Verse I: All That Glitters Is Gold
“There’s a lady who’s sure
All that glitters is gold.”
Robert Plant said to Total Guitar magazine in 1998: “It was some cynical aside about a woman getting everything she wanted all the time without giving back any thought or consideration. The first line begins with that cynical sweep of the hand… and it softened up after that.”
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This lyric was also alluded to by J. R. R. Tolkien. In The Lord of the Rings, the poem goes:
“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.”
Zep actually took a lot from Tolkien. They used his works as inspiration for their 1969 track Ramble On.