"IMMIGRANT SONG" LED ZEPPELIN (1970)

This month, I’m looking back at movies and tv shows to rediscover songs that graced the screen. The scenes and the music are inseparable. They’re engrained in our heads and our hearts. And they’re proof that the best music we have doesn’t exist in isolation. It attaches itself to a moment or an experience. #SceneSongs

Movie: School Of Rock

Jack Black’s love of rock & roll is well-documented. His obsession with rock is felt every time he talks about it — from Rush documentaries to his Kennedy Center honorary speech for Led Zeppelin to the movie School of Rock. It’s like he was just being himself throughout the movie, not simply acting. Jack’s passion is its clearest when he belts Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” in the van scene like every fan wants to — if it weren’t for the fear of permanently damaging our vocal cords.

“Immigrant Song” is Zeppelin in a nutshell. I think that’s why I love this song so much. Mythic-inspired lyrics. Plant’s larger-than-life howl. Page’s epic guitar riff. Bonzo and Jonesy driving the rhythm forward like a wrecking ball. Who else can make Nordic mythology this appealing and infectious? The answer is nobody. Anything else would just feel and sound like a musical parody.

“WE COME FROM THE LAND OF THE ICE AND SNOW FROM THE MIDNIGHT SUN WHERE THE HOT SPRINGS FLOW.”