Led Zeppelin, "Bring it on Home"

9 Days to Find a Home



Led Zeppelin II was famously trashed by critics when it arrived (check out the Rolling Stone review, which looks hilariously close to something one would read on Vice or Pitchfork in 2015) in 1969. Listening to "Bring it on Home" I can tell why. Led Zeppelin is so ingrained in the roots of American music that today one could argue that they're artistically closer to John Lee Hooker than Metallica. But in the '60s, it must've sounded like Blueshammer to purists.

It took major cajones, or lack of self-consciousness, for a group of white, hard-rockin' British 20somethings to adapt Sonny Boy Williamson song (and a phrase that had already been a hit in both Sam Cooke and Bo Diddley's repertoires) into their own headbanging original, without even crediting songwriter Willie Dixon. To be fair, the Page riff sonically overwhelms Dixon's, to the point where Zeppelin owns the song at least as much as the Beach Boys own "Surfin' U.S.A." And judging from the amount of bands that have covered "Bring it on Home" since Led Zeppelin, I'd argue, to paraphrase Bob Dylan on Dylan Thomas, that Zeppelin did more for Sonny Boy Williamson than Williamson did for Zeppelin.

Iron Maiden, "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son"

Many listeners probably assumed that the title track from Iron Maiden's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son was referring to Willie Dixon's proto-rock classic, or maybe the Seven Deadly Sins. But, as a sea of hype for the Ender's Game movie has reminded me, "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" was inspired by an Orson Scott Card novel.



Card's Alvin Maker series is not as popular as his Ender series, but it exemplifies his knack for combining folklore and fantasy. It's no wonder that Steve Harris, one of metal's most literary-minded songwriters, took to Seventh Son, Card's book about a boy who hangs out with William Blake. The lyrics to "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" aren't going to get anyone out of a book report, but along with the music they'll quench your sci fi/fantasy metal needs.