And the mailing list echoes with laughter...

[TangerineMan <tangerineman@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thomas Friend (we're not sure whose friend he is, exactly), writes, among
other things:

> In ³Achilles Last Stand,² off the Presence album, Robert Plant sang of
> ³Albion² who will ³rise again,² at 5:35 into the song. At the end of the The
> Song Remains the Same film, you can see that Albion is associated with
> ³flames² in the credits:
> BRON YR AUR
> AUTUMN LAKE
> Music Published by
> Flames of Albion Music Inc.
>    Therefore, if Pan is in the forest of eternity, and he is going to rise
> again, and Albion is going to rise again, who is also associated with flames,
> it is safe to assume that Plant was singing of the Devil in ³Achilles Last
> Stand² when making reference to Albion, especially since prior to mentioning
> Albion he makes direct reference to the Devil at 1:35.

I will ignore the fact that the logic in this particular argument is flawed,
and focus instead on an obvious lacuna in your cultural knowledge that
suggests, to me at least, that you are ill-prepared to discourse
convincingly on this subject in particular, and perhaps on any other.

Here's the dumbed-down version: you have no idea what "Albion" is, so why
should anybody who reads your stuff take anything you write seriously?

When you write "'Albion,' who will 'rise again,'" your use of the relative
pronoun "who," rather than "which," reveals your mistaken impression that
the name refers to a person. As anyone with more than a passing interest in
the music of Led Zeppelin would know--indeed, as anyone with a modicum of
general cultural knowledge might be expected to know--Albion is an old name
for Britain or England, from the Celtic "Albio."

When researching a book, if one hopes to remain objective (an important
prerequisite for having credibility, I might add), one should normally look
up the definition of every term one is going to write about.

But since you obviously are not interested in objectivity (or in being taken
seriously), and knowledge the true significance of Albion does not serve
your argument, why mention it, right?

Or you could have researched any of the cogent analyses of Led Zeppelin's
lyrics available on the Web, and seen that "Achilles' Last Stand" is about,
in part, the desire to see a more traditional, rural, pagan England (Albion)
"rise again" to counter the oppression of industrialism. The same could be
said of the lyrics to "Stairway to Heaven." And it's a theme in Tolkien as
well; Tolkien having been a significant influence on Robert Plant's lyric
writing.

Do a little more research, stop focusing obsessively on a single issue, and
more people might read you.

If you've read this far, Mr. Friend, let me just add that your actions on
this list are being closely monitored. You are potentially in contravention
of this list's charter and, despite the fact that it is unmoderated and
designed to be self-policing, there is always the potential for some sort of
action to be taken against abusers by the list administrators.

The content of your posts is arguably on-topic, but there is also a strong
case to be made for it constituting spam. Consider yourself warned.

Michael Gilson
FBO Committee Member