Re: Ten Year's Gone (zc)

[mark_dickens@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Nice job Tom. TYG is a song that seems like everybody can relate to. 
Hey, we've all been dumped one time or another!

Since Lybarger fell off the face of the earth, I think you could aptly 
fill in with your version of the LZ Song of the Day (or Week). 

Til next time,
Mark
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Ten Year's Gone (zc)
Author:  "Bergeon TC (Thomas) _at_MSXSEPC" <TB831668@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> at 
Internet-phila
Date:    7/14/98 4:15 PM


Time to add some zep content for a change (versus my ramblings on)
and where is our warm friend Mr Lybarger when we need him?

To the light where my spirit was born
more specifically 6th album side 3 track 4


~Ten Years Gone - one of the most hauntingly beautiful, emotion filled, warm
and yet longing songs in the whole Zeppelin canon.  Amazing that the origins
of this song were nearly 5 years before it's release and that such heartfelt
lyrics were inspired by the acoustic meanderings of James Patrick Page (not
vice versa).  This is Robert as his most endearing, passionate, caring,
insightful and longing.  Gone is the scorn of ill-fated love, here is his
soul longing for something that was, but wasn't totally meant to be.  A song
of first love, deep love...

~The intro guitar part is drawn out and emotive laying a solid foundation..

Then as it was
Then again it will be
Though the course may change sometimes
Rivers always reach the sea

        ~A longing to go back to something that was, or contemplate it's
memories warmly in the present.  We don't always know how things are going
to turn out, but in the end our paths mesh, separate, and we end up finding
an eventual destination in the ocean of existence.

Bright skies of fortune
Each our separate way
On the wings of maybe
Downy birds of prey
Kinda makes me feel sometimes
didn't have to go
But as the eagle leaves the nest
He's got so far to go

        ~As we pursue our dreams sometimes the paths cross, sometimes they
go separate ways, each following their own bright sky of fortune.  The wings
of maybe? ... the possibilities that lift our spirits to soar..  namely the
relationship itself, tender and cherished.  The eagle analogy of downy birds
is quite compelling.  Eagles take quite a while to fly, and are actually
thrown out of the nest by the mother, freefall and are caught by the mother
in mid-air.  This progresses until the birds are able to fly of their own
accord. And oh how they fly. Here we have either the safety of the nest /
protective aspects of the parents, or better yet, the safety / vulnerability
of that first real love relationship.  As the bird truly soars on it's own,
Robert leaves the comfort of the relationship to strike out on his own, with
much emotional growth and learning to fly after the warm comforts of the
nest/bond have gone cold.

Changes fill my time
Well Baby, that's alright with me
In the midst I think of you
And how it used to be

        ~Oh to reminisce on that first intense relationship.  Or any deep
relationship that one let slide through their fingers.  Robert is torn here,
yet with warm memories.

        ~The instrumentation so fully fits this song as it crescendos with
intricate guitar workings, restrained and dramatic percussion and true
heartfelt emotion...

Did you ever really need somebody?
Really need 'em bad
Did you ever really want somebody?
The best love you ever had.
Do you ever remember me baby?
Did it feel so good?
'Cause it was just the first time
And you knew you would.

        ~Here I think Robert is actually speaking directly to his first
love.  Yes the woman who told him it was his career or her. The very one who
"probably owns a sports car and a washer and dryer and is quite content"
Robert is longing to hear her feelings towards him, as he knows he cannot
deny his feelings he had, and still has deep down, towards her. Not to
mention his "you could have had all this" bravado.  Always wondered how
Maureen took this song, hummm?

Do the (or dewy?) eyes now sparkle
Senses growing keen,
Tasted love along the way
See your feathers preen
Kinda makes me feel sometimes
Didn't have to go
We are eagles of one nest
The nest is in our souls.

        ~We are refined by our experiences, especially our struggles with
the pursuit of love, lost or otherwise.  Feathers preening is the joy
exuberated from experiencing fulfilling love. Perhaps this suggests his
former love having moved on to another reltaionship. Robert longs here for
the way things were, and that warmth so fondly looked back on is a oneness
we all share as spiritual beings immersed in love and significance.

Vixen in my dreams
With great surprise to me
Never thought I'd see your face
The way it used to be.  Oh Darlin', oh darlin'

        ~Vixen?  The side of his former love that was painful, manipulative,
spiteful in the breakup.  And did it hurt when it happended.  Yet seeing her
in his memory before their love went wrong, brings back fond and enduring
feelings. Oh Darlin'

I'm never gonna leave ya
Ten Years Gone
I'm never gonna leave ya.
Ten years gone, holding on, ten years gone...

        ~here the interconflict tears away, he doesn't want to leave the
woman that was his long ago as her knew her then.  But the reality is they
both have changed, moved on, and the woman he loved and still longs for
exists only in his warm memory, but oh what memories....

the guitar parts that finish off this song sound like intense crying out of
the inner man.  The longing for what no longer is, and the optimism of
shining in the light of what is to be.  Indeed this song illicits the
goosebumps in my soul, and hits a little too close to home.  Glad to be on
the onward side looking forward.  Thanks guys.  And Zeppelin only wielded
sledgehammers, huh?

okay off to a cold shower

hope you enjoyed that one

Tom