Sorry, but I don’t think that is what he is saying in the video I linked too. He is clearly saying “She’s swinging from the gallows pole” or maybe even “She’s swinging from my gallows pole” which would make it even better.
But hey, you seem to have such strong feelings for this song, so whatever.
I’ll start another thread about Love Gun, and you can tell me if you think it’s about Paul Stanley’s dick.
Also, really with this? Have you even read a lot of the lyrics from LZ? They are not some Pulitzer Prize winning song-writers, or song thieves or whatever.
“Hey, this song is about sex!” No it isn’t! They are Led Zeppelin, not Beavis and Butthead!
:rolleyes:
I hear a slurred “see you swinging on the gallows pole.” It’s clearer in this live version.
Again, indicate the time in the video where this is said. I couldn’t hear anything like this.
You’re the one who started the thread, asked about what the song meant, and then came up with a ridiculous interpretation. I don’t have particularly strong feelings about the song, but I do have strong feelings about absurd interpretations.
What does that have to do with this song?
Of course some (many) Led Zeppelin songs are about sex. Just not this one. And trying to change the subject to other songs doesn’t make it one.
At 3:12-3:13 in the video I linked to, it’s perfectly clear to me that he sings “She’s swinging on the gallows pole”
What does “See saw margery daw” at 3:40 mean then?
I can tell what you’re hearing, but I think it’s just a slurred “See you swinging.” (Especially since that’s what it is in the other renditions of the song, like the one I linked to, and even his previous singing of that verse in the song you linked to.)
Yeah, I get that. I’ve heard that song many times. Seeing that live performance where it was clear he said “She’s swinging” really changes the whole ending.
Plus I think it’s funny that the hangman would say “She’s swinging on the gallows pole” meaning his dick.
Of course, I also like Beavis and Butthead, so maybe I’m just childish 
Still a great song though, not played enough on the radio 
It could also be some kind of mike distortion. There’s other places in the song where the “s” comes out sounding like “sh” (like in “save me from the wrath of this man,” but it’s lighter there) And the last two “swinging on the gallows pole” sound like “shwinging on the gallows pole” (it’s pretty strong there.) So, yeah, I’m definitely going with it being a slurred or distored “see you swingin.’”
LOL, sorry, I got nothing for that
Chalk me up as another vote for the sister being the one swinging from the Gallows Pole. He even sings in the last verse that the hangman tells him that he’s free to ride. Basically he offered his sister’s sexual favors in exchange for his freedom, but instead of the hangman banging her he’s hanging her. (Or maybe he did both.)
He does not say the hang man tells him that he’s free to ride. He’s asking the hangman to tell him that.
“Hangman, hangman, upon your face a smile,
Tell me that I’m free to ride,
Ride for many a mile, mile, mile.”
The hangman doesn’t.
“Your brother brought me silver,
Your sister warmed my soul,
But now I laugh and pull so hard And see you swinging on the Gallows Pole, yah”
He took the bribes of sex and money and still hanged him. It’s pretty straightforward.
OK, those lyrics make sense. Those first three lines I always interpreted not as a request but as a statement that the hangman was letting him go.
As for the last three lines, it always sounded to me like
“Ya [mumble mumble] me silver
Ya sister [mmmph] my soul
But now I laugh [mmmph] so hard, she is swinging from the gallows pole.”
Which is why I assumed his sister had taken his place.