Led Zeppelin “Misty Mountain Hop”

Hitting Random on the iTunes list . . .

You may or may not be able to imagine that your friendly neighborhood, mild-mannered afternoon DJ, was a major Led Zeppelin fan back in the day.

Maybe it’s not unusual. Probably every teenage boy, since 1967, goes through a Zeppelin phase. But I was definitely obsessive.

I bought every record and every bootleg I could find (on cassette!). I read the books, watched the movie, used time in art class to re-create album covers, in pencil sketches.

In putting together our Yearbook (Newburyport High School, 1987), we were all given the option to put a quote under our picture. The smart kids picked poems, the clever kids used Monty Python, and the cool kids used song lyrics.

Yeah, I wasn’t a cool kid, but we all want to belong.

Twenty-plus years later, I have to laugh at myself. Here at mvyradio, I put up the Lyric Of The Day, at the top of the station’s webpage. In nearly a decade of doing this job, I’ve come across hundreds of brilliant, thoughtful, insightful song lyrics.

But in 1987, I was insistent on using a Led Zeppelin quote. Two decades later, I just can’t figure out what my reasoning was.

“So I’m packin’ my bags for a Misty Mountain.”

That would have been great, if my life’s goal was to climb Everest, or attend the University of Denver or something. But I went to UMass and moved on to Florida (widely renowned for it’s towering peaks, you know).

I look at that yearbook photo, and do what we all probably do when looking at our yearbook photo. I shake my head, laugh, and say “What the hell was that kid thinking?”



See the song performed live in 1979.

Buy "Led Zeppelin IV".