i'll be more explicit. some people have been perfectly nice, but i just don't appear to be getting what i came here for; i started with "i know this lyric isn't what is written on the sleeve, does anybody know what it really is?" and the most active responses i'm getting are "actually it IS that", or some variant thereof, which merely insults my intelligence, because it's like someone telling me the sky is green when i can perfectly well see for myself it is not. in short, people either just don't know the answer or are determined to undermine the question. i've reached the conclusion i'm wasting my time here. "kiss kiss" yourself.

i'm out. peace y'all.

no, hellhound on my trail is not a happy blues. i'm just saying that just because, by and large, the lyrics are upbeat, doesn't mean the ocean isn't a blues. the term "blues" is stereotypically associated with being "blue" i.e. sad, but that's not always what it means. also, rockabilly IS blues. hillbilly blues, but blues nonetheless.

actually, it is a blues. a weird one, but a blues nonetheless. there is not a chord in it that strays far from standard blues format. the opening riff is in A....the verses are in D...and the ending bit brings in an E chord. the standard format has been stretched out a bit, but it is still the underlying structure of the song. not that that means anything in terms of lyrical content, of course. there are "happy" blues too.

i apologize if i'm being pompous. i have been listening to the song since it was first released on vinyl as well. it has always been one of my favorites. the problem with songs one listens to that much is (as i have discovered with numerous songs) the lyrics i got in my head in the beginning become so entrenched i have trouble hearing them any other way, whether my ears were correct the first time or not. this is true of most people and many songs. no offense intended, but it appears to be true of yourself as well. it only came to my attention recently (it was pointed out to me by wikipedia and a number of other sources) that there is a discrepancy between the lyric sheet and the record on that one line of lyric. upon painfully careful listening, i reached the conclusion that none of the words on the lyric sheet for that one line actually appear on the studio - or any known - recording of the song. that is not a "view", as you so delicately put it, it is a fact that is inarguable. plant does NOT sing "high hopes hailla" or "hailla high hopes" or "hopes hailla high" or any other variant of that phrase. not one of those words could possibly be what he is saying. you could be plant, page, jesus or god, and i'm not gonna suddenly decide, just because you said so, that the evidence of research and my own ears is at fault. what IS arguable is just what he DOES say there. i have a feeling, upon comparing various versions, that he actually always said the same thing there - but plant's enunciation is so peculiar that it's nearly impossible to tell what it is. i have reached the conclusion that the word "hellhound" is almost certainly the first two syllables (and it doesn't seem like such a stretch to me to fit a hellhound reference into this song, especially for zeppelin - it would be only one of numerous instances where the sublime and the infernal appear almost interchangeable in their lyrics), but i'll be damned (ha ha) if i can figure out the rest of the line. all i can tell you for certain is what it is NOT. at any rate, and in conclusion (how's that for pompous?), i am giving up and will have to settle for making up my own version of the line, which i think the members of zep would be perfectly ok with. as i said, i sing it to my daughter; also i intend to perform it in my band. it would sure be nice if there was any actually helpful information about that line of lyric, but i guess if i can't get a "final answer" that actually makes sense here, of all places, then i'd best give up. ciao.

then mr. plant is having you on. not one of the words "hailla", "high", or "hopes" is uttered, either in studio or in live versions. listen closely. mess with the EQ so the vocal sticks out. if robert plant told you that, either he doesn't remember himself or he's tired of the question. i would not have asked this question in the first place were the answer that simple.

ah, you are sadly mistaken. if you listen very very closely to even the studio version, you will see that not a single one of those words are actually uttered. and to compound the confusion, all available live versions appear to be slightly different, although still none of them are "high hopes hailla ball". it does appear that the word "hellhound" is in there, but what the two syllables following are remains a mystery. i was actually hoping someone might have heard mr. plant himself answer this question directly - i find it impossible to imagine that, after all the call-in radio q&a's he's done, no one has ever asked him this one thing. unfortunately there is, as far as i know, no "bibliography" to consult for such information.

so...this has been debated elsewhere, endlessly. what i wanna know is - has anyone ever asked mr. plant this question on a call-in radio show or interview that we know of? surely, surely there is an actual answer to this question. zeppelin lyrics are not as vague and silly as most people seem to think - and i find it impossible to believe that no one who was actually in zeppelin could possibly remember what the actual lyric was intended to be. of course i have a favorite - " - or it's hell i'm headed for" - someone else mentioned plant being late for the birth of his daughter. but that's not conclusive. so come on folks. i want to actually know. i sing this song to MY daugher, and i'm getting really tired of fudging that line every time. ps and don't anybody give me any crap about what it says on the album cover. everybody knows that's not what he sings.