Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" | ||
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| Song by Led Zeppelin | ||
| from the album Led Zeppelin III | ||
| Released | October 5, 1970 | |
| Recorded | May - August 1970 | |
| Genre | Folk Rock | |
| Length | 4:16 | |
| Label | Atlantic Records | |
| Writer(s) | Page, Plant, Jones | |
| Producer(s) | Jimmy Page | |
| Led Zeppelin III track listing | ||
| "That's the Way" (8) |
"Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" (9) |
"Hats Off to (Roy) Harper" (10) |
"Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" is a song on English rock band Led Zeppelin's third album, Led Zeppelin III, released in 1970. The song is a re-write of an earlier song, "Jennings Farm Blues", which was an electric instrumental that later surfaced as a studio out-take on a number of Led Zeppelin bootleg recordings.
The song is named after Bron-Yr-Aur, a house in Gwynedd, Wales, where the members of Led Zeppelin retreated in 1970 to write much of Led Zeppelin III after having completed a grueling concert tour of the United States. The cottage had no electricity or running water, but the change of scenery provided inspiration for many of the songs on the album.
The song's title was misspelled on the album cover; it should read "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp". This error can be contrasted to another Led Zeppelin track, "Bron-Yr-Aur," a two-minute instrumental featured on their later album Physical Graffiti, which was spelled correctly. Bron-Yr-Aur means gold(en) hill in Welsh. It is pronounced [brɔn ər aɪr] ("Bron-rire").
In "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp", a country music-inflected hoedown, singer Robert Plant waxes lyrical about walking in the woods with his blue-eyed Merle dog, "Strider". Plant named his dog Strider after Aragorn from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, since one of the aliases of this character is "Strider". References to the work of Tolkien also exist in several Led Zeppelin songs, such as "Ramble On," "Misty Mountain Hop," and "The Battle of Evermore."
Drummer John Bonham played spoons and castanets on the recording. Bassist John Paul Jones played an acoustic five-string fretless bass.
When the band performed the song live at Led Zeppelin concerts, John Paul Jones played an upright bass and Bonham occasionally sang the lyrics in unison with Plant. This can be seen in the footage from the Earls Court concerts in May 1975, featured on the Led Zeppelin DVD. On the band's concert tour of the United States in 1977, the song "Black Country Woman" was merged into a medley with "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp".
The band Blue Merle took their name from lyrics in the song: "There ain't no companion like a blue-eyed Merle".
[edit] Sources
- Led Zeppelin: Dazed and Confused: The Stories Behind Every Song, by Chris Welch, ISBN 1-56025-818-7
- The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin, by Dave Lewis, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9
| Led Zeppelin |
|---|
| Jimmy Page • Robert Plant • John Paul Jones • John Bonham
Studio albums: Led Zeppelin • Led Zeppelin II • Led Zeppelin III • Live albums: The Song Remains the Same • BBC Sessions • How the West Was Won Compilations: Box Set • Profiled • Remasters • Box Set 2 • Complete Studio Recordings • Early Days: Best of Led Zeppelin Volume One • Latter Days: Best of Led Zeppelin Volume Two • Coda The Song Remains the Same • Led Zeppelin DVD Peter Grant • Richard Cole • Swan Song Records • The Yardbirds • XYZ • The Firm • Page and Plant • Strange Sensation • Bootlegs • Concerts • Songs |
