what is the song going to california about
Led Zeppelin: everything yous demand to know most Going To California
Led Zeppelin All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track by Jean Michel Guesdon & Philippe Margotin tells the story of every Led Zeppelin recording, from the Bron-Yr-Aur cottage where much of Led Zeppelin III was recorded to Headley Grange, the phase for Andy Johns' famous recording of John Bonham at the pes of a stairwell.
The mammoth, 608-folio hardback examines the genesis and recording of every Led Zeppelin vocal in detail: the following edited excerpt tells the story of 1971's Going To California.
Led Zeppelin All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Rail past Jean Michel Guesdon & Philippe Margotin (Black Canis familiaris & Leventhal), is available at present (opens in new tab) .
Genesis
The music for Going to California originated during the sessions at Headley Grange, in a stroke of inspiration on Jimmy Page's function. "You didn't accept annihilation similar a snooker table or anything like that. No recreational pursuits at all. It was actually adept for discipline and getting on with the chore. I suppose that's why a lot of these [songs] came at Headley Grange. For instance, Going to California and Battle Of Evermore came out."
The 4 members of Led Zeppelin had been standing their journey, which led them with this song to the shores of the Pacific. Just as Page'southward laid-back music is reminiscent of Californian folk rock, Plant's lyrics extol the Due west Coast spirit: flower power and the counterculture and creative excitement that were at their zenith in the sixties. It is a song dedicated to "the days when things were really nice and simple, and everything was far out all the fourth dimension," to infringe words addressed to the oversupply by Robert Plant at one of two concerts given by the band in Berkeley, California, in September 1971.
Many years later on, in 2002, Institute would provide a little more than detail, telling Spin magazine that the song was "Me reflecting on the showtime years of the group, when I was only about… 20, and was struggling to find myself in the midst of all the craziness of California and the band and the groupies."
The line "The Mountains and the canyons start to tremble and shake, the children of the lord's day begin to awake" alludes in all likelihood to the artistic community of Laurel Coulee, embodied in late sixties by Joni Mitchell, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills, Jackson Browne, and Jim Morrison.
The beginning-person narrator has taken the determination to brand a new start and to abandon "a woman unkind". The line "Someone told me there'south a girl out there with honey in her eyes and flowers in her pilus" evokes Joni Mitchell, who, since leaving her native Canada, had occupied a place on the Californian avant-garde musical scene both as a musician and as a symbol of the counterculture. This reference in the form of a tribute is corroborated by the get-go of the 4th and last verse: "To find a queen without a king, they say she plays guitar, cries, and sings" is surely an allusion to I Had a Rex, the outset song on Mitchell'southward debut anthology (Song to a Seagull, 1968).
Both Plant and, above all, Page had fallen under the spell of the "lady of the canyon" at this fourth dimension. "The main thing with Joni is that she'due south able to expect at something that's happened to her, draw back and crystallise the whole situation, then write about information technology," notes Jimmy Page. "She brings tears to my eyes, what more tin can I say?"
A gem of a West Coast–fashion folk-rock number revisited by 4 virtuosos of the English rock scene, Going to California was first performed onstage at a concert given by the group in Belfast on March five, 1971, and would proceed to be performed live until 1977. (It was given its very last operation at the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum on July 24.)
Production
Going to California is the 2d runway on the album - after The Battle of Evermore -with no contribution whatsoever from John Bonham. Indeed, this superb audio-visual ballad is performed by strings (two guitars and a mandolin) and voice alone. It seems to have been recorded exclusively at Headley Grange, using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, with no overdubs added at Island Studios. "Going to California was a thing I'd written before on acoustic guitar," explains Jimmy Page.
It was nevertheless in the repose of southern England, in the sometime house in the middle of the countryside, that, with the help of John Paul Jones, he gave the vocal its shape during an evening in front of the fire.
The track opens with Jimmy Page'south acoustic guitar. He is playing (fingerpicking) his Harmony Sovereign H1260 in open-G tuning (D Chiliad D Thousand B D). Before long, John Paul Jones joins him on his C. F. Martin A-fashion mandolin (stereo left).
The mood is bucolic, pastoral, and very British. Robert Plant's pb vocal then begins, gently, tenderly. Establish'due south performance is frail and intimate, an impression accentuated by the total absenteeism of reverb. His special gift is to be as at home singing ballads as he is performing the most unbridled stone number.
Coinciding with Establish's entry, Page adds a second role on his Harmony Sovereign (on the right), which combines finger-picking, licks, and chords. The harmonious blending of the three instruments is a real triumph, and in fact an instrumental version of the song tin can exist institute on the second CD of the palatial edition of the album, giving a sense of just how well Folio and Jones complement each other.
In the center department of the song (from 1:41), the tonality changes from major to minor, hooking the listener all the more finer as Robert Found now adopts a powerful, high-pitched vocalization enhanced past generous, deep reverb. He and then resumes his more than soothing tone in the following verse, this time coloured past low-cal, short reverb. Finally, the outro ends with a fade-out, the instruments on the same D chord while Institute'due south reverb-drenched voice tin be heard in the background (from 3:19).
For the record, when Jimmy Page travelled to California with Andy Johns to mix the album at Sunset Sound, a substantial earthquake hit the region. "I remember lying in bed while it was shaking up and down," explains Page, laughing. "I immediately flashed on Going To California, where Robert sings, 'The mountains and canyons start to tremble and milk shake,' and all I could think was, bloody hell, I'yard not taking whatsoever chances - I'chiliad going to mix that one final. Which I did!"
Andy Johns, meanwhile, showed a little more sangfroid: "I retrieve Jimmy saying: 'oh don't put that on there, it will cause another earthquake.' I said, 'oh, don't exist so bloody stupid, gimme a break!'"
For Led Zeppelin addicts
Robert Plant in particular was fascinated by the Laurel Coulee musical scene, a fascination that was not exactly reciprocated.
"The people who lived in Laurel Coulee avoided us," explains the Led Zeppelin vocaliser. "They kept articulate because we were in the tackiest part of the Dusk Strip with tacky people like Kim Fowley and the GTOs."
In Your Headphones
At the very beginning of the track (0:01 precisely), someone can exist heard taking a deep breath.
Credits
Musicians
Robert Plant: vocals
Jimmy Page: acoustic guitars (half dozen-cord and twelvestring)
John Paul Jones: mandolin
Recorded
Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, Headley Grange, Hampshire: January 1971
Isle Studios, London: February 1971 (?)
Mixing
Dusk Audio Studios, Hollywood: Feb 1971
Island Studios, London: April 1971
Technical Team
Producer: Jimmy Page
Executive Producer: Peter Grant
Sound Engineer: Andy Johns
Assistant Sound Engineer: (?)
Mixing: Jimmy Page, Andy Johns
Led Zeppelin All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track by Jean Michel Guesdon & Philippe Margotin (Black Dog & Leventhal), is available at present (opens in new tab) .
Source: https://www.loudersound.com/features/led-zeppelin-everything-you-needed-to-know-about-going-to-california
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