No Quarter
Led Zeppelin
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Close the door, put out the light
Know they won't be home tonight
The snow falls hard and don't you know--
The winds of Thor are blowing cold
They're wearing steel that's bright and true
They carry news that must get through
They choose the path where no one goes
They hold no quarter
They hold no quarter
Walkin' side by side with death
The devil mocks their every step
The snow drives back the foot that's slow
The dogs of doom are howling more
They carry news that must get through
To build a dream for me and you
They choose the path where no one goes
They hold no quarter
They ask no quarter
They hold no quarter
They ask no quarter
~~*~~
Another great track from another of history's greatest albums.
I was 11 when this song made it to radio.
It haunted me the instant I heard it.
Two years later, at a dark junior high school dance,
it was played. I remember that vividly.
Young couples were up in the stands of the gym,
making out, and the dance floor was dimly lit,
and I felt so small, like I'd walked into some great cavern
that was going to eat me alive.
Later it was the go-to song at smoky high-school pot parties;
later still one could hear it, especially weekends,
spilling out of open apartment windows
near the university I attended.
I remember it being played in curious, odd clothing stores
in Boulder, Colorado, in the final days of that town's blissful ignorance
about how quirky and cool it was,
just before it became fully aware of its uniqueness and
thus collapsing into corporate sameness that tries
to be quirky and cool but fails, always, miserably.
I listen to it and I go back, and I feel the passage of time,
the loss of life, the birth of the new,
dust settling on everything.
As it always has.
As it always will.
~~*~~
Digital Art: The Iron Kingdom of Ferris Stratovarius by yours truly
~~*~~
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