LED ZEPPELIN - GOING TO CALIFORNIA

GOING TO CALIFORNIA

LED ZEPPELIN

SONGWRITERS: JIMMY PAGE & ROBERT PLANT

COUNTRY: U. K.

ALBUM: LED ZEPELLIN IV

LABEL: ATLANTIC RECORDS

GENRE: BALLAD/ROCK AND ROLL

YEAR: 1971

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group consisted of vocalista Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With their heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are regularly cited as one of the progenitors of heavy metal, although their style drew from a variety of influences, including blues and folk music.

After changing their name from the New Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin signed a deal with Atlantic Records that afforded them considerable artistic freedom. Although the group were initially unpopular with critics, they achieved significant commercial success with eight studio albums released over ten years, from Led Zeppelin (1969) to In Through the Out Door (1979). Their untitled fourth studio album, commonly known as Led Zeppelin IV (1971), and featuring the song "Stairway to Heaven", is among the most popular and influential works in rock music, and helped to secure the group's popularity.

Page wrote most of Led Zeppelin's music, particularly early in their career, while Plant generally supplied the lyrics. Jones's keyboard-based compositions later became central to the group's catalogue, which featured increasing experimentation. The latter half of their career saw a series of record-breaking tours that earned the group a reputation for excess and debauchery. Although they remained commercially and critically successful, their output and touring schedule were limited during the late 1970s, and the group disbanded following Bonham's death from alcohol-related asphyxia in 1980. In the decades that followed, the former members sporadically collaborated and participated in one-off Led Zeppelin reunions. The most successful of these was the 2007 Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert in London, with Bonham's son Jason Bonham on drums.

Many critics consider Led Zeppelin one of the most successful, innovative, and influential rock groups in history. They are one of the best-selling music artists in the history of audio recording; various sources estimate the group's record sales at 200 to 300 million units worldwide. With RIAA-certified sales of 111.5 million units, they are the third-best-selling band and fifth-best-selling act in the US. Each of their nine studio albums placed in the top 10 of the Billboard album chart and six reached the number-one spot. They achieved eight consecutive UK number-one albums. Rolling Stone magazine described them as "the heaviest band of all time", "the biggest band of the Seventies", and "unquestionably one of the most enduring bands in rock history". They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995; the museum's biography of the band states that they were "as influential" during the 1970s as the Beatles were during the 1960s.

Led Zeppelin have collected many honours and awards throughout the course of their career. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2006. Among the band's awards are an American Music Award in 2005, and the Polar Music Prize in 2006. Led Zeppelin were the recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005, and four of their recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. They have been awarded five Diamond albums, as well as fourteen Multi-Platinum, four Platinum and one Gold album in the United States, while in the UK they have five Multi-Platinum, six Platinum, one Gold and four Silver albums. In addition to listing five of their albums among "the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time", Rolling Stone named Led Zeppelin the 14th-greatest artist of all time in 2004.

In 2005, Page was appointed na Officer of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his charity work, and in 2009 Plant was honoured as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his services to popular music. The band are ranked number one on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock and Classic Rock's "50 best live acts of all time". They were named as the best Rock band in a poll by BBC Radio 2. They were awarded an Ivor Novello Award for "Outstanding Contribution to British Music" in 1977, as well as a "Lifetime Achievement Award" at the 42nd Annual Ivor Novello awards ceremony in 1997. The band were honoured at the 2008 MOJO Awards with the "Best Live Act" prize for their one-off reunion, and were described as the "greatest rock and roll band of all time". Led Zeppelin were named as 2012 recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors.

"Going to California" is a ballad written and performed by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was released from the band's untitled fourth album in 1971.

In 2012, Rolling Stone ranked "Going to California" number 11 on their list of the 40 greatest Led Zeppelin songs of all time. 

Spent my days with a woman unkind

Smoked my stuff and drank all my wine

Made up my mind to make a new start

Going to California with an aching in my heart

Someone told me there's a girl out there

With love in her eyes and flowers in her hair

Took my chances on a big jet plane

Never let them tell you that they're all the same

The sea was red and the sky was grey

Wondered how tomorrow could ever follow today

The mountains and the canyons started to tremble and shake

As the children of the sun began to awake

Seems that the wrath of the Gods

Got a punch on the nose and it started to flow

I think I might be sinking

Throw me a line if I reach it in time

I'll meet you up there where the path

Runs straight and high

To find a queen without a king

They say she plays guitar and cries and sings la la la la

Ride a white mare in the footsteps of dawn

Trying to find a woman who's never, never, never been born

Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams

Telling myself it's not as hard, hard, hard as it seems.