Day After Day #167: The Rover

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

The Rover (1975)

When you're a band as big as Led Zeppelin, it's only natural that you'll have songs that get overplayed. Zep is one of the greatest rock bands of all time. As such, there are certain songs they have that, while inarguably great, I never need to hear again. It's just the nature of growing up listening to rock radio. Songs like "Stairway to Heaven" and "Whole Lotta Love" just get played to death. 

But fortunately, Zep still has albums that aren't overplayed. One of them is 1975's Physical Graffiti, a double album that featured new music and songs that were recorded for previous releases but not used. "Kashmir" has gotten a lot of play on FM stations, but the other 14 songs still remain fresh, or at least not beaten to death. 

"The Rover" was originally an acoustic instrumental when it was first written in 1970 and later was recorded in 1972 as an electric version during the Houses of the Holy sessions. Guitarist Jimmy Page added guitar overdubs before the song was included on Physical Graffiti. 

The song starts with a killer riff (one of Page's best) and John Bonham absolutely pounding the crap out of his drums (as he was wont to do) before Robert Plant launches in.

"I've been to London, seen seven wonders, I know to trip is just to fall/I used to rock it, sometimes I'd roll it/I always knew what it was for/There can be no denying, that the wind'll shake 'em down/And the flat world's flying, and there's a new plague on the land/Traversed the planet, when heaven sent me/I saw the kings who rule them all/Still by the firelight and purple moonlight I hear the rested rivers call/And the wind is crying, from a love that won't grow cold/My lover she is lying on the dark side of the globe. If we could just join hands, if we could just join hands, if we could just join hands."

Zeppelin never played "The Rover" live in their career (which was only parts of four years after its release), but a few bars were played as the introduction to "Sick Again" on the 1977 North American tour.

"You got me rocking when I ought to be a-rolling/Darling, tell me, darling, which way to go/You keep me rocking, baby, then you keep me stolen/Won't you tell me darling which way to go, that's right." 

Page then rips an amazing solo, which is only topped by the phased solo that closes out the song.

"Oh how I wonder, oh how I worry, and I would dearly like to know/Of all this wonder, of earthly plunder/Will it leave us anything to show?"

Physical Graffiti was the band's sixth album and the first on its Swan Song label. It went to #1 on the U.S. and U.K. album charts and has sold 8 million copies in the U.S. alone. Zeppelin would only release two more studio albums before Bonham's untimely death in 1980 led the band to break up.

I still like to listen to Physical Graffiti every so often. It covers so much ground and represents the band at the peak of its powers.