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What is Four Sticks about?


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Haven't been on here in a long time. I've been wondering for years. What is the song Four Sticks about?

I guess I just always placed my own meaning to what it was sort of about. To me it falls into the category with Immigrant Song, No Quarter, and The Battle of Evermore. The latter being the most closely I associate it with in terms of meaning. 

When I hear it, I think of Norse or Celtic tribes and/or Anglo Saxon themes, in England/Scotland/Ireland, in the middle ages. Especially the last verse.

{Ooh yeah, brave I endure
Ooh yeah, strong shields and lore
And they can't hold the wrath of those who walk
An' the boots of those who march
Baby, through the roads of time so long ago}

I can imagine the wars, the battles, the tribes, the kings and I can see the forests but also the roads of towns.....basically something out of a middle ages type TV show. And the tribal riff and drumming just add to that.

I searched to see if I could find what the song was about, according to Zeppelin but came up with nothing, except for stuff about the drumming.

So is there any official meaning of the song/lyrics? And if not, how do you interrupt the song?

Edited by Chick-N-Picker
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Leading to the writing and recording of the fourth album, 1970 was a hectic year for the band; they were shooting to a new level of stardom in the wake of WLL taking off and started playing large arenas regularly in America. It may be Robert dramatizing the band's adventures on the road and using ancient mythology for lyrical effect.

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Hell, I always thought it was about owls crying in the night or some shit. That rhythm is so hypnotic and dark, Page's guitar and Jones bass are droning away, while Plant gives one of his greatest, otherworldly vocal performances. Until this post I honestly never cared about the lyrics. Plant's singing is insanely good however the phrasing of his words is very odd and also hypnotic, so I look at his vocals as more a fourth instrument vs. his lyrical message. Now I am intrigued and must seek out full lyrics. Mysteries abound!!!

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29 minutes ago, BobDobbs said:

Hell, I always thought it was about owls crying in the night or some shit. That rhythm is so hypnotic and dark, Page's guitar and Jones bass are droning away, while Plant gives one of his greatest, otherworldly vocal performances. Until this post I honestly never cared about the lyrics. Plant's singing is insanely good however the phrasing of his words is very odd and also hypnotic, so I look at his vocals as more a fourth instrument vs. his lyrical message. Now I am intrigued and must seek out full lyrics. Mysteries abound!!!

Spot on, this is why I love this song. Like yourself, I never gave much thought to the lyrics. Mysteries abound, indeed!! I think Plant probably just thumbed through one of Jimmy's occult books and some of that imagery stuck. It sounds to me like he's singing about a woman so it could just be a layered thing - infidelity, bad karma, vibes whatever - with the imagery of owls and rainbows ending and rivers running dry giving a timeless feel to it. Spiritual depletion (sometimes for her, sometimes for Plant tho brave he endures, sometimes for people who lived long ago) ... with redemption right around the corner, of course. An age-old story. Or like you say maybe it's just about crying owls, who knows?

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17 minutes ago, 1975NQ said:

Spot on, this is why I love this song. Like yourself, I never gave much thought to the lyrics. Mysteries abound, indeed!! I think Plant probably just thumbed through one of Jimmy's occult books and some of that imagery stuck. It sounds to me like he's singing about a woman so it could just be a layered thing - infidelity, bad karma, vibes whatever - with the imagery of owls and rainbows ending and rivers running dry giving a timeless feel to it. Spiritual depletion (sometimes for her, sometimes for Plant tho brave he endures, sometimes for people who lived long ago) ... with redemption right around the corner, of course. An age-old story. Or like you say maybe it's just about crying owls, who knows?

 

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15 hours ago, Chick-N-Picker said:

Hey, was listening to the 1971 BBC sessions today, which I consider their last great professionally recorded show, simply due to Robert still had pretty much all of his original voice.

 

But anyway, check out what lyrics he uses at 4:20. What a strange set of lyrics to throw in. Very cool.

https://youtu.be/6TlfPaPDWGY

What is he saying? All I could make out after Blahmerheckup was, "no communication breakdown." 

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On 3/8/2022 at 9:45 AM, 1975NQ said:

 

Ya know, I really love owls, they are super-cool birds and the A-#1 predatory raptor on Earth. The Great Horned Owl is considered the deadliest bird on the planet and it does that while still being oh so super-chill. Eagles, falcons, hawks, etc. are absolutely bad-ass birds and I would not wish to piss one off however, they are also uppity and always on about something...not happy birds. While the majestic owl can hang with the homies, then go out and murder the ever loving shit out of several land animals, then fly back to the party, hang, and maybe hook up with another owl. You know owls are seriously into Barry White and PM Dawn.

Edited by BobDobbs
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22 hours ago, Chick-N-Picker said:

Hey, was listening to the 1971 BBC sessions today, which I consider their last great professionally recorded show, simply due to Robert still had pretty much all of his original voice.

 

But anyway, check out what lyrics he uses at 4:20. What a strange set of lyrics to throw in. Very cool.

https://youtu.be/6TlfPaPDWGY

I really encourage you to listen to plant throughout all of their years. Certainly that raw primal guttural scream and howl that he had was on full blast during those years. And I love that Robert Plant voice. I would argue that in 71 he could not sing Trampled Underfoot the same way. It would not have sounded as good. He voice had changed and mutated. Certainly there are notes and octaves he is hitting at that time which no one was capable of. I would also say that the way he sang certain songs through certain years needed the voice that he had at that time. Another example is Achilles, he would not have sounded the same on that song live as he did in 71 or before 71.  Another favorite of mine is the way SIBLY was presented vocally in 77. Just amazing. Plant in 68-72 was just other worldly, but the way his voice matured, changed, and as he grew as a singer to me he progressed. 
 

Just my opinion, Cheers. 

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30 minutes ago, Giveroffire said:

I don't care.....just love the creativity of the arrangement and the drummer is pretty good as well.

Strong shields of war.....??? 

OK....

I believe it's "Strong shields of Armor" and not "lore" as listed in the lyrics online everywhere.

 

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On 3/11/2022 at 11:35 AM, BobDobbs said:

Ya know, I really love owls, they are super-cool birds and the A-#1 predatory raptor on Earth. The Great Horned Owl is considered the deadliest bird on the planet and it does that while still being oh so super-chill. Eagles, falcons, hawks, etc. are absolutely bad-ass birds and I would not wish to piss one off however, they are also uppity and always on about something...not happy birds. While the majestic owl can hang with the homies, then go out and murder the ever loving shit out of several land animals, then fly back to the party, hang, and maybe hook up with another owl. You know owls are seriously into Barry White and PM Dawn.

Owls are pretty cool. We have had them in my neighborhood for years. I can hear them every day but never see them lol

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According to Wikipedia it's about 4 minutes 42 seconds.  But seriously I have always thought of Robert Plant's voice as another instrument in the band.  The lyrics for most of Zeppelin's songs aren't very profound, just kinda there which all you really need when the music and voice are that unbelievable.  Before anyone gets on my case Led Zeppelin is my all-time favorite band and it isn't even close.  

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Four Sticks is one of my favourite Zep songs ever, and some of the lyrics have always bugged me.
The lyrics quoted as 'definitive' just don't feel right.

That last section..... loads of opinions here.
'Strong shields of war', 'Strong shields and lore', 'Strong shields and armour'?
Nah.
'Strong shields of war' felt closest.... but not quite right.

And the line after 'Rainbows end' - ''For those who hide, who hide their love to depths of life' is the 'official' line.  Again, close, but no cigar.
This line is further muddled by RP changing the lyric when he sang the song during the P&P era, where he completely omits the 'and ruined dreams that we all knew' line, and sang something about 'eyes that mesmerised' (or something similar).

So.... how do we really find out?
Modern technology finally comes to the rescue.  Maybe we can finally put this to bed? 
I spent a bit of time isolating those two lines from the rest of the music, and then 
vari-speeding it down to (probably) something like the pitch he actually sang it at so it's a bit easier to understand.

It's still REALLY hard to hear what he's doing, but I think we've got this:

Craze, baby, the rainbow's end, mmm, baby, it's just a den 
For those that hide, who hide their loves the depths of eyes (the 's' at the end of 'eyes' is really clear)
And ruin dreams that we all knew so, babe

....and this:

Ooh yeah, brave I endure
Ooh yeah, strong shields ever war (or possibly 'ever were') - editactually the more I listen to it, the more convinced I am by 'ever were'.
They can't hold the wrath of those who war (it could be 'walk' but I can't hear the 'k')
An' the boots of those who march
Baby, through the roads of time so long ago


Sorry to the people who like 'lore' or 'armour' in there.  There's definitely no 'L' for the beginning of 'lore' in there.  And no 'M' for the middle of armour either.

Now, I know everybody out there is going to flame me and say 'Yeah, whatever - that's what you say.....'.  
So, check it out for yourselves.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IQ75c0_74kET86RrwDA7VSQfkMfUawlf/view?usp=sharing

Have fun!

Edited by woz70
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2 hours ago, woz70 said:

Four Sticks is one of my favourite Zep songs ever, and some of the lyrics have always bugged me.
The lyrics quoted as 'definitive' just don't feel right.

That last section..... loads of opinions here.
'Strong shields of war', 'Strong shields and lore', 'Strong shields and armour'?
Nah.
'Strong shields of war' felt closest.... but not quite right.

And the line after 'Rainbows end' - ''For those who hide, who hide their love to depths of life' is the 'official' line.  Again, close, but no cigar.
This line is further muddled by RP changing the lyric when he sang the song during the P&P era, where he completely omits the 'and ruined dreams that we all knew' line, and sang something about 'eyes that mesmerised' (or something similar).

So.... how do we really find out?
Modern technology finally comes to the rescue.  Maybe we can finally put this to bed? 
I spent a bit of time isolating those two lines from the rest of the music, and then 
vari-speeding it down to (probably) something like the pitch he actually sang it at so it's a bit easier to understand.

It's still REALLY hard to hear what he's doing, but I think we've got this:

Craze, baby, the rainbow's end, mmm, baby, it's just a den 
For those that hide, who hide their loves the depths of eyes (the 's' at the end of 'eyes' is really clear)
And ruin dreams that we all knew so, babe

....and this:

Ooh yeah, brave I endure
Ooh yeah, strong shields ever war (or possibly 'ever were') - editactually the more I listen to it, the more convinced I am by 'ever were'.
They can't hold the wrath of those who war (it could be 'walk' but I can't hear the 'k')
An' the boots of those who march
Baby, through the roads of time so long ago


Sorry to the people who like 'lore' or 'armour' in there.  There's definitely no 'L' for the beginning of 'lore' in there.  And no 'M' for the middle of armour either.

Now, I know everybody out there is going to flame me and say 'Yeah, whatever - that's what you say.....'.  
So, check it out for yourselves.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IQ75c0_74kET86RrwDA7VSQfkMfUawlf/view?usp=sharing

Have fun!

Works for me Woz, thanks for taking the time and your hard work nailing this down.

Happy St. Patties 🙂 

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2 hours ago, BobDobbs said:

Works for me Woz, thanks for taking the time and your hard work nailing this down.

Happy St. Patties 🙂 

So diligent with the replies Bob.

So, so diligent.

It warms the cockles of my heart. 

A friendly word of advice.  I wouldn't call it St.Patties day to an Irishman (I'm only 50% Irish, so I'm more forgiving). Unless maybe there's an Irish patron Saint of hamburgers?

Edited by woz70
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1 hour ago, woz70 said:

So diligent with the replies Bob.

So, so diligent.

It warms the cockles of my heart. 

A friendly word of advice.  I wouldn't call it St.Patties day to an Irishman (I'm only 50% Irish, so I'm more forgiving). Unless maybe there's an Irish patron Saint of hamburgers?

Uh oh, just what I need...an Irish car-bomb :nuke:

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39 minutes ago, BobDobbs said:

Uh oh, just what I need...an Irish car-bomb :nuke:

You're behind the times.  More likely to be some unexpected and rapid al-fresco dental surgery these days. 

Edited by woz70
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2 hours ago, woz70 said:

A friendly word of advice.  I wouldn't call it St.Patties day to an Irishman (I'm only 50% Irish, so I'm more forgiving). Unless maybe there's an Irish patron Saint of hamburgers?

 

Green-Burger-107341.jpg

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