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The Meaning of Led Zeppelin’s “Over the Hills and Far Away”

Led Zeppelin’s “Over the Hills and Far Away” comes from their 1973 album, Houses of the Holy. It was released as a single in the U.S. with “Dancing Days” as the B-side, and while it is today considered one of the best Led Zeppelin songs, it peaked at only number 51 on the Billboard Hot 100.

“Over the Hills and Far Away” opens with a legendary acoustic guitar intro, played by none other than Jimmy Page. The calm into leads into softly-sung vocals followed by the unexpected (well, if you hadn’t already heard the song…) drop of the rockin’ Led Zeppelin style we all know and love.

The track was written in collaboration between Page and Robert Plant in mid-1970, after returning home from their Spring tour of North America. They were staying at Bron-Yr-Aur at the time, the small historic cottage in Wales where they wrote much of the material for Led Zeppelin III and more.

While it was written in 1970, “Over the Hills and Far Away” didn’t appear in their live shows until 1972, and of course, it didn’t end up on an album until 1973.

“Over the Hills and Far Away” Origins

“Over the Hills and Far Away” has roots in an instrumental called “White Summer”, recorded by Jimmy Page in 1967, near the end of his tenure with The Yardbirds. It was technically part of the Yardbirds catalogue and he often performed it during their concerts.

“White Summer” is a two minute recording that features Page on acoustic guitar alongside congas, incorporating influences from Indian and Arabic music.

Page later re-worked this general idea into the music “Over the Hills and Far Away”, while Plant wrote the lyrics. Listening to the recording of “White Summer”, you can hear many of the same elements and ideas at play.

The song had a working title of “Many, Many Times”, as evidenced by the photo of the Houses of the Holy rough mixes tape box on the Led Zeppelin website.

However, the band changed it to the much better title that ended up on the album, which may have been inspired by the J.R.R. Tolkein poem, “Over Old Hills and Far Away”.

It is also worth noting that “Over the Hills and Far Away” is the name of a traditional British song that had been translated by many different writers by the time that Zeppelin released their song.

While the Zeppelin song doesn’t have much to do with the traditional song, in terms of meaning, it’s likely they were well aware of its existence, and may have borrowed the title.

Houses of the Holy rough mixes tape box. Source: Led Zeppelin website

“Over the Hills and Far Away” Lyrics Meaning

The lyrics to “Over the Hills and Far Away” are centered around finding love and meaning in life through experience and learning along the way.

Plant’s vocals seem to relish in the fact that love has been found — whether this is the final love or just the “right-now” love is yet to be determined — but it’s worth trying, despite how many times he has been hurt in the past.

Let’s take a closer look, starting with the first verse:

Hey lady, you got the love I need
Maybe more than enough
Oh darling, darling, darling; walk a while with me
Oh, you’ve got so much, so much, so much

First verse to “Over the Hills and Far Away” by Led Zeppelin.

Here, Plant sings about finding the love that he’s looking for in a certain special lady. Perhaps, this love is more than he needs, meaning that he may end up “bitten” again.

However, he sees enough potential in her that he asks her to walk with him a while, to get involved with him, and thus we take off down the road again.

The second verse is when things come unleashed, musically, and the lyrics offer Robert Plant’s depiction of his purpose in life:

Many have I loved, and many times been bitten
Many times I’ve gazed along the open road
Many times I’ve lied, and many times I’ve listened
Many times I’ve wondered how much there is to know
Many dreams come true, and some have silver linings
I live for my dream and a pocketful of gold

Second verse to “Over the Hills and Far Away” by Led Zeppelin.

Plant has loved and been bitten — meaning that he’s been heartbroken and deceived. He’s spent some time gazing out at the open road ahead of him, or the path forward in life.

He’s done his own share of deceiving, but he’s also listened to others and wondered truly what’s out there that he has yet to discover.

Plant also sings about how many of his dreams have come true, but some of them have come with unexpected consequences, or silver linings.

Many people think of a silver lining as a good thing that comes from a bad experience, but Plant seems to be flipping the idea upon its head, saying that some of the things he wants and gets turn out to be not what he had hoped it would be.

This brings to mind the idea of “be careful what you wish for”.

Still, even after some of Plant’s dreams have caused him pain, he continues to live for the dream, with hopes that he will also end up with a pocketful of gold.

Led Zeppelin, the commercial entity, certainly made a pocketful of gold, but the wisdom that Plant was likely trying to lean on was that the pocketful of gold represents personal fulfillment, such as finding a relationship that brings the love he needs.

An instrumental breakdown is followed by the third and final verse:

Mellow is the man who knows what he’s been missing
Many, many men can’t see the open road
Many is a word that only leaves you guessing
Guessing ’bout a thing you really ought to know, oh, oh, oh, oh!
Really ought to know (oh, oh, oh)
I really ought to know
Oh-whoa, you know I should, you know I should
You know I should’ve known
Ooohhh…

Third verse to “Over the Hills and Far Away” by Led Zeppelin.

This final verse expands upon the idea that there is much more to learn, and says that a man who knows this is going to have a much more relaxed approach to life.

Many men bury themselves in the distractions of everyday life and fail to look up and see the big picture in front of them. Thus, they may go through life without ever giving themselves the chance to experience the things they don’t know.

Plant uses a lot of repetition in these final lyrics, which serves to end the track by stating that he doesn’t have answers, but maybe he feels as if she should. Repeating the word “many” and saying that it only leaves you guessing seems to say that there are many things that he doesn’t know, and life is all about knowing you don’t know and trying to learn as much as you can.

Watch the music video for “Over the Hills and Far Away” by Led Zeppelin below, featuring live concert footage from 1977 and 1979, and was released in 1990 to promote the remastered album release.