Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
| "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| B-side | "Out on the Tiles" |
"Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" is the penultimate song on English rock band Led Zeppelin's third album, Led Zeppelin III, released in 1970.
Song History
Like "Black Mountain Side", the music of "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" came to Jimmy Page through guitarist and folk singer Bert Jansch.[citation needed] Though the lyrics of Bron-Y-Aur Stomp are original to Led Zeppelin, the song is taken from "The Waggoner's Lad," an old English folk song. Led Zeppelin also recorded the song as an electric instrumental, "Jennings Farm Blues", which later surfaced as a studio out-take on a number of Led Zeppelin bootleg recordings.
'The stomp' was originally recorded at Headley Grange in 1970, using a mobile studio belonging to the Rolling Stones. It was finished off at Island, London and Ardent Studios, Memphis, Tennessee.
Origin of the name
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, including "Bron-Yr-Aur (Stomp)".
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] ("Brone-ar-air").
Lyrics
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. Plant reportedly named his dog Stryder after Aragorn from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings[citation needed], since one of the aliases of this character is "Strider". References to the work of Tolkien exist in some Led Zeppelin songs, such as "Ramble On", "Misty Mountain Hop" and "The Battle of Evermore." There are no explicit references to Tolkien works in "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp".
Performing the song
Drummer John Bonham played spoons and castanets on the recording. Bassist John Paul Jones played an acoustic five-string fretless bass. Jimmy Page's guitar for this song had an open tuning.
When the band performed the song live at Led Zeppelin concerts, John Paul Jones played an upright bass and Bonham displayed a rather under-rated talent in singing harmony vocals 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 1977 North American tour, the song "Black Country Woman" was merged into a medley with Bron-Y-Aur Stomp. At one Californian show, "Dancing Days" also featured in the acoustic medley. In some shows, Page sings harmony vocals with Plant instead of Bonham (Seattle in 1977, for example).
Popular influence
The band Blue Merle took their name from lyrics in the song: "There ain't no companion like a blue-eyed Merle".
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
