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Going to California
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Going to California" | ||
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| Song by Led Zeppelin | ||
from the album  (Led Zeppelin IV) |
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| Released | November 8, 1971 | |
| Recorded | December 1970 – March 1971 | |
| Genre | Folk rock | |
| Length | 3:31 | |
| Label | Atlantic Records | |
| Writer(s) | Page/Plant | |
| Producer(s) | Jimmy Page | |
| (Led Zeppelin IV) track listing |
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| "Four Sticks" (6) |
"Going to California" (7) |
"When the Levee Breaks" (8) |
"Going to California" is the penultimate song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin on their fourth album, released in 1971. The song's wistful folk-style sound, with Robert Plant on lead vocals, acoustic guitar by Jimmy Page and mandolin by John Paul Jones, contrasts with the heavy electric-amplified rock on several of the album's other tracks.
The song is reportedly about singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell, with whom Plant and Page were both infatuated. Plant sings "They say she plays guitar/and cries and sings". In live performances of the song, Plant would often say the name "Joni" after this stanza:
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The main vocal melody inspired Pearl Jam's 1998 song "Given to Fly". Also, Fuel did a remake of this song on their album Something Like Human. Aaron Lewis of Staind covered this song in a charity solo show in his old high school, Longmeadow High (link to the performance).
- The original title was "Guide To California."
- This started as a song about earthquakes, but developed into a song about the search for a woman.
- When Page, an engineer, and their manager flew to Los Angeles to mix the track, there was an earthquake near San Diego.
- At Led Zeppelin concerts the band performed this song during their acoustic sets.
- This came from a poem Jimmy Page wrote on a notebook. He found it awhile later and branched off from there.
- This was the 3,000,000th song played on WBLM, a radio station based in Portland, Maine
- Review: All Music Guide
- Guitar tabs
- 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