Plant has spoken often about what this song is all about, and I'm a collector of their live recordings, so I've heard it often. In his words (per his intros from the 1973 shows in New Orleans, Mobile, and Salt Lake City), it's "about how you can travel half way around the world and people are pretty much the same..." That's a quote. They had just gone through India, Australia, etc, early in 1972, prior to the song's recording. They had experienced many cultures and societies, but the song - being music - was the same world wide. People of all languages and cultures could communicate as one with music, and that no matter where in the world we might go, we'd still see the same people.
Plant has spoken often about what this song is all about, and I'm a collector of their live recordings, so I've heard it often. In his words (per his intros from the 1973 shows in New Orleans, Mobile, and Salt Lake City), it's "about how you can travel half way around the world and people are pretty much the same..." That's a quote. They had just gone through India, Australia, etc, early in 1972, prior to the song's recording. They had experienced many cultures and societies, but the song - being music - was the same world wide. People of all languages and cultures could communicate as one with music, and that no matter where in the world we might go, we'd still see the same people.