This compilation comes from years of intermittent research. It's the result of a desire to finally collect together a 100% accurate transcript of the words Robert Plant sang on record, including ad-libs, from 1969 to 1979. I'm not sure why I became so concerned with deciphering the band's lyrics, as the MUSIC (which includes the vocal melodies, rather than the literal words), is the visceral "point," as always; but once I started, I hunted and rooted. I compared bootlegs, read every take on the group's lyrics available in books and magazines (and, later, online), and used years of my own aural scrutiny to come up with what is, hopefully, the final and most accurate record of Led Zeppelin's sung (and, occasionally, spoken) words. For things like "Travelling Riverside Blues," "The Lemon Song" and "Custard Pie," I went to the library and dug up books with old blues lyrics in them, trying to find the verses that Robert was emulating.
Obvious choral backing vocals are left out; therefore, the "doo-wops" in "The Ocean" and the "uhhs" in the "Night Flight" verse are omitted, perceived as part of the instrumentation rather than part of the lead vocal. In the alphabetization below, the word "The" is discounted in favor of the title's second word. Enjoy, and if anyone has a challenge to something in this compilation, please e-mail me. This would be a good place to acknowledge the help I received from Brian McCollum regarding "When the Levee Breaks" and John Blair concerning "Trampled Under Foot."
Slashes denote simultaneous but differing lyrics when Robert's double-tracked.
Chris Federico
