Big Log

Album: The Principle Of Moments (1983)
Charted: 11 20
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  • Lyrics currently unavailable Writer/s: Robert Blunt, Robert Plant
    Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

Comments: 32

  • Derek from IowaHas anyone ever seen a reference to the term "Big Log" being trucker slang anywhere other than conversation about this song? I haven't, and if anyone has I'd like to know where. It's accepted as "common knowledge" by people discussing this song, and seemingly unknown anywhere else.
  • Effie🐎 from CaliforniaIm so in love with this song.. I finally found
    who this beautiful artist/muscian is..the guitar..ohhh..why haven't I heard this befor now
    on The River. Beautiful Robert Plant
    I can't describe how I feel..Passion still exist..
    this song makes my heart burst
  • Nigel Davies from EnglandI think it’s a metaphor for moving ahead with his music career and not looking back on the past with Led Zep. He’s got many more miles to travel and many more new journeys to go on. In the video to the song, he treads on a feather, his LZ symbol, signifying that “journey is done” and “there is no turning back”.
  • Boz from FloridaPhil from Florence, are you insane? It's not Jimmy Page! It's Robbie Blunt. Do your homework!
  • Ecgberht from Baltimore MdThe title Big Log is hardly obtuse at all. The big log is the tern truckers use for their log book in which they record hours on the road. That is why there are many metaphors that apply to long haul trucking.
  • Sixgunsound from Mid TnThe feather brushed off is the late great actor Richard Griffiths, I believe.
    He was in multiple Harry Potter films and many others.
    Why he was called upon in the video is beyond me.
    The Calico Hotel is in Death Valley, Ca.
  • Reg from ArizonaPhil Collins did NOT play drums on this. Even a rank amateur recognizes it's a drum machine.
  • Phil H. from OhioThis song is essentially one that is relating Robert's pining for Alannah Myles. He was truly in love with her, and they had a thing that lasted for quite a time. He longed for her. The word "miles" in the song is a homonym for "Myles". Great song with a nice reference to his love for Alannah.
  • Tony D from NorcalIn the dorms as a teen me and my roommate called Big Log the "Baddest" song in the world because of Plant's guitar solo-yeah I still feel that way
  • Dave from AustraliaAlthough true Phil Collins played on the album and toured with Plant for a while I think you will find a drum machine was used in the recording of Big Log.
  • Nairyao99 from California I was in HS when this song came out and had my first crush on a beautiful brunette. But she was untouchable and seemed too distant for me, yet she was there for me to admire from afar. I always think about her when I hear this song, a lost love lost in the fog of time...
  • Tony S from UsaI love this song so much. But I always wondered if the true meaning was that of a driver on a desolate highway that had to take a major DUMP...a.k.a... a BIG LOG.
  • Emot from IndyRobbie Blunt’s contributions on the initial Plant solo albums are significant!
  • Bob from Shreveport, LaI think the literal meaning of "big log" is a metaphor for the long time spent waiting for a meaningful connection. The song is narrated from the perspective of someone longing for love. Feeling the someone is out there but you haven't found them yet. The video seems to convey this rather well with the implied long trek on the road that the title refers to, the desolate desert setting and Plant's character being abandoned and alone. The narrator feels a burning and passion inside that has made him restless. He travels the highways in search of something he may or may not understand. The final scene of the video seems to provide full context. A woman, finds herself in the same situation as we just saw Plant go through. It could be implied that she is on a similar journey. They seem to both be on the same trajectory yet they still haven't connected yet. It was clear to me that she was intended as the personification of his longing and that she herself was too longing for him. But yet the longing would continue as this was a missed opportunity, only minutes apart, their timelines yet to link up. There is a sense that both characters felt the presence of one another though they have yet to connect.
  • Fan Of This Song from Western UsI have always liked this song. "As the questions and thousands take flight..." "Should I rest for while at the side?" I dunno. That's life. Questions. Wondering whether to continue or let things go? And the road beckons you forward. My love in is in league with the freeway.
  • Phil from FlorenceI like the comments about “the guitar player”. It’s Jimmy Page.
  • Rt from CaIn the video a feather is seen landing on the shoulder of a man in the restaurant. He brushes it off onto the floor. Robert Plant then walks by and steps on it. Clearly a reference to Plant's recently having moved on from Led Zeppelin. Plant's symbol, from Led Zeppelin IV, was a feather.
  • Ted from Thunder BayWhen I first heard the intro to this song I thought it was going to be a country song.
    I thought " I never liked country before now!"
    But it ended up rock/folk/blues/country-like.
  • Richie from Ottawa, OnI cannot say the song is more memorable for it's video or it's setting (and I could never actually make out the lyrics by listening to it), as I had never seen the video until today. For me, it is most memorable for the guitar part - which I have liked since first hearing it. However, as a long time fan of ZZ TOP, I have found myself re-playing, in my mind, "Asleep in the Desert" which then, mentally, becomes a "mashup" with Plant's "Big Log". I did not even know the name of this song, until I looked it up today, but certain segments of the guitar parts in these songs seem quite similar. It made me wonder if Robert's guitar player may have taken some inspiration from Billy Gibbons' song. Not the intro (nor outro) but the part of Asleep (the last track of "Tejas") about twenty seconds after the beginning. I had been searching the internet for any reference of the like but have found none. It could be just me but I was wondering if anyone else noticed more similarities than the geographical reference. It's not that I would say Robert would ever take something from someone else's songs . . . For all I know, that laid back desert theme has deeper roots than Billy F. Gibbons wanted to mention (but he never lifted a riff from other players, I'm sure).
  • Jim from UsaI see this as a straightforward road metaphor about someone always searching and never quite finding something (it needn't be a woman). I had a hunch that Big Log meant a log book, but Plant or Page was quoted somewhere as saying (paraphrased) "I don't know, my bass player wrote it." It's indeed a bass-driven track and the tune is what makes it great.
  • Kylie from Melbourne, AustraliaDoes anyone know the movie that this song appears in? I'm sure I watched a movie when I was young and this song was in it. It's been driving me nuts for ages. It's a fabulous also.
  • Helena from United KingdomI adore this! It's such a spiritual and mysterious song to me. I dream of traveling down Route 66 while listening to this, just being wild and free, with the wind in my hair and the desert air all around me. I don't think of sex at all when hearing this, it's more spiritual than physical.
  • Bob from North CarolinaI heard that Les Paul came up with his version of the electric guitar called the log some maybe big log who knows.
  • Marin from Alla Verga, AzI thought Big Log was a rather large fecal creation?
  • Matt from Spokane, Washington, UsaThis song is about how ones inhibitions are steadily eroded by the miles as one takes liberties and experiences the "free way", experieences that occur more frequently. The life that a waif trucker or biker might lead. The "tail-lights dissolve" is analogous to taking out the stops, or inhibitions. There's a big sordid trucker's service industry out there!
  • Gary from Clementon, NjI just love the instrumentation, the guitar work of this song. Beautiful!
  • Lea from Portland, OrWhen I listen to this song, it reminds me of long haul trucking aka interstate truckers. If you've never known a long haul truck driver,or been a part of that life, I suppose you wouldn't get it.

    This song speaks a truckers heart at it's rawest. They have to keep a log book. Most keep two ;)
  • Donna from St. John's, NlIt was my understanding during an interview Plant said this song was about his insatiable sexual desire
  • Chris from Indianapolis, InTruckers use the slang term "Big Log" when describing a long stretch of highway. You can catch references in the lyrics. "The passion will ride as the cities fly by" and "Red eyed and fevered with the hum of the miles"
  • Billy from Piggott, Ar, ArTHIS SONG IS THE FIRST THING I HEAR IN MY INNER EAR WHEN I GET THE URGE TO HIT THE ROAD
  • Eugene from Minneapolis, MnI did not care for the song, but I always liked the video. The video soooo unforgettable!
  • Mike from Santa Barbara, CaThe song is better remembered for its video than its lyrics. Many of the videos to Plant's songs take place in desert settings.
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