Between a fading 1960s and the looming punk years, Led Zeppelin released Houses Of The Holy in 1973. Save for The Rolling Stones, there wasn’t a rock band around to challenge the musical stature of Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones.
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The album features some of the band’s best work, including “The Rain Song”, “Over The Hills And Far Away”, and “The Ocean”. Then there’s the seven-minute epic “No Quarter”. A hallucinatory jam with supernatural allusions and ominous warnings. It’s Led Zeppelin at their most experimental, and perhaps, the height of their creative powers.
About “No Quarter”
The song title comes from an old military phrase. No prisoners, no mercy, even to those who surrender. The opening verse alludes to Norse mythology, as Vikings set out on a dangerous mission.
Close the door, put out the light
Know they won’t be home tonight.
The snow falls hard, and don’t you know,
The winds of Thor are blowing cold.
They’re wearing steel that’s bright and true,
They carry news that must get through.
Trekking through the harsh winter, the Vikings will give no quarter and expect none in return as they plunder. Plant’s voice sounds as though it’s being broadcast from another dimension. Some ancient, supernatural realm from which to deliver this psychedelic folklore.
While Led Zeppelin worked on their fourth album, they rehearsed an uptempo jam of what became “No Quarter”. You can hear the musicians searching, working their way through a start-and-stop arrangement while Plant ad-libs a wordless melody. The band lived and recorded in England at Headley Grange, a three-story former workhouse where they recorded much of Led Zeppelin III, IV, Houses Of The Holy, and Physical Graffiti.
They choose the path where no one goes
They hold no quarter.
An Immigrant Song
“No Quarter” wasn’t the first time Led Zeppelin set a Viking tale to their heavy blues. One of the band’s most famous tunes, “Immigrant Song”, uses conquering language as a metaphor for the band’s tour in Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík.
Led Zeppelin, indeed, showed no mercy as they released five nearly perfect albums to begin their career and became the world’s biggest rock band. When we talk about great rock albums like Houses Of The Holy, or epics like “No Quarter”, the discussion doesn’t just end with them. Led Zeppelin’s catalog is full of rock and roll touchstones.
And if you’re going to name-check Thor, you’d better come equipped, like Led Zeppelin, with a racket loud enough to reach the ancients.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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