"high hopes hailla ball"?

[SteveAJones]

5 hours ago, BobDobbs said:

Really? This? C'mon already, enough is enough. What's next, we argue whether Jimmy Page was REALLY 5'10" and not 5'11"? Or maybe that Jones was an Indica man and never touched sativa???

I'm reminded of the time author Tom Friend insisted Robert sings "You're gonna meet a lot of Devil people there" during live performances of Dazed And Confused. Too funny!

Edited May 20, 2021 by SteveAJones

[Johnny Zepp]

I've seen this lyric issue debated on the Internet quite a bit.  My personal view is that people are reading too much into it.  I believe the official lyrics "high hopes hailla ball" were likely the words Robert originally wrote for the song, and intended to sing, but when it came time to sing them for the recording, which according to Led Zeppelin lore and the spoken lines in the beginning of the song from John Bonham indicate was the fifth take, he simply 'muffed' the words and it came out sounding like what most people hear: "hell high hailla ball".  I'm a singer in a band and that happens all the time. Since the rest of the vocals of that particular 'take' were otherwise good, they probably just let it go as it was - not letting ‘perfect be the enemy of good’. When it came time for the lyrics to be published with the album, however, the record company guy responsible for that probably ended up getting Robert's original 'intended' lyrics - not what he actually enunciated on the recording. BTW: In guitar tab books for the song the line is usually written as "high hopes hail-a ball".  In addition, I actually hear "held-high haillas ball" on the original recording, which aside from the ‘s’ in hailla, I think makes a bit more sense for the song context, if this pronunciation was actually intended, than ‘hell high’ or ‘hellhound’ (Robert Johnson reference) as some suggest.  Just an opinion.

[BobDobbs]

Never understood why this was such a big deal back in the day. Why would anyone care if Robert said hell or high, or hula hoop or whatever. He could have said, "hey kiddos, sell your soul to satan, he's one hep cat man..." for all I cared. It's a song, by a band, not an ex-cathedra by the Pope.

[Electrophile]

26 minutes ago, BobDobbs said:

Never understood why this was such a big deal back in the day. Why would anyone care if Robert said hell or high, or hula hoop or whatever. He could have said, "hey kiddos, sell your soul to satan, he's one hep cat man..." for all I cared. It's a song, by a band, not an ex-cathedra by the Pope.

The FBI opened an investigation into the lyrics of "Louie, Louie" by The Kingsmen because J. Edgar Hoover was bored and convinced it was hiding vulgarity, and there was nothing else going on in the mid-1960s that the FBI could have possibly spent time and manpower on. In other words, people get fixated on stupid shit because they've nothing better to do. 

[BobDobbs]

7 hours ago, Electrophile said:

The FBI opened an investigation into the lyrics of "Louie, Louie" by The Kingsmen because J. Edgar Hoover was bored and convinced it was hiding vulgarity, and there was nothing else going on in the mid-1960s that the FBI could have possibly spent time and manpower on. In other words, people get fixated on stupid shit because they've nothing better to do. 

Excellent point. Love Louie Louie, never understood a damn word of the song outside the chorus and never cared. Figured the singer was wasted when they laid the track and the band thought, hmmm, sounds good, why not. BTW when that song's vocal is isolated and messed with to where you can understand the words, not a single bad word is found.

Silly FBI

[dpat]

On 1/25/2022 at 4:57 PM, BobDobbs said:

Excellent point. Love Louie Louie, never understood a damn word of the song outside the chorus and never cared. Figured the singer was wasted when they laid the track and the band thought, hmmm, sounds good, why not. BTW when that song's vocal is isolated and messed with to where you can understand the words, not a single bad word is found.

Silly FBI

Response here is over a year late 😝, but what the FBI really missed was when the drummer is picked up on mic as yelling "fuck" after incorrectly doing a drum fill. You can make up your own mind what he yelled, at around 0:53 of "Louie Louie," by the Kingsmen. 

 

 

Edited May 31, 2023 by dpat

[gibsonfan159]

It's definitely got something to do with lettuce.

[galec]

To answer the original question - yes, RP has discussed and talked about his lyrics. I've watched a 1995 interview for MTV from Florida on youtube. RP and the interviewer are discussing the LZ tribute album and the dialogue is (roughly) as follows:

INT: I was surprised as I actually...some of the lyrics...that's it!

RP: Hey listen. I've seen the Led Zep book of lyrics and there's so much bullshit in there. I can't believe the lyrics! No wonder people think I need to go to a rest home.

INT: So they're not the same?

RP: No! They're miles out. Terrible. Cos I didn't know what half the lyrics were so I got them printed out for me. I'd forgotten them and I went "This ain't right". And it's terrible. The publishing company who put these books out should really...

INT: I'm curious how they do the transcription.

RP: They ain't got a clue. Some guy with cotton wool in his ears.