/Zep page that discusses the Tolkien references in detail.
  • Melanie from Seattle, WaThis is such a weird song. The first time I heard it I didn't really like it (What was I thinking then??!?!) but now I love it! It's addicting! lol
  • Kingsley from Black Country, EnglandI'd always taken the part of the Hobbit referenced in the song to be the encounter with Beorn, just to the East of the Misty Mountains. He feeds Bilbo and the Dwarves and the "friends that all drop by" are the Beornings.

    The primary meaning of the song is clearly the London drugs bust referenced above though.
  • Bill from Topeka, Ksgreat tune absulutly great
  • Liquid Len from Ottawa, CanadaWhat a fantastic job drumming on this song! One of Bonham's finest recorded moments.
  • Jimi from Marshamellow, Vai love this song; i love every led zeppelin song that has jonsey playin keyboard
  • Stan from Hop Bottom , PaJohn Paul Jones is playing the electric piano in this song there is no bass in it, just to clear that up.
  • Josh from Marshfield, MaI heard a rumor that Plant used to improvise lyrics for certain studio songs, was this one of those songs?
  • Jake from Wales, WiI have to say this is by far my favorite zep song. at first when I heard it I actually didnt like it, than before I knew it I couldnt stop listening to it!! great song!

    -jake, wales, WI
  • Kay from Westminster, CaFor the longest time I couldn't stop listening to this song.One of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs!
  • Emmie from Long Island, NyYeah, I understand that Kashmir and Stairway to Heaven are great, but this is my favorite Zep song. You heard me. This song comes after Stairway on IV, which is a very tough act to follow, but it goes perfectly after it. It's a fun song which is great coming after the serious Stairway. I guess I like it because the lyrics are just odd, and Bonzo's drums are awesome.
  • Colin from Manchester, England.This was inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's books.
    Read the bloody lyrics mate.
  • Spencer from Los Angeles, CaWhy does it say "The Misty Mountains were referrenced in 'The Return of the King'"? The Misty Mountains play a HUGE part in The Hobbit! That's where they come from!

    I loved The Hobbit, but I hated Lord of the Rings. And I love this song.
  • Joe from Oakdale, MnGuys I just found this and I had to say something. I thing the event this song is about takes place in San Francisco. In Led Zeppelin the Song Remains the Same DVD durring the improv. point of Dazed and Confused, Plant sings these words "If you're going to San Francisco, you better wear some flowers in your hair. If your going to San Francisco, you'll meet a lot of nice people there,a lot of nice people there." Flowers in hair...hmm ring a bell?
  • Niall from Dublin, Irelandthis song ownes, jpj,percy,page,bonzo, there all on amazing form

    Great vocals
  • Vinnie from Renton, WaOn September 25 2005 i was at a concert featuring robert plant and the strange sensation, and when they performed this song, Robert stated that they had written this song about seattle, and its misty mountains in the cascades.
  • J from Norfolk, Vai meant movie (cartoon version of the hobbit.)
  • J from Norfolk, Vawhy isnt this song in the movies?
  • Scott from Gold River, Ca
    Does anyone else hear Bnzo tapping his drum-stcks together dring the first guitar riff, right before he starts drumming? Maybe I'm crazy...

    wow if he is (which he isnt) nobody would care. Big Woop.
  • Jeanette from Irvine, Cathis song definitely makes more sense as being about getting high in a hippie park. it even says (unless i'm thinking of the live version, i'm not sure) something about going to the misty mountains like is where you go when you're high.
  • Tom from Dosen't Matter, CtWell everyone knows about the stuggle to find a good drummer for Led Zeppelin for various anniversiries and what not (at Live8 it was a catastrofy and it was blamed on the drummers) why not get Neil Peart?--hes the next best alive drummer
  • Elaine from Spokane, WaObviously, there is some referencing to Lord of the Rings in this song. But as with many Led Zep songs, it isn't solely about Lord of the Rings. I'm pretty sure Plant liked to vary a bit on lyrics. Look at some other Led Zeppelin songs and you'll know what I mean.
  • Mike from Alexnadria, MnI'm going to be honest...I'm not into The Lord of the Rings, but this song and Zep sure made The Hobbit a more interesting book in tenth grade lit.
  • Travis from Rocky Mount, NcDoes anyone else hear Bnzo tapping his drum-stcks together dring the first guitar riff, right before he starts drumming? Maybe I'm crazy...
  • Stefanie from Rock Hill, ScBrad no one was saying that. There are LOTR refferences in t she song though.
  • Dan from Lee, NhPlant said this was about a group of hippies going for a walk in the park on a normal day and getting busted
  • Kyle from Chicago, IlI Agree with Angela rappers are all f**ktards who know nothing of music, and its almost intolerably depressing the this is what we get these day instead of rock and roll, like Led Zeppelin. I just dont know what went wrong. :(
  • Mark from Auckland, New ZealandZeppelin played this track Utah in 73' Robert introduced this song as "being caught in the park with wrong stuff in your cigarette papers" which lends reasoning to the 'love in'mentioned above being stopped by the police.
    Mike Currie, Radio Hauraki, New Zealand
  • Danny from Sydney, AustraliaLook, this song may have references to the hobbit and LOTR, but it is not about them. Same with Ramble on, I think he only uses "Gollum, the evil one" and "Mordor" as metaphors. There is no scene in the hobbit where Bilbo gets stoned in a park with a bunch of hippies, loses track of time, gets busted by the cops and gets laid. And if there is, I'd better start reading more. So while "The Battle of Evermore" may be about LOTR, "Misty Mountain Hop", "Ramble On" and "Over the Hills and Far Away" only reference it.
  • Stefanie Magura from Rock Hill, ScYeah. There are a lot of references to "The Lord Of The Rings" trilogy, but I don't think the song is completely about that. I always thought the song was about what Robert Plant supposedly said it was about, some hippies getting busted in a park for snoking something, like pot.
  • Nick from Princeton, NjThe song is not about The Hobbit, but it is referenced. Mike down in old brige knows what he is talking about. And the for the person asking when does a police man tell them the get in line... Gandalf was the police man. He gets all the dwarves to go to Bilbo's for tea (He said that his friends would all drop by) and he keeps the company in line. When he leaves they wind up getting lost in Mirkwood.
  • James from Bridgeport, CtThe fellowship also had to pass through the misty mountains. Perhaps "I didn't notice but it had got very dark and I was really, Really out of my mind."
    could be refering to when the fellowship had to pass through the dark mines of moria to pass the misty mountains, or when Biblo was lost in the dark goblin caves under the misty mountains in "The hobbit."
  • Matias from Sharyland, TxBonzo is the best drummer ever!!! On this song he rocks harder!!!!
  • Cody from San Antonio, Txto tara, you are mistaken. he yells strider at the end of the live bron-yr-aur stomp from How the West Was Won, disc 1. he does this because the song is about his dog, strider.
  • Karol from Toronto, CanadaClearly, not many have read The Hobbit recently. Let me put these corrections to above comments:
    1. The Misty Mountains are located west of the Lonely Mountain, where the dragon Smaug lay. Smaug was never near the Misty Mountains. He was defeated by the people of Esgaroth, in particular by Bard, who shot him with an arrow.
    2. The only thing this song has in common with the Lord of the Rings is that the world where this takes place is also Middle-Earth. The Tolkien reference, if any, would be to The Hobbit.
    3. The Misty Mountains are where the goblins live. Bilbo and company had to pass under them to get to Carrock, Mirkwood, Esgaroth, and eventually the Lonely Mountain. This is indeed the place where the Ring is found by Bilbo.
    4. If this song is truly about The Hobbit, then it refers to Rivendell, where Elrond lives with some of the few Middle-Earth elves in the Last Homely House west of the Mountains. In the book, the elves are described as very happy and carefree, which could be the "crowds of people sittin' on the grass with flowers in their hair", although it is never actually said that the elves wear flowers in their hair. The song in general could be about Bilbo, Gandalf, and the dwarves staying there for a day before continuing on their journey. The Misty Mountains were the next step in the journey, so as the song finishes with "so I'm packing my bags for the Misty Mountains...", it might refer to how, after having been rested and refreshed with the elves, Bilbo and company head out to the Mountains with happier hearts and higher hopes.
  • Sam from Sydney, Australiadespite it bein about hippies and smoking and stuff, i consider this the perfect entering a new place song. i dont know why, it just is
  • Tara from Boston, MaThere is a live version of this song where plant yells "STRIDER!" after the song. an obvious lord of the rings reference which supports your theories. it would be interesting to see a chronological list of lyrics plant wrote to see if all of the songs heavy on the LOTR references were written (maybe not recorded, but at least written) around a specific time. a phase, if you will.
  • Ben from Lafayette, CaJason, I already heard Robert Plant talk about that. He said something the song was about smoking something in a park that you were not allowed to smoke.

    http://www.led-zeppelin.org/multimedia/photos/plant90.jpg

    Adrian, Bonzo is not undoubtedly the best drummer ever. I would say he is the best skill wise, but that is still arguably. However, when consindering other factors, like influence on other drummers, Keith Moon and Neil Peart are right up there with him.
  • Oliver from London, EnglandThere is deffinately bass, its layered on. JPJ is 1 badass mofo. yeh it's about getting stoned in the park and getting done for it or seeing people getting done. "i was really out of my mind" what does that suggest lol
  • Jason from Madison, Widirect quote from Robert Plant : "It's about a bunch of hippies getting busted..." "About the problems you can come across when you have a simple walk in the park on a nice day. In England it's understandable, because whenever you go to enjoy yourself, "Big Brother" is not far behind." - Led Zeppelin: The Press Reports, by Robert Godwin
  • Tom from Alma, GaFunny thing is back around 1988, I was listening to one of those late night radio interviews on a rock station in DC. A caller asked who in the band was so into Tolkein, what with so many lyrics obviously pointing to that. Page denied that any references to Tolkein's works were in any of Led Zep's songs. Things that make you go, "Hmmmm......"
  • Ac from Winnipeg, CanadaUnlike The Battle of Evermore, this song is not fully about Lord of the Rings...I think to interpret it that way is wrong. Like it says it is about some party that was broken up by cops...and then it seems like he encourages someone to have a little fun...and then he finishes it off with how he has had enough of the authoritative bs and he is taking off to the misty mountains-to the country...where he can smoke his pot in peace...he calls it the misty mountains cause he loves tolkein.
    It's like that I think.
  • Pants from Calgary, CanadaWhere in Lord of the Rings does a policeman come up to them and ask them to get in line?
  • Ben from Punxsutawney, Pa"The Whole Song is about The Hobbit. Misty Mountains is where Bilbo and the Dwarves Fight Smauge the Dragon."

    Thats not right. Smaug is fought on the river town of men near.... "The Desolation of Smaug". Not only is he not fought at the Mountains; he is not fought by Bilbo at all. The people at the lake town of men kill Smaug. The Misty Mountains are simply a large stepping stone in the journey. The idea that it was about the elves is something I have never though of and it makes a lot of sense to me except for ONE line; "He told me his friends would all stop by".
  • Adrian from Wilmington, DeBonzo's drumming on this is killer. Undoubtedly the best drummer ever!
  • Josh from Orange County, CaYou guys are all wrong about the misty mountains. The misty mountains are from the book the hobbit. They are also featured in the very first shots of the movie The Two Towers. Anyways, back to the book. If you look it up, you will find that this is the place where Bilbo and the dwarves are captured by the goblins are taken "Down,down,to goblin town." Bilbo stunbles into a hole where he meets Gollum for the first time and finds the legendary ring. Just a little Tolkien Trivia for you guys!
  • Matt from Atascadero, CaI thought this song was about the Elves leaving Middle Earth. Elves often wear "flowers in their hair" and the Lorien is on the other side of the Misty Mountains. Thus, Galadriel and the rest of the elves have to hop ovewr the Misty Mountains in order to reach the sea and leave Middle Earth. That's what I always got out of it.
  • Simon from Littleton, CoNone of that is true. The Whole Song is about The Hobbit. Misty Mountains is where Bilbo and the Dwarves Fight Smauge the Dragon. And to think, Zeppelin also created 3 other songs about The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy, like Over the Hills and Far Away, Ramble on, and The Battle Of Evermore. Zeppelin was huge into J.R.R Tolkien.
  • Robin from Sydney, CanadaKelly: there's no bass, JPJ was on the organ the whole time (i'm aboiut 90% sure on that part)
  • Kelly from Los Angeles, Cathe bass in this is awesome. john paul jones rules.
  • Ziv from Ramat Efal, Israelthe guitar/piano riff inspired paul stanley of kiss to write firhouse,off kiss' debut album
  • Mike from Old Bridge, Njthis song has a heavier reference to Tolkein's work than just using the name of the Misty Mountains. If you look into the songs lyrics, much of it can be related to The Hobbit. In the story, Bilbo is a quiet hobbit not looking for adventures when Gandalf comes with a band of dwarfs and gets him to go on a journey. many lyrics seem to apply the connection. "He said his friends would all drop by." (the dwarves which gandalf invited) "Why don't you take a good look at yourself and describe what you see...etc. (Gandalf makes Bilbo question himself and challenge himself to go on the journey.) Just listen, you may not agree but it makes sence, especially with Plant being a huge Tolkein fan.
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Dexys (Kevin Rowland and Jim Paterson)

Dexys (Kevin Rowland and Jim Paterson)Songwriter Interviews

"Come On Eileen" was a colossal '80s hit, but the band - far more appreciated in their native UK than stateside - released just three albums before their split. Now, Dexys is back.

Band Names

Band NamesFact or Fiction

Was "Pearl" Eddie Vedder's grandmother, and did she really make a hallucinogenic jam? Did Journey have a contest to name the group? And what does KISS stand for anyway?

Phone Booth Songs

Phone Booth SongsSong Writing

Phone booths are nearly extinct, but they provided storylines for some of the most profound songs of the pre-cell phone era.

Andy McClusky of OMD

Andy McClusky of OMDSongwriter Interviews

Known in America for the hit "If You Leave," OMD is a huge influence on modern electronic music.

Vanessa Carlton

Vanessa CarltonSongwriter Interviews

The "A Thousand Miles" singer on what she thinks of her song being used in White Chicks and how she captured a song from a dream.

Does Jimmy Page Worship The Devil? A Look at Satanism in Rock

Does Jimmy Page Worship The Devil? A Look at Satanism in RockSong Writing

We ring the Hell's Bells to see what songs and rockers are sincere in their Satanism, and how much of it is an act.