Led Zeppelin set up to record what would become their untitled fourth LP over the hills at faraway Headley Grange in Hampshire, England. Listen to Led Zeppelin's 'Misty Mountain Hop' (Some very dedicated fans also think the proverbial ' Stairway to Heaven' leads to Middle-earth.) So does this song, and others like 'Ramble On' from Led Zeppelin III, 'The Battle of Evermore' from elsewhere on IV, and 'Over the Hills and Far Away' from Houses of the Holy. The misty mountains, of course, exist both in this world (northern Wales, to be exact) and at the center of The Lord of the Rings. He encourages the scattering potheads to trade in harsh city life for the bucolic freedoms of the rural Welch countryside – or, maybe, Middle-earth. This being Plant, however, there's some Tolkien stuff, too.

'In England it's understandable, because wherever you go to enjoy yourself, 'Big Brother' is not far behind.'

'It's about a bunch of hippies getting busted, about the problems you can come across when you have a simple walk in the park on a nice sunny afternoon,' Plant said in Classic Rock Stories: The Stories Behind the Greatest Songs of All Time. 'Misty Mountain Hop' managed to unapologetically combine all three of these basic elements – the stomps, for sure, and the sawing riff and (most certainly) the hippie-dippie stuff: Plant places himself amid a real-life July 1968 rally in London's Hyde Park where protesters encouraging the legalization of marijuana where dispersed by police. So, how could it be 'dated flower-child gibberish'? If it is, then I'll just carry on being a dated flower child.' 'The essence of the whole trip was the desire for peace and tranquility, and an idyllic situation,' he told Rolling Stone in 1975.

Mountain hop by led zeppelin