Gallows Pole

Album: Led Zeppelin III (1970)
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  • Hangman, hangman, hold it a little while
    Think I see my friends coming
    Riding a many mile
    Friends did you get some silver?
    Did you get a little gold?
    What did you bring me my dear friends
    To keep me from the gallows pole?
    What did you bring me to keep me from the gallows pole?

    I couldn't get no silver, I couldn't get no gold
    You know that we're too damn poor
    To keep you from the gallows pole
    Hangman, hangman, hold it a little while
    I think I see my brother coming
    Riding a many mile
    Brother, did you get me some silver?
    Did you get a little gold?
    What did you bring me, my brother
    To keep me from the gallows pole?
    Brother, I brought you some silver
    I brought a little gold
    I brought a little of everythin
    To keep you from the gallows pole
    Yes, I brought you to keep you from the gallows pole

    Hangman, hangman, turn your head awhile
    I think I see my sister coming
    Riding a many mile, mile, mile
    Sister, I implore you, take him by the hand
    Take him to some shady bower
    Save me from the wrath of this man
    Please take him
    Save me from the wrath of this man, man

    Hangman, hangman, upon your face a smile
    Pray tell me that I'm free to ride
    Ride for many mile, mile, mile
    Oh, yes, you got a fine sister
    She warmed my blood from cold
    She brought my blood to boiling hot
    To keep you from the gallows pole, pole, pole, pole, yeah
    Your brother brought me silver
    Your sister warmed my soul
    But now I laugh and pull so hard
    And see you swinging on the gallows pole, yeah
    But now I laugh and pull so hard
    And see you swinging on the gallows pole, pole, pole
    Swingin' on the gallows pole
    Swingin' on the gallows pole
    Swingin' on the gallows pole
    Swingin' on the gallows pole, pole, pole, pole, pole, pole, pole, pole Writer/s: Jimmy Page, Robert Plant
    Publisher: Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 66

  • Gordon Kingsley from TennesseeThe masterful Jimmy page is a musical genius.
  • Carl from TennesseeI heard this song on New Year's Day sung by a female singer in the movie "The Kentuckian" starring John Wayne. It was sung very slow in a ballad form and whoever it was who was singing (she was off-screen), she had a very beautiful voice.
  • Lew from MichiganI go with the interpretation that the condemned man's sister gave sex to try and free him, and that she's not hanged but swinging on the hangman's [phallic] pole, implicitly in a woman on top position. Whether this is an everybody wins situation or a kind of rape where the sister suffers is open to differing interpretations. The lyrics may officially say that the condemned is hanged anyway, but Plant definitely sings "She's swinging" and as another comment noted, the music does not seem funereal or tragic by the end.
  • Randy from VirginiaShane from Orlando got it right. Yeah the hangman says "she's swingin on my gallows pole" but he is not referring to the actual gallows! Take it in context with most of the songs on Zep's first couple of albums - plenty of sexual references going on there.
  • Briandb from IllinoisLed Zeppelin's version does not end with the protaganist hanging. If you listen to the lyrics he rides away and his sister is hung in his place. The listener thinks she is bringing a bribe or pay off but her life is taken instead. LIsten to it
  • Bobby Joe from Costa Mesa CaLed Zepplin III is the album I’d choose if I had to choose one album to listen to for eternity. Gallow’s Pole is Robert Plant’s favorite song on the album.
    I love Zepplin’s version of this song.
  • Jon Bennett from Oxford UkI'm surprised no-one has mentioned the traditional English song "Prickle-Eye Bush" as the origin for this song. Leadbelly reinterpreted a number of traditional British songs including this one. A very fine version can be found on the Moonrakers album "Ebb & Flow" at www.moonrakers.net
  • J Michael from San AntonioContrary to someone else’s comment, it wasn’t the protagonist who ended up being hung, it was his SISTER.
  • Jeff from The New American Third WorldI think a listen to this track will tell you a lot about the inspiration for this track: https://youtu.be/uLQrVrUEdwM
  • Robert from Johns Creek, GaI agree with Shane from Orlando. He is definitely singing, "She's swinging on the gallows pole." I stresses the idea that his sister gave her body for his freedom and SHE is the one who is then swinging on the gallow's pole.
  • James Feldser from Charlotte NcI just learned it's similar with a few lyrics from Peter Paul and Mary's song Hangman. Was Gallows Pole taken from Leadbelly and this song I mentioned?
  • D. E. from Flo Rida Heather from Los Angeles needs a good spanking!!
  • Shane from OrlandoI too thought he was singing "She's swinging on my gallows pole." So by the end of the song, I interpreted "gallows pole" as a double entendre for the hangman's "other" pole. In my interpretation the protagonist goes free, the hangman gets laid, and everyone is happy. This sexual twist seems to fit with the sexual nature of so much of Led Zeppelin's music. Great song!
  • Therese from Ohio, UsaAm I hearing things or is there an echo in the beginning verse? I didn't think it possible but I do love this song even more, now!
  • Steven from Pomona, CaFrom Wiki: "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" is one of many titles of a centuries-old folk song about a condemned maiden pleading for someone to buy her freedom from the executioner. Many "borrowed" these lyrics, but none did it better than Zeppelin
  • Patrick Aloysius from Hell,caThis song is a blatant "borrowing" of old prison chain gang song called Gallis Pole (Black slang for Gallows Pole, where a man hung to death in prison) that dates back to at least the 1920s. It's true the songwriter is unverified, and no one has copyrighted the lyrics.

    Led Zep's lyrics are similar to Leadbelly's version (the chorus about bring me some silver, bring me some gold) is word for word the same as Zep's.

    It's still plagiarism if you change a FEW words around from a previous version, in fact even if you changed every word, the song (music) wasn't yours!!! If someone changed the words to Stairway, but kept the music its plagiarism. If the author just cant be found its supposed to be credited to Traditional on the CD/LP, it's not like finders keepers.
    I guess since no one can step forward and claim they wrote the song Zep will slide on it.
    House of the Rising Sun is a similar case of a song no one ever claimed authorship for. I guess the "song DOES remain the same"?
  • Thomas from Roswell, NmI think the lyrics tell a sad story with the way the man is still hung even after trying to prevent his hanging. But the music does not match the meaning of the lyrics and are more happy. The fact that the lyrics and the music do not emotionally match is what makes this song unique.
  • Cyberpope from Richmond, CanadaThe final two lines before the last refrain are:
    Your brother brought me silver, Your sister warmed my soul,
    But now I laugh and pull so hard, see you swinging from the Gallows Pole

    So, yes, the hangman was a jerk, took money & sex to redeem, the poor sap's life, then laughingly hanged him anyway!
  • Tom from York, PaCameron from Plymouth, WI is right. Most people assume that the man is hanged but actually his sister is the one who is hanged even though she warmed the soul of the hangman. Plant sings "SHE's swinging from the gallow's pole".
  • Heywood from Somewhere, IlThis song is about two things:

    1) Blood is thicker than water

    -his friends didn't do jack s--t for him when it came time to put up or shut up, and his family did everything that they could to help him.

    2) Don't trust anyone. Even after giving the hangman what he wanted, the f--ker still hung him
  • Heather from Los Angeles, CaWell Luke from the UK shows what you know about Earl Scruggs....nothing. Jimmy Page sounds like the amateur banjo player that he is. And don't get all in a sweat about your hero-worshipping self. There's plenty more like you who think exactly like you.
  • Brad from Lexington, KyUmm... Ron from New Jersey, you do realize this song was released in 1970, 21 years after 1949? The woman in that movie must've been singing the old traditional blues version, called "Gallis Pole" or "Maid Freed from the Gallows".
  • Luke Taylor from Manchester, United KingdomThe song doesnt need anything more than what jimmy played. The spirit and drive of the song would have been overshadowed if someone like Earl Scruggs was fret-wanking all over the place.
  • Heather from Los Angeles, CaSorry folks.....Earl Scruggs could've played that banjo MUCH better.
  • Luke Taylor from Manchester, United KingdomI love how it builds and gets faster..If you'd have stuck this on Led zeppelin 4, it would have been an all time classic. An unbelievably good song.
  • Peter Griffin from Quahog, RiPerformed live a few times in 1971.
  • Bill from Topeka, KsI recently bought The complete Studio Recordings and I absulutly love this I always thought is sucked before I heard it more and now it is one of my favorites.
  • Evan from Chicago, Ilone of my favorite zeppelin songs!
  • Peter Griffin from Quahog, RiJimmy Page sure did a damn good job playing an instrument he never played before.
  • Ed from York, Pathis song rocks
  • Caleb from Camp Point, IlThis is definitely one of Zeppelin's lesser-known but better songs. It should be considered one of their greatest hits.
  • Dmytro from Kharkiv, EuropeIt is necessary to be very attentive when we call somebody "friends". "I couldn't get no silver, I couldn't get no gold,
    you know that we're too damn poor to keep you from the Gallows Pole " - as for me that's about treason. I think, that the friends of hero didn't tell him the truth.
  • Walter from Antwerp, BelgiumThe earliest recording was done by Leadbelly in 1938 titled 'Mama Did You Bring Any Silver (Gallows Pole)'. A sample can be heard here: http://www.amazon.com/Popular-Songbook-Alan-Lomax-Collection/dp/B0000AUHRE
  • Wilson from Atlanta, GaIn Zeppelin's version, the hangman accepts various bribes, but still executes the protagonist. The condemned repeatedly pleads with the hangman to "hold it a little while" because he sees one of his friends or relatives arriving with something to offer. First comes a friend who regretfully informs the protagonist that he has nothing, followed by his brother with silver and gold, and finally his sister, who offers herself sexually to the hangman. Unlike the traditional version, the Led Zeppelin version concludes with a surprise ending by reporting that none of these tactics have worked; the hangman accepts the bribes, and takes over the lyrics as he reports that the sister "warmed my soul" but "now I laugh and pull so hard" and carries out the execution anyway.
  • Ron from Colonia, NjA woman strumming a guitar sings a few lines from this song in a 1949 John Wayne movie, "The Fighting Kentuckian".
  • Colin from Manchester, England.Regardless of origin, this is a good tune.
  • Joe from Oakdale, MnThe song it awsome the opening chords always make me feel like I'm in a western. Page is god especialy with creating feelings and emotions with his music.
  • Ryan from Ashland, Orplant sings some of the last lines of this song during the last parts of some live versions of trampled underfoot
  • Genevieve from Leongatha, AustraliaThis song is very similar to the storyline of the Shakespeare play 'Measure for Measure' and the relationship between siblings Claudio and Isabella.
  • Kevin from Paisley, ScotlandThe naration starts off with the person being hung originally. They ask the hangman to delay the event as his brother is coming with riches of some sort - gold, silver and other things. Then the person's sister comes along and does indeed take the hangman by the hand and does the dirty. However the naration changes over to the hangman after the person being hung asks if he is free to go. The hangman puts his "client" in a false sense of security but proceeds to hang them after reminding them he took his brother's riches and his sister's dignity (perhaps virginity?) and pulls hard and hangs them. A right ol' plot twist!

    The speed of the song, in my opinion, reflects the state of the person about to be hung. Starts off a bit slow and depressing relising they are about to die and there is little hope. It slowly speeds up as their brother arrives with riches - hope and excitement. Then their sister arrives thus it speeds up even more - more hope. The person thinks they might be released. However it changes to the hangman, who must be a right git, who, regardless of the offerings he has accepted, hangs the man and laughs at him - this is when the song really takes off.

    Just my personal take on the lyrics - what the song means to me personally is a whole different matter. It also reminds me of the 80s, growing up in Canada sitting in my dad's old Monte Carlo.
  • Iceman from South Glastonbury, Ctthey do make all thier covers of old songs thier own and quite succesfully these songs all have been made a number of times by many other groups trying to imitate the crude blues( go ahead and listen to some of the orginal blus music but none had the brillance of zepp, many of the songs are mere remants of the orginal but you don't sue someone who hasn't any money
  • Cameron from Plymouth, WiThis is one of the most underrated Zeppelin songs; it is actually one of their (in my opinion)best. Of course, I've never heard a Zep song i didn't like.
    However, the lyrics are not about a woman being hanged. THey are about a man being hanged, and his friends and brother show up to pay off his crime, but his friends have nothing and the brother not enough. So eventually his sister comes to pay off the crime. She does this by, well, screwing the hangman. Thus, the man who was to be hanged was not, but the sister WAS, for committing adultery.
  • Kingbabi from Arlington, MaThis song is featured on "The Very Best of MTV Unplugged." It's worth checking out, and the album also has some other cool stuff on it.
  • Stefanie from Rock Hill, ScNo wonder this song and "Slack Up Your Rope" have very similar lyrics. I heard "Slack Up Your Rope" a few months ago on a college station in Ashville North Carolina. It was sung by a woman, whose name I can't remember right now. That song has a western sort of feel to it. Btw, how can you find the Ledbelly version?
  • Fi from Ayr, ScotlandTaal & Dave the words 'see saw marjory daw' come from a nursery rhyme that kids used to sing when I was a wee girl
  • Taal from AustraliaTo Dave from Atlantic City, according to Accurate Led Zeppelin Lyrics (http://www.angelfire.com/nm/zeppelin/) Plant sings: See-saw, Margaret Daw, gotta swing, See-saw, knock on my door, I, I gotta sing, ah-ha-ha
  • Robert from Burlington, CanadaMe and my dad went to see Robert Plant and The Strange Sensation (his current band) last summer and he played this song.. amazing!!
  • John from Kalgoorlie, AustraliaIt sounds quite sad at the start, surprising twist with the, "Now I laugh oh so hard to see you swingin' on the gallows pole." I love it.
  • Nick from Houlton, Mevery underated song
  • Olivia from Perth, Australiai love this song. i love how robert says 'hang man, hang man' sounds so awesome. they are awesome. all their music is awesome.
  • Dave from Atlantic City, NjSuch a great song.I recently got to hear this live when Plant was in AC with his group The Strange Sensation. My fav lyric isnt on the here though "see saw ???? back door ". i could never figure out what he was saying yet its still catchy.
  • Brian from La Mesa, CaIn Ledbelly's "Gallis Pole" the protagonist is successfully liberated from the hangman. It's a shock in the Zeppelin song when he hangs.
  • Nick from Solvang, CaAt first I thought this song was pretty lame. But the more I heard it the more I apreciated it.LED ZEPPELIN ROCKS
  • Tony from Roanoke, VaThis song is seems to be based on a old english ballad, usually called "The Maid Freed from the Gallows" or "The Briery Bush". It documents the events of a person about to be hung and having friends and realatives arrive to try to either see the execution or have brought money to try to buy their freedom.
  • Jude from Thomasville, GaIf you get a chance, please listen to the original version by Leadbelly. He is not called "King of the Twelve String Guitar" for nothing. There are snippets of the song various places on the Internet, but the best place to find it is on the CD "Absolutely the Best" and they are not kidding!
  • Stefanie Magura from Rock Hill, ScMy point exactly David. I never heard any similarities in the lyrics to "Gallows Pole" and "Trampled Underfoot".
  • Erica from Hampstead, NcOk i just figured it out i have read the lrics like 15 times(no i do have a life)just to figure out the last part and here it is the guy that wants to be saved gets killed anyway Wow that has got to suck and at the same time its kinda funny when i was listen to the song i thought the brother or sister was hung but it was him I have sloved a mystery that has botherd me for some time and i want the world to know.
  • George from No. Hampton, NhEvery song zep borrows sounds almost completely different than the original, all they really did was borrow lyrics.
  • Josh from Las Vegas, NvWho knows but I love this song
  • Billy from Bellingham, WaHow many songs did Zep "borrow" from old blues artist's like Ledbelly and Robert Johnson?
  • Riley from Lynn, MaOn Trampled Underfoot was that from the DVD when Page broke a string. And the Gallows Pole lines were only played live. This song is good..one of my favorites to play on Acoustic
  • Brady from Fort Stockton, Txtruly awesome song. dunno why, but i just love it. the banjo makes it all the better
  • Heather from Baker City, OrThis song is used in the movie Bandits when they are escaping from prison.
  • Ben from Hilversum, NetherlandsActually, Page didn't play the hurdy gurdy for the album No Quarter, as can been seen on the video or DVD. I guess it was Nigel Eaton. Page played the twelve string accoustic, and Porl Thompson (ex The Cure) played the banjo :)
  • Josh Tapio from Omaha, NeOn "How the West Was Won," they sing a line from Gallows Pole. I'm pretty sure it's "I think I see my brother comin' ridin' many a mile".....Also during "Trampled Underfoot" I noticed that Jimmy breaks a string, and still tears it up on guitar
  • David from Los Angeles, CaWhich lines were used in Trampled Underfoot?
    I have the lyrics to both songs and I don't see them.
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