"Over the Hills and Far Away" is the third track from English

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...

's 1973 album ''

Houses of the Holy ''Houses of the Holy'' is the fifth studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was released on 28 March 1973 by Atlantic Records. The album benefited from two band members installing studios at home, which allowed them to develop mor ...

''. In the US, it was released as a single, with "

Dancing Days "Dancing Days" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin. It appears on their 1973 album, ''Houses of the Holy'', and was released as a single in the US. It was recorded at Stargroves, England in 1972. It was inspired by an Indian tune that ...

" as the B-side.

Composition and recording

Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Page is prolific in creating guitar riffs. His style involves various alternative ...

and

Robert Plant Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following the ...

wrote the song in 1970 at

Bron-Yr-Aur Bron-Yr-Aur (Welsh for "breast of the gold", or by extension, "hill of the gold" or "golden hill"; ) is a privately owned 18th-century cottage, on the outskirts of Machynlleth, in Montgomeryshire, mid-Wales, best known for its association with ...

, a small cottage in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

where they stayed after completing a gruelling

North American North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...

concert tour A concert tour (or simply tour) is a series of concerts by an artist or group of artists in different cities, countries or locations. Often concert tours are named to differentiate different tours by the same artist and to associate a specific to ...

. Initially it was titled "Many, Many Times". Page plays a six-string acoustic guitar introduction and repeats the theme with a 12-string acoustic guitar in unison. This leads into section led by

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

with the whole of the band. 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

clavinet The Clavinet is an electrically amplified clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds by a rubber pad striking a point on a tension ...

Releases and performances

In the US, the song was released as the first single from ''Houses of the Holy'' and reached number 51 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. The group often performed the song in concert, beginning before its album debut. Archive footage of the song being performed live in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

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 ''Led Zeppelin Remasters'' is a three-LP (or two-cassette or two-CD) compilation album of digitally remastered material by English rock band Led Zeppelin. Containing songs from the band's eight studio albums, it was initially released in the UK ...

'' release. The video accompanied a CD single which was released following the successful "

Travelling Riverside Blues "Travelling Riverside Blues" is a blues song written by the bluesman Robert Johnson. He recorded it on June 20, 1937, in Dallas, Texas, during his last recording session. The song was unreleased until its inclusion on the 1961 Johnson compilatio ...

" release.

Reception

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' said the song "is a bit deceiving" in that "what opens as an acoustic song soon turns into an amazingly powerful Led Zeppelin classic complete with rock melody." In a contemporary review for ''Houses of the Holy'', Gordon Fletcher of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' criticized "Over the Hills and Far Away", calling the track dull, as well as writing the track is "cut from the same mold as "

Stairway To Heaven "Stairway to Heaven" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin, released in late 1971. It was composed by the band's guitarist Jimmy Page and lead singer Robert Plant for their untitled fourth studio album (often titled ''Led Zeppelin IV'') ...

", but becomes dull without that song's torrid guitar solo". The song has received greater acclaim in more recent years. ''Rolling Stone'' ranked "Over the Hills and Far Away" at No. 16 in its list of "The 40 Greatest Led Zeppelin Songs of All Time" in 2012. Andrew Unterberger of ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'', in 2014, ranked "Over the Hills and Far Away" as Led Zeppelin's best song, writing that it "best demonstrates just about everything the band does well: the unforgettable and impossible-to-pin-down opening riff, the life-affirming transition from acoustic to electric, the constant switches in tone and dynamic, the piercing solo with double-tracked climax, the impeccable interplay of guitar, bass, and drum, the inimitable Plant shrieking, the gorgeous coda, even the super-oblique title". Critic Bill Wyman, writing for Vulture.com in 2015, ranked it as Led Zeppelin's sixth best song.

Charts

References

External links