Writers: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant
Producer: Jimmy Page
Recorded: 1969 at Juggy Sound Studio, New York City
Released: October 22nd, 1969
| Players: | Robert Plant — vocals Jimmy Page — guitar John Paul Jones — bass John Bonham — drums and plastic trash can |
| Album: | Led Zeppelin II (Atlantic) |
Ramble On” was a good example of Led Zeppelin's ability to start a song in a gentle, acoustic fashion before blasting off into hard rock for the choruses.
J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord Of The Rings, inspired the lyrics of the song. Robert Plant later said he was embarrassed by the Tolkien references.
“Ramble On” was part of Plant's emergence as a songwriter on Led Zeppelin II. He would eventually share near-equal footing with guitarist Jimmy Page in songwriting.
Led Zeppelin never performed the song in its entirety while the group was together. Plant and Page, however, performed it on their duo tours of 1995 and 1998.
Led Zeppelin II was recorded in various locations in the United States and England while the group was touring in the summer of 1969. Bassist John Paul Jones remembered: “It was recorded every spare moment that we were on the road. We literally wrote the album on the road, and whenever there were a couple of hours between shows, we booked a studio and went in and recorded. It had great spontaneity and urgency.”
Following the success of the first Led Zeppelin album, there were advance orders for more than half a million copies of Led Zeppelin II.
The album debuted at Number 15 on the Billboard 200 and eventually rose to Number One at the end of 1969, and it stayed atop the chart for seven weeks after knocking off the Beatles' Abbey Road.
In the U.K., Led Zeppelin II spent 138 weeks on the album chart, hitting Number One in February 1970.
