Tolkien/Led Zeppelin

Being new to THE STRAIGHT DOPE I had originally posted this question in the GQ area. I know realize the error of my ways and re-submit my query to the likes of Cafe Society-

I have long been a fan of both Tolkien’s works as well as Led Zeppelin. Being no fool I can see the obvious connections between the two in quite a few of the band’s songs. My question however is if anyone knows of any other popular artists who also make reference to Tolkien or perhaps C.S. Lewis? I would also be interested in any Biblical references such as Prince’s (Or The Artist Formerly Known As Prince {at the time of the song, which happens to be a whole other can of worms now that he is Prince again yadda yadda}) “Seven”. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Here you go: vikings.lv

Everything from The Allman Brother’s “Midnight Rider” to Rick Wakeman’s “Landscapes of Middle Earth”, and everything in between. :wink:

Regarding Prince, the guy has so many bibilical references in so many songs it’s impossible to name them all. My favorite would have to be “The Cross” though.

can’t speak for any other bands, but i came across this page on Tolkine/Zeppelin and found it fascinating. apparently, they were quite the fans of Tolkien’s work.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2406/

By the way, for future reference, you shouldn’t have re-posted. The mods prefer to move the thread from one forum to the other (you can’t do this, but they can). You can e-mail them or use the “report this post” link to get their attention. Just one of those things you’ll learn.

I have a slight hi-jack;

The more I learn of Led Zeppelin’s songs with LoTR references the more i begin to imagine there are. For example in ‘Going to California’ there is a lyric which runs ‘the children of the sun begin to wake’. Now im fairly sure this isn’t a LoTR(Silmarillion) reference, just a nice ryhming lyric, but i instantly start thinking ‘oh it must be!’
There are so many others, Kashmir etc. and just for the record i know there is a lot of contention about Stairway to Heaven and is it LOTR or not, I think that it isn’t about LoTR directly but some of those lyrics must be LoTR inspired, perhaps only subconsciously but you only have to look at Led Zeppelin IV to see the other LoTR references, i mean ‘Battle of Evermore’ is all about LoTR, and then there Misty Mountain Hop as well, both around the song. There must be some credibility to the argument for LoTR.
Am I the only one who has gained the annoying habit of looking for LoTR references that almost certainly aren’t there. (please don’t tell me the one i cited is correct otherwise I’ll go mad!)

BTW i also believe that the closing verse of All Along the Watchtower is LoTR as well, but im fairly unsupported on that one :frowning:

Not Tolkien or Lewis-related, but as far as other fantasy-rock music relations…

The English band Hawkwind (one of my favorites) did a lot of songs, even a few whole albums, based on the work of Michael Moorcock (Elric, et. al.).

In fact, Moorcock actually played with the band (banjo) for a time, and wrote several songs for them. It’s great stuff. Check out “The Chronicle of the Black Sword.”

They also did some songs based of J.G. Ballard’s writings.