Wednesday 9 October 2013

The possible true meaning of Led Zeppelin's Carouselambra


     For legal reasons I have to say the possible true meaning, as I have no certified proof that this is the actual meaning of the song. I am absolutely dead sure, however, that I have finally came across the song's meaning.

     It just hit me one night when I was listening to the In Through The Out Door album. Prior to recording the album, Robert Plant's five year old son Karac died from a mystery virus, and many of the songs on the album deal with the way Robert was feeling during the aftermath of the tragedy, and all the things that happened because of it, including a change in the way Robert felt towards those close to him. In The Evening was about the stress of being a musician, and it also served as a reminder that self pity is never the answer. I'm Gonna Crawl and All My Love were both Robert's tributes to Karac. (Another song Robert wrote for him was called I Believe, and it can be found on his solo album Fate of Nations, possibly his best post-Zeppelin album.)


     Caroselambra seems to be the enigma of Led Zeppelin's career. At ten and a half minutes long, it is their second longest song (In My Time Of Dying being their longest) and musically, John Paul Jones dominates with a danceable bass line and a childlike, catchy synthethizer riff. The song is anything but lighthearted though. Carouselambra tells the story of Led Zeppelin's demise: first, it talks about the glory days. Led Zeppelin were the kings of the world, with everything working in their favor, loving all and loved by all.


"In times of brightness no intruder dared come on
To jeopardize the course, upset the run,
And all was joy and hands were raised toward the Sun 
And love in the halls of plenty overrun."

     But then, just out of the blue, in a second, everything changed for the band forever. Robert received the news of his son's death, and his whole life was turned upside down. Grief stricken, he returned home, to spend the next couple of years out of the limelight, with his wife and daughter.

"How keen the storied hunter's eye prevails upon the land 
To seek the unsuspecting and the weak; 
And powerless the fabled sat, too smug to lift a hand 
Toward the foe that threatened from the deep. 
Who cares to dry the cheeks of those who saddened stand 
Adrift upon a sea of futile speech? 
And to fall to fate and make the 'status plan' 
Where was your word, where did you go? 
Where was your helping, where was your bow? Bow. 
Dull is the armor, cold is the day. 
Hard was the journey, dark was the way. Way. 
I heard the word; I couldn't stay."

     This serves as the set up for the main theme of the song, which was Robert's shaky relationship with Jimmy Page and Peter Grant at the time. When Karac died, the band had been taking a brief break from touring in the States. Richard Cole, their road manager, John Bonham, and Robert had went to New Orleans, where they received the news. They both went back to England with Robert, and were there to support him the whole time. They showed up to Karac's funeral, which is more that can be said for John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Peter Grant, who all stayed behind in the States. I cannot offer any excuses for their actions. They truly let Robert down when he needed them the most, which only added to his devastation. I don't know how much heroin Jimmy must have been doing to make him not think that he would hurt Robert even more.

Robert's feelings are shown most plainly and simply in the one line:

"Where was your word, where did you go?"

I cannot imagine the kind of pain all this put Robert through. I know his relationship with those three band members has improved since then, but you can never really forget it when your closest friends do something like that you to you. I know I wouldn't.

From all this, I suppose there are some lessons to be learnt about friendship (and about good songwriting) and you really got to hand it to them- they turned a tragedy into a masterpiece. They just don't make bands like that anymore.