{"id":576888,"date":"2026-05-10T19:38:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T19:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/576888\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T19:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T19:38:14","slug":"the-1976-led-zeppelin-song-jimmy-page-wrote-in-one-evening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/576888\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1976 Led Zeppelin song Jimmy Page wrote in one evening"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jimmy<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Open Culture<\/p>\n

Sun 10 May 2026 15:43, UK <\/p>\n

For Led Zeppelin<\/a>\u2018s iconic vocalist, Robert Plant, the timeless narrative of Achilles took on an entirely new significance when a brush with mortality transpired while journeying through Greece.<\/p>\n

The tale of Achilles, a familiar narrative, has traversed through generations. The central figure of Homer\u2019s epic saga, The Iliad, Achilles stood as a formidable warrior, impervious to harm due to his mother\u2019s strategic submersion of him into the Styx River during infancy, gripping him solely by his heel. <\/p>\n

This heel would later prove his vulnerability, pierced by a fateful arrow discharged by the Trojan prince, Paris, culminating in the birth of the phrase \u2018Achilles heel\u2019. For Plant, the tale would find itself woven into one of Led Zeppelin\u2019s finest tracks. <\/p>\n

\u2018Achilles Last Stand\u2019 was inspired by Plant\u2019s travels and by some of the poetry he was reading at the time, including William Blake. The lyric, \u201cAlbion remains\/sleeping now to rise again\u201d, is a reference to Blake\u2019s engraving The Dance Of Albion. In 1975, Jimmy Page and Plant both went to Morocco and developed material for their next album. Within his guitar playing, Page attempted to replicate the signature flamenco and Moroccan musical traditions. <\/p>\n

For Zeppelin fans, the track is regarded as one of their best. It\u2019s filled with otherworldly, psychedelic arrangements, which, with the help of John Bonham\u2019s unforgiving drumming, take on a furious, motoric energy. When creating the track\u2019s huge sound, Page overdubbed six guitar tracks, something that he achieved \u201cin one evening\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Led<\/a>Credit: Far Out \/ \u00a92025ParadisePicturesLtd<\/p>\n

The famously hardworking guitarist confessed: \u201cTo be honest with you, the other guys didn\u2019t know [it was done in one evening]: \u2018Has he gone mad? Does he know what he\u2019s doing?\u2019 But at the end of it, the picture became clear. It was like a little vignette, every time something comes around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creating such an iconic track in such a short space of time was probably a testament to the excitement Page felt when curating the work for Presence. It helped the context of the song to truly resonate. Elsewhere, Plant had gotten himself into a car crash while on holiday in Greece, which caused him to be in a wheelchair, and so the song became an acknowledgement of this alongside the mystic location in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. <\/p>\n

Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n

Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Page takes particular pride in the track<\/a>. \u201cPresence and my control over all the contributing factors to that LP \u2013 the fact that it was done in three weeks, and all the rest of it \u2013 is so good for me,\u201d he told Guitar Player in 1977. <\/p>\n

For Plant, the song also carried a sense of defiance against physical fragility. Following the car accident in Rhodes, he was left recovering in a wheelchair while Led Zeppelin faced uncertainty about their future. Rather than retreating creatively, however, the band channelled that anxiety directly into Presence, with \u2018Achilles Last Stand\u2019 becoming its towering centrepiece. The track\u2019s relentless momentum feels almost symbolic of Plant attempting to outrun vulnerability itself, transforming pain and fear into something mythic and triumphant.<\/p>\n

That tension is a major reason why the song has endured as one of Zeppelin\u2019s most revered deep cuts. While it lacks the instant recognisability of staples like \u2018Whole Lotta Love\u2019 or \u2018Black Dog\u2019, many fans view it as the band operating at their most uncompromisingly ambitious. <\/p>\n

Between Bonham\u2019s thunderous percussion, Page\u2019s layered guitar assault and Plant\u2019s feverish imagery, \u2018Achilles Last Stand\u2019 captured Led Zeppelin pushing themselves toward their creative limits at a moment when the future of the group suddenly felt uncertain.<\/p>\n

Adding: \u201cIt was just good for everything really, even though it was a very anxious point, and the anxiety shows, group-wise \u2013 you know, \u2018Is Robert going to walk again from his auto accident in Greece?\u2019 and all this sort of thing. But I guess the solo in \u2018Achilles Last Stand\u2019 on Presence is in the same tradition as the solo from \u2018Stairway to Heaven\u2019 on the fourth LP. It is on that level to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Plant later described \u2018Achilles Last Stand\u2019 as \u201cus at our least charming, and most proficient \u2013 a Bonzo track where nobody could even believe a human could do it\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> The Far Out Led Zeppelin Newsletter<\/p>\n

All the latest stories about Led Zeppelin from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ Open Culture Sun 10 May 2026 15:43, UK For Led Zeppelin\u2018s iconic vocalist, Robert…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,23795,10866,128,23837,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-576888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-jimmy-page","tag-led-zeppelin","tag-music","tag-robert-plant","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}