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.
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