Going to California

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“Going to California”
Song by Led Zeppelin
Album Led Zeppelin IV
Released November 8, 1971
Recorded December 1970 – March 1971
Genre Folk rock
Length 3:31
Label Atlantic Records
Writer Page/Plant
Producer Jimmy Page
Led Zeppelin IV track listing
"Four Sticks"
(6)		 “Going to California”
(7)		 "When the Levee Breaks"
(8)


"Going to California" is the penultimate song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin on their fourth album, released in 1971. The song's wistful folk-style sound, with Robert Plant on lead vocals, acoustic guitar by Jimmy Page and mandolin by John Paul Jones, contrasts with the heavy electric-amplified rock on several of the album's other tracks.

The song is reportedly about singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell, with whom Plant and Page were both infatuated. In live performances of the song, Plant would often say the name "Joni" after this stanza:

“
To find a Queen without a King,
They say she plays guitar and cries, and she sings
 ”

In an interview he gave to Spin magazine in 2002, Plant stated that the song "might be a bit embarrassing at times lyrically, but it did sum up a period of my life when I was 22."[1]

This song started out as a song about Californian earthquakes and when Jimmy Page, audio engineer Andy Johns and band manager Peter Grant travelled to Los Angeles to mix the album, they ironically experienced a minor earthquake.[2] At this point it was known as "Guide to California".[2]

At Led Zeppelin concerts the band performed this song during their acoustic sets, first playing it on their Spring 1971 tour of the United Kingdom.[2] One live version, from Led Zeppelin's performance at Earls Court in 1975, is featured on disc 2 of the Led Zeppelin DVD. It was also performed on Plant's solo tours during 1988/1989 and at the Knebworth Silver Clef show in 1990. He played it again on his Mighty ReArranger tour, with additions of a double bass and a synthesizer.

Never the Bride recorded a version of "Going to California" for the 1995 Led Zeppelin tribute album Encomium.

The main vocal melody inspired Pearl Jam's 1998 song "Given to Fly". Also, Fuel did a remake of this song on their album Something Like Human. Aaron Lewis of Staind covered this song in a charity solo show in his old high school, Longmeadow High (link to the performance). Led Zeppelin parody cover band Dread Zeppelin recorded a version of this song on their album Hot & Spicy Beanburger.

This was the 3,000,000th song played on WBLM, a radio station based in Portland, Maine

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Chuck Klosterman, "Not a Whole Lotta Love", Spin, September 2002.
  2. ^ a b c Dave Lewis (1994), The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin, Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9.

[edit] Sources

  • Led Zeppelin: Dazed and Confused: The Stories Behind Every Song, by Chris Welch, ISBN 1-56025-818-7
  • The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin, by Dave Lewis, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9
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