Over the Hills and Far Away (song)

Infobox Single
Name = Over the Hills and Far Away


Caption =
Artist = Led Zeppelin
from Album = Houses of the Holy
B-side = "Dancing Days"
Released = March 28 1973
May 24 1973 (7" single release date)
track_no = 2
Recorded = 1972
Format = 7" 45 RPM
Genre = Hard rock, folk rock
Length = 4:50
Label = Atlantic Records
Writer = Page/Plant
Producer = Jimmy Page
Misc =Extra album cover
Upper caption = Single cover
Background = LightCyan


Lower caption = 7-inch single cover
Last single = "Rock and Roll" / "Four Sticks" (1972)
This single = "Over the Hills and Far Away" / "Dancing Days" (1973)
Next single = "D'yer Mak'er" / "The Crunge" (1973)
Misc = Extra tracklisting
Album = Houses of the Holy
Type = studio
prev_track = "The Rain Song"
prev_no = 2
this_track = "Over the Hills and Far Away"
track_no = 3
next_track = "The Crunge"
next_no = 4Audiosample
Background=#E6E8FA
Upper caption = Audio sample
Audio file = Over the Hills and Far Away by Led Zeppelin.ogg"Over the Hills and Far Away" is the third track from English rock band Led Zeppelin's 1973 album "Houses of the Holy".

Overview

Jimmy Page and Robert Plant originally constructed the song in 1970 at Bron-Yr-Aur, a small cottage in Wales where they stayed after completing a gruelling concert tour of the United States.Phil Sutcliffe, "Back to Nature", "Q Magazine" Special Led Zeppelin edition, 2003, p. 34.]

Page plays a six-string acoustic guitar introduction with a melody reminiscent of "White Summer". Page repeats the theme with 12-string acoustic guitar in unison. In an interview published in "Guitar World" magazine's November 1993 issue, Page commented on the construction of the song:

cquote|GW: There’s an acoustic guitar running throughout the song. Did you play a main acoustic and then overdub an electric?

Page: No, we played it through entirely as you know it, but I was playing electric.

GW: So you simply edited out of the beginning?

Page: Yeah, that’s right. “Presumably”. It sounds that way. It sounds like the acoustic is going straight through.

Plant's vocals enter on the next repetition. He tenderly offers himself to the "lady" who's "got the love [he] need [s] ." The acoustic guitars build in a crescendo toward the abrupt infusion of Page's electric guitars along with drummer John Bonham's and bass guitarist John Paul Jones' rhythm accompaniment.

Through the pre-verse interludes and instrumental bridge, "Over the Hills and Far Away" stands out as an example of Jones and Bonham's tight interplay. Following the final verse, the rhythm section fades out, gradually replaced by the echo returns from Page's electric guitar and a few chords played by Jones on harpsichord. [Tolinski, Brad and di Benedetto, Greg (January 1998). "Light and Shade: A Historic Look at the Entire Led Zeppelin Catalogue Through the Eyes of Guitarist/Producer/Mastermind Jimmy Page". Guitar World] In the final 8 bars, Page executes a linearly descending/ascending sequence and then concludes with the idiomatic V-I tag on pedal steel guitar.

The song was released as "Houses of the Holy's" first U.S. single, reaching #51 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, later becoming a staple of the Classic rock radio format.

Set lists from Led Zeppelin concerts frequently contained "Over the Hills and Far Away", the song being one that the band introduced on stage well ahead of its studio release.Dave Lewis (1994), "The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin", Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9.] The group first played it during their 1972 concert tour of the United States and retained it consistently through 1979, before omitting it from their final tour of Europe in 1980. In singing the song live, Plant commonly followed the words "pocket-full of gold" with "Acapulco Gold" (a type of marijuana), as can be heard on the live album "How the West Was Won." Also, at concerts guitarist Jimmy Page performed an extended guitar solo, which essentially consisted of the rhythm and lead guitar parts of the album version split into two separate pieces. This extended solo made the live renditions last almost or more than seven minutes.

Archive footage of this track being performed live at Seattle in 1977 and at Knebworth in 1979 was used for an officially distributed video of the song, used to promote the 1990 "Led Zeppelin Remasters" release.Dave Lewis (1994), "The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin", Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9.]

Other versions

*Jam band Gov't Mule's 2008 album, "The Haunted Holy House", included a live cover of this song, as well as covers of all other songs from "Houses of the Holy".

*Recently when playing live in their Stadium Arcadium tour, Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante has used the intro of this song as an intro to the Chili Peppers song "Wet Sand"

Trivia

*The song was first called "Many, Many Times", as shown on a picture of the original master on the Led Zeppelin website.
*Among blogging and forum-attending Led Zeppelin fans, the song has gained the acronym "OTHAFA".
*The title of this song (as well as many others by Led Zeppelin and other artists) was the name of an episode of That 70's Show. It was also the name of an episode of One Tree Hill.

References

External links

*Review: [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:0q2zefwkogf5 All Music Guide]

ources

*"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