Song of the Week - 11

I was among the masses during the 70s that LOVED Led Zeppelin. I should also add that I still LOVE Led Zeppelin. I have mentioned many times here that there was always music in the house I grew up in. My parents' were music lovers and so was my older sister. My younger sister and I fell into this tradition as well.

Also, like so many (particularly teen girls) my notebooks and Pee-Chees were covered with pictures and doodles of rock stars I loved. Not only were the notebooks covered, but my bedroom walls were inundated with posters and pictures. I may not have been able to dictate paint colors for my bedroom, but I was not stopped from hanging posters and pictures!

Flash back to 1976/1977. Zeppelin was touring. Yeah! My two fabulous friends and I HAD to get tickets. We had the concert going bug. Besides, growing up in a small town didn't offer much in those days for teens to do, other than live entertainment or parties. So, the day we knew the tickets for the Zeppelin tour were going on sale found us making the serious decision to ditch school and get our hands on tickets.

Off we went that particular weekday morning. Mind you, this was a time prior to calling a number to purchase concert tickets or going on line to buy them. It was also a time when concert tickets did frequently go on sale during the middle of the week. What really were you to do if not ditch school?

At that time, a department store called May Company had a Ticketmaster. That was a hotspot when tickets were on sale for concerts that were not happening at our local venue. We arrived and stood in line with many a young person, anxiously anticipating the future concert. As the morning went on, the line dwindled. We were getting so close the ticket window. In fact, by the time there were only two people in front of us, the Ticketmaster clerks announced that the show was sold out! Horrors! How could this be? What karmic payback was happening here?

Despair set in to my teenage mind. Surely this was a cruel joke. But, it was not. The shows were sold out. We left dejected and went to the typical teen hangout, our local fast-food drive through. Surely, others would be hanging out bitching about the tickets selling out so early.

1977 was the last year the mighty Zeppelin toured. In 1980, drummer John Bonham died unexpectedly at the ripe old age of 32. Needless to say, we never got that chance to catch the next tour.

Having grown up in a music-filled, religously free, metaphysical thinking house, I got it in my head that this song was somehow "supernatural". I really have no proof of that now, but it was my feelings during my teen years. Somehow, that feeling, although unproven, still hangs on.

What I think is the most underrated Zeppelin song, "The Rover". Enjoy.