Ten Years Gone

A Fascination with Album Covers

As a kid in the 70’s, one of my favorite things to do while listening to records was to fully examine every inch of the album covers. I especially loved the ones that folded open, providing double the entertainment. Sometimes you’d find lyrics or pictures. Occasionally you’d even see something printed on the record sleeves, as well.

In this regard, Physical Graffiti by Led Zeppelin was a jackpot. The front and back covers contained windows so that as you pulled out the various inner sleeves, the images in the windows would change. One position would show the name of the album, and another would show the faces of the band members themselves, or anyone from King Kong to Elizabeth Taylor or an astronaut. Yet another view would reveal some of the tenant activities inside the apartment building. With all these cool features, the album was nominated for a Grammy award in 1976.

It was sometime in the winter of 1975/76 – putting me at nine years old – when I first sat down and listened to this entire album, while entertaining myself with its interactive artwork.

I would do this many times over the next few years. And while I enjoyed the entire album (with an amazingly diverse selection of music), my favorite song quickly became Ten Years Gone.

It really struck something inside of me.

I might have been a little wiser than my years, but I was still just a kid, doing kid stuff. Yet I remember that listening to this song made me somehow feel a little older, or, perhaps made me understand the concept of aging and the passing of time in a way that a kid shouldn’t yet comprehend. Somehow, I really felt like I understood the notion. I clearly recall getting goosebumps and a chill down my spine while listening to the song. If the word “epic” had existed in my vocabulary back then, that’s the word I would have used to describe the feel of the music and words.

Interpreting the Song

Listening to the lyrics, one gets the idea that the singer is reflecting on the passing of ten years, how it has affected him and how the decisions made ten years prior brought him to where he is today – for better or for worse. Was it destiny that took him to where he is? Did he make the right decision ten years ago? We can all relate.

Led Zeppelin’s singer, Robert Plant, has actually explained the story behind the lyrics. When he was a young and ambitious singer trying to make it as a professional musician, he had a serious girlfriend who eventually forced him to make a choice between her and his music. He couldn’t halt his music path, could he? He felt that he was destined to sing. And so the choice was made, with the girl left behind. But it was not painless, as you can tell from the song. Ten years later, Robert wistfully ponders this decision and how it changed the direction of his life, and obviously hers, too.

“Changes fill my time, baby, that’s alright with me
In the midst I think of you, and how it used to be.”

Ten years later for Robert….and he was now the front man of one of the biggest and most influential rock bands ever, in the absolute prime of their decade of dominance. He was essentially a rock god. Where would he be if he had abandoned his music and stayed with the girl? He seems to find this an intriguing question, with the answer perhaps not so simple.

“Vixen in my dreams, with great surprise to me
Never thought I’d see your face the way it used to be.”

Ten years can pass in the blink of an eye and yet the course of our lives can be drastically changed in those same ten years.

Not only that, but we’re all affected by everyone else’s decisions as well. If Robert had stayed with the girl, then Ten Years Gone most likely wouldn’t exist. You wouldn’t be reading this. My blog would have a different name, if I ever started a blog at all. The ramifications of a single decision are mind boggling.

Reflecting

When I listen to this song now, I not only enjoy the words and music, but I also can’t help relate to the passing of time since I first heard and enjoyed it. Ten years gone — heck, how about forty years? It’s so effortless for me to slip back into being a little nine year-old boy, attentively listening to music in his bedroom while either playing with toys or studying the album covers. Seems like yesterday, in many ways.

The subject of music is always “life”, one way or another when you get down to it. But to me, songs that encompass a lifetime — or cover the passing of significant time — are always the most beautiful and moving. Robert’s painfully raw lyrics, presented with a background of intricate and contemplative guitar work from Jimmy Page, make this song doubly epic. It’s simply a masterpiece of music. I’m amazed that a couple of kids could have written such a reflective song, so elaborately capturing the concept of life passing by, when they were only in their 20’s themselves.

Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti was arguably their greatest work, and I think Ten Years Gone is a perfect representation of everything that Led Zeppelin was: A dynamic yet powerful rock band that covered a full spectrum of music, lyrics and life.

So here it is – my favorite Led Zeppelin song. In fact, I was originally thinking of naming my blog “On the Wings of Maybe”, taken from a line in this song.

Enjoy. I’d love to hear your take on this one…

(Note: there’s no actual video here, so you can just play and listen)