Masterpiece: Led Zeppelin IV

[Today: A memorable holiday outing...]

The morning of the Saturday after Thanksgiving 1991, Bobby Evans (my best friend since the first day of first grade – do friends get any older?), his girlfriend Dana and I jumped into his white Chevy pickup and headed into the hills outside of Eugene to cut down a Christmas tree that would later be adorned with lights and other trinkets of holiday cheer.

The land outside of town consisted of a series of parceled farmlands, each field of crops billowing steam into the frigid autumn morning, while the sound of our engine chased ducks and geese into flight across those cold, heavy fields. As we motored past these farms and towards the U-cut tree farm, Bobby’s radio fuzzed up and died, killing the classic rock melange that Eugene’s weak radio airwaves were coughing up. Without missing a beat, he clicked off the dial and launched into his own acapella version of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Going To California’.

Bobby’s not much of a singer – nor does he claim to be – but his version of this song on that day has stuck with me ever since. Whenever I hear it I’m instantly transported back to that cold Oregon Saturday morning, powering down country roads, with my best friend belting out a great version of a great song by his favorite band, simply because nothing could be conjured up on the radio. And this is one of the best reasons I love music – any music fan can attest to the phenomenon – it can instantly take you back to a place in time when you were a little younger, the music sounded a little better, and maybe there was just a bit of fog on the windshield and the slightest hint of pine in the air.

Listen: Going To California

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Tags: Bobby Evans, Eugene OR, Led Zeppelin, U-cut Christmas trees, zoso