OST: Hobbit F⭐️ck Songs

Packing my bags for the Misty Mountains.

At the top of July, while riding an enormous swan, I remarked, “It’s dope that Led Zeppelin made a career out of Hobbit Fuck Songs.” I meant this with sincere compliments—I got on board with Zeppelin the second I saw The Song Remains the Same and was like, “Ooooh, I get it, they love sex and magic, too.” For Jimmy Page “magic” meant a fixation on occultist Aleister Crowley, committing to the bit so much he ended up buying Crowley’s potentially cursed home. For Robert Plant, it was an obsession with Lord of the Rings.

Now, Plant is SHEEPISH about his Tolkien-influenced tracks today, and there are plenty! “Misty Mountain Hop” has more to do with a “Legalize Marijuana” rally in London than questing through the Shire, but that keyboard opening smacks. The mystical, mandolin-strong “The Battle of Evermore” is Plant’s personal pick for “Most Tolkien-y.” And “Ramble On” has references to Gollum and Mordor, with Rolling Stone adding, “the opening lines…paraphrase a poem that Tolkien wrote in the Elvish tongue of Quenya.”

That’s some real nerd shit, but I love it, and I understand. These days my social cameos are regulated to “apparates in a silk slip dress, shares Tolkien’s thoughts on fairy tales, falls back into the night.” Regarding J.R.R.’s essay On Fairy Stories, we’re in total alignment about two things. 1. Fairy tales are meant for readers of every age 2. The natural presence of magic, with complete acceptance and reverence from all participants, is the core of the fairy tale form. As he explains:

“Faerie itself may perhaps be nearly translated by Magic—but it is magic of a peculiar mood and power, at the furthest pole from vulgar devices of the laborious, scientific magician. There is one proviso: if there is any satire present in the tale, one thing must be not made fun of: the magic itself. That must in that story be taken seriously, neither laughed at or explained away.”

Now, accounts from Hammer of the Gods suggest that Led Zeppelin’s story is hardly a fairy tale in the “they lived happily ever after” way. But maybe it’s a fairy tale in a Tolkien way, where “happily ever after” is merely an “artificial device.” Like Lord of the Rings, Zeppelin lore heavily involves the hubris of men leading to downfall. But there’s also that natural presence of magic, and an affection for hobbits that brings in a sense of wistful sweetness.

SO. Only a mini-essay this week, since I’m still in the midst of an exhausting summer journey and it’s all I have energy for. ❤️ But I’m also sharing this playlist about:

Wales on the horizon, deep claret roses & a matching black tea cup, runes grafitti-ed in the secret room, “where are we going” being the best part (Merry & Pippin 4 Lyfe), another cazimi, staring at the turquoise ceiling in Grand Central Station, Women of Myth Oracle deck, second dinner, passing around a pipe called “Princess Gandalf,” embracing side quests & challenges, coconut oil, reading Hammer of the Gods in Barcelona, Miss Pamela & Jimmy Page, the one ring you’re bringing, breaking hearts the Zeppelin show, “you look exactly like a Grecian Goddess” covered in gold glitter, waking up on the floor of the speakeasy after a hobbit wedding, taking the LIRR home with a treasured companion, that feeling you get when you look to the west, and Robert Plant’s obsession with J.R.R Tolkien.