There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll
And she's buying a stairway to Heaven

When the Yardbirds broke up, they were still committed to several concerts in Scandinavia, so drummer Jim McCarty and vocalist Keith Relf authorized guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist Chris Dreja to use the Yardbirds' name to fulfill the band's obligations. Page and Dreja began putting a new line-up together. The band completed the Scandinavian tour as the New Yardbirds, before renaming themselves Led Zeppelin.

From the early 1970s to the early 1990s, Jimmy Page owned the Boleskine House, the former residence of occultist Aleister Crowley. Page claimed it was haunted, not necessarily because of Crowley, but because of its previous owners. "It was also a church that was burned to the ground with the congregation in it," Page told Rolling Stone in 1975. "Strange things have happened in that house.... A man was beheaded there, and sometimes you can hear his head rolling down.... there have been suicides, people carted off to mental hospitals.... A few things have happened that would freak some people out, but I was surprised actually at how composed I was."

I'm goin' 'round the world, I got to find my girl
On my way
I've been this way ten years to the day
Ramble on
Gotta find the queen of all my dreams

"The Battle of Evermore" is perhaps Led Zeppelin's clearest example of a Tolkien-inspired, nostalgic soundscape that attempts to situate the listener in a spatialized fantasy world. Robert Plant felt he needed another voice to tell the story that plays out in the song, so Sandy Denny from Fairport Convention was brought in. Her vocals represent the people as the town crier, while Plant's voice is the narrator.

Page and Plant were both enthralled by Joni Mitchell's songwriting. In "Going To California," the first-person narrator is looking for a girl just like her, one with "love in her eyes and flowers in her hair" who "plays guitar and cries and sings."

Now cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move

"The Starship" included a main cabin with seats and tables, revolving arm chairs, a 30-foot long couch, a bar with an electronic organ built into it, a TV set, a video cassette player, a den with a low couch and floor pillows, and a bedroom with a white fur bedspread and a shower room.

Plant, still recovering from a car crash while recording the album, sang his vocals in a wheelchair, which led to Page assuming most of the responsibilities at the sessions.

Been dazed and confused for so long it's not true
Wanted a woman, never bargained for you