Oh, that Zeppelin Song...

Recently, it came to my attention and now focus, that Led Zeppelin has many songs that simply do not have the title of the song in the lyrics of the song. Here is a list out of their 8 studio albums (Led Zeppelin to In Through the Out Door)

Immigrant Song, The Lemon Song, Out on the Tiles, Black Dog, The Battle of Evermore, Four Sticks, Misty Mountain Hop, Hats Off to (Roy) Harper, Trampled Underfoot, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, Over the Hills and Far Away, The Crunge, D'Yer Mak'er, The Rover, Night Flight, The Wanton Song, Boogie With Stu, Black Country Woman, Sick Again, Achilles' Last Stand, Royal Orleans, Candy Store Rock, Hots On For Nowhere, Tea For One, South Bound Saurez, Hot Dog, Carouselambra. This list totals 27 songs.

Then there are bunch of songs that make a mention of the song title once; Kashmir, Going to California, What It is And Should Never Be, Friends, Celebration Day (the word celebration appears), Heartbreaker, the song remains the same, The Rain Song (the word 'rain' appears), In My time of Dying, Down by the seaside, In The Evening, and Fool In The Rain (again, the word 'Rain' at some point in the song). This list totals 12.

So between these two lists, 39 out of a possible 73 songs either have one mention of the title or no mention of the title. And then there are 3 instrumentals that I did not include, so now there are only 70 songs. So out seventy, more than half lack having the title of the song in the lyrics.

So this brings me to why I am writing on this very random thing. I find it just odd that an artist would do this, why would you make songs that people can't remember the name? Are they simply suppose to go into a record store and ask, "Can I get the Zeppelin album with the song that goes ...." or "That song, it is about ...". It would be confusing to the record buying public to do this. Also, how were radio stations suppose to play the song, if some calls into the station and asks for "That Zeppelin song" there are many to choose from.

Led Zeppelin is one of the most important in influential rock bands over the past 40 years. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of bands exist simply because of the impact that Zeppelin had and for opening up the door for bands to play a heavier, harder, and louder, form of music. Zeppelin still is important today, even if the band has ceased to exist for nearly 30 years. But, it still puzzles me that they would make so many of their songs without the title in the lyrics. Maybe it is another part of the entire mystique of Led Zeppelin, the songs speak for themselves. Black Dog for example, the lyrics have nothing to do with dogs, but the title just sounds dark, but also quite cool. So, I was not able to solve the mystery in this phenomena, but I can conclude that Zeppelin may have done this move on purpose in order to further their own mystery and demonstrate that their songs were/are so well composed and supported by such talented musicians, that titling the songs in a traditional manner would have been just uncool, and un-Zeppelin.