There are lots of mystical and moving metaphors to be found in Led Zeppelin songs, but when Robert Plant sang about coming from the land of ice and snow in “Immigrant Song,” he meant it literally.
“Immigrant Song” appeared on Led Zeppelin’s 1970 album Led Zeppelin III and was its lone single. Several months prior to the album’s October release, the band played for the first and only time in Reykjavik, Iceland at a venue called Laugardalshol on June 22, 1970.
For Northern Hemisphere dwellers, June is usually associated with summer weather, but Iceland, as one might assume, never gets all that hot. Even at the time of year Led Zeppelin visited, the average temperature was likely around 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
Vikings, Hot Springs and the Midnight Sun
Plant took almost immediate lyrical inspiration from the surroundings (plus its history of exploratory vikings). Iceland is home to hundreds of hot springs and geothermal pools, and between the months of May and August, the region experiences close to 24 hours of daylight per day. Or in the lyrics of Plant: the “midnight sun”
“We weren’t being pompous,” Plant later recalled to author Chris Welch for the book Led Zeppelin. “We did come from the land of the ice and snow. We were guests of the Icelandic Government on a cultural mission. We were invited to play a concert in Reykjavik and the day before we arrived all the civil servants went on strike and the gig was going to be cancelled. The university prepared a concert hall for us and it was phenomenal. The response from the kids was remarkable and we had a great time. ‘Immigrant Song’ was about that trip and it was the opening track on the album that was intended to be incredibly different.”
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By Jimmy Page’s account, it would appear the guitarist already had his part — an incredible, grinding riff — loosely figured out by the time Plant wrote the lyrics. As the band was preparing Led Zeppelin III, Page knew they were onto something with the power to be successful.
“Right at the early stages of rehearsing, when I think it was just John Bonham and myself, I had ‘Immigrant Song,’ ‘Out on the Tiles’ and also ‘Friends,'” he said to Total Guitar in 2020 (via MusicRadar). “If you say straight away you’ve got ‘Friends’ and ‘Immigrant Song,’ already it’s got the yin and yang. And there’s all this other stuff that’s going to go in.”
Listen to Led Zeppelin’s ‘Immigrant Song’
Well before it was released in any official capacity, Led Zeppelin performed the song live a mere six days after playing Iceland at England’s Bath Festival on June 28, 1970. When it was later put out as a single in November of that same year, it went to No. 16 in the U.S.
Since the breakup of Led Zeppelin, Plant has performed in Reykjavik three times as a solo artist, twice in 2005 a few days apart and once on June 23, 2019. It was at that lattermost show that Plant finally sang the song in Iceland for the first time since that 1970 concert, nearly 50 years prior.
Watch Robert Plant Perform ‘Immigrant Song’ in Iceland in 2019
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Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci
