It's more of a research question. No right or wrong answer,so no need to look it up. It's for my mate who has an amazing anorak rock show on Prague's Radio 1. He often describes back-stories to the tracks he's playing.
Yesterday he did that with
D’yer Mak’er from Houses of the Holy. Of course you know the song.
Question is, and mainly for those like me old enough to be around when it came out, what, when you first heard it, did you understand from the song's title? Maybe you had an initial reaction and it changed over time?.
That's it. The more responses the better. But like I say, no Wiki or other research needed, just your spontaneous answers. Ta!
Comments
Or a play on the word Jamaica, which is what I think it is.
PS. I am a sad bugger who likes to see the reaction videos on you tub of younger people reacting to ‘our’ music for the first time.
There is a woman classical harpist who has reacted to Zep, what she says about them is that the four guys are astonishingly technically gifted, but none of them is interested in showing off as such, but sacrifice their individual egos for the music, they want to make the song and the sound work as a collective.
Reaction videos eh? Sad but true.
There was loads of fantastic reggae around then (74?) but none of it was done by rock bands
As for Bonham hating Jazz, that is a big claim and open to dispute.
Music opinion is subjective, but as a band Led Zeppelin had an almost telepathic connection between the four members. The band can be criticised for lack of social commentary lyrically, I don’t think they wanted to lecture people through their music, which was often about love sex and heartbreak with a bit of wistful folk aspiration thrown in, indeed early Zep was sometimes described as ‘cock rock’ (!).
I think their biggest strength was contained within their collective musicianship, and it is interesting to note how many have been influenced by them, from rap samplers, ‘modern’ bands like Nirvana, and to take one individual example, the superb and late lamented Jeff Buckley.
I always thought every album had a couple of good tracks, the rest balderdash and piffle!, I was never a fan of five minute guitar solos meself.
Now where's that 'Things that make you feel old' thread.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-streamed_artists_on_Spotify#:~:text=As of October 2023, Canadian singer The Weeknd is the,monthly listeners in Spotify's history.
"My wife's gone to the Caribbean"
"Jamaica?"
"No, she went of her own accord"
It reached #20 in the Billboard Hot 100 at a time when the American charts were brimming with British artists. That week, there were also singles in the Billboard Hot 100 from Elton John, Paul McCartney and Wings, John Lennon, Ringo Starr (two singles), David Essex, ELO and The Who as well as big names like Curtis Mayfield, Johnny Mathis, The Isleys, Joni Mitchell, Art Garfunkel, Alice Cooper, John Denver, Steely Dan, James Brown, BB King, The Band, Bob Dylan, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson, Kool & The Gang, Earth Wind & Fire, Paul Simon, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight And The Pips (two singles), Al Green, Billy Preston, Donny Osmond, Marie Osmond, Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Chicago, Stevie Wonder, Batty White and that other brilliant play-on-words, Steve Miller Band*.
My Dad ran the advertising account for Air Jamaica in the 1970s. So, for that reason, I got very used to the joke that the song title is based on. I heard "my wife went to the west indies", "Jamaica?", "no, she went of her own accord", several times a week for almost the whole decade.
The title of the song is only a reference to Jamaica; it has nothing to do with anything expressed in the lyrics. John Bonham played the reggae beat (ie syncopated four-four time, with the accent on the third beat of the bar) as well as any rock drummer (best example: Stewart Copeland). And John Paul Jones just about managed a drag bassline.
In short, the title's better than the song. And the original isn't as good as some covers. Here's quite a nice one:
* The reference to the "Steve Miller Band" play on words comes from former Labour Leader and bacon sandwich botherer Ed Milliband. Tired of being asked if David was his brother, he used to say "no, but Steve is", leaving perplexed interlocutors trying to Google "Steve Milliband".
I mean, why come on a thread asking a "quick question for Led Zep fans" just to then say how you're not a fan and the band are awful? Very odd, but you can set your watch by it.
Of course there are other, better, reggae tunes out there. But that really wasn't the point, was it.
Most of the other punk and non-punk bands threw in a token cod reggae song and they were almost universally awful (ob lad di ob la da being the first I'm aware of).
Talking of royalties it's one of the reasons I never liked Zeppelin. Ripped off mainly black blues artists by not crediting the songs they stole (they also did it for Stairway to Heaven) but the main reasons where plant's screeching, Page's faux-mystical lyrics, 20 minute drum solos and just not being at all funky. Hendrix did heavy but it was funky. Free were a blues based rock band but it was funky. Zeppelin and the wave of bands they inspired were just heavy and plodding.
But at least they weren't Queen : - )