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.