"Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" is a traditional folk song written by Anne Bredo… Read Full Bio ↴"Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" is a traditional folk song written by Anne Bredon in the late 1950s. It was recorded by Joan Baez and released on her 1963 album Joan Baez in Concert, Part 1, and also by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, being included on their 1969 debut album Led Zeppelin.

The band was inspired to cover the song after hearing Baez's version. Both guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Robert Plant were big fans of Baez. Baez's original album had indicated that the song was a traditional number, and Led Zeppelin followed suit by crediting the song as "Trad., arr. Page". In the 1980s, Bredon was made aware of Led Zeppelin's version of the song. Since 1990 the Led Zeppelin version has been credited to Anne Bredon/Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, and Bredon received a substantial back-payment in royalties.

This was the number Page played to Plant at their first meeting together, which took place at Page's riverside home at Pangbourne in late July 1968. It is often stated that the song evolved when Plant played to Page the guitar arrangement which eventually found its way onto the album. In an interview he gave with Guitar World magazine in 1998, Page refuted this story, noting that he had worked out the arrangement long before he met Plant, told him he would like it on the album, and that Plant at that time did not even play the guitar.

It is rumoured that Page recorded another version of the song, with Steve Winwood, in 1968, which was never released.

At the 1:43 mark of Led Zeppelin's version of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", it is possible to hear a very faint trace of Plant singing, "I can hear it calling me" just before he sings the same line in full volume. It is as if he "hears it calling him." This "ghost" is the vocal bleed from Plant's scratch vocal, and it appears on the drum tracks, which were recorded live with the full band.

The band only played this song live at Led Zeppelin concerts on their 1969 concert tours, but Page and Plant brought it back for their 1998 reunion in a 9-minute version. When he played this song live, Page tended to use a fuzzbox. Led Zeppelin cite their best performance of the song to be at Copenhagen, Denmark, late 1968, during which Jimmy played the song with heavy fuzz.

A live, filmed performance of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", from Led Zeppelin's gig on Danmarks Radio at Gladsaxe, Denmark, on March 17, 1969, is featured on the Led Zeppelin DVD (2003).

Baby I'm Gonna Leave You
Led Zeppelin Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Babe, baby, baby, I'm gonna leave you
I said baby, you know I'm gonna leave you
I'll leave you when the summertime
Leave you when the summer comes a-rollin'
Leave you when the summer comes along

Babe, babe, babe, babe, babe, babe, baby
Baby, I wanna leave you

I ain't jokin', woman, I've got to ramble
Oh yeah
Baby, baby, I be leavin'
We really got to ramble
I can hear it callin' me the way it used to do
I can hear it callin' me back home

Babe, oh
Babe, I'm gonna leave you
Oh, baby
You know, I've really got to leave you
Oh, I can hear it callin' me
I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?
Oh

I know, I know
I know I never, never, never, never, never gonna leave you, babe
But I gotta go away from this place
I gotta quit you, yeah
Oh, baby, baby, baby, baby
Baby, baby, baby, oh
Don't you hear it callin' me?

Oh, woman, woman, I know, I know
It feels good to have you back again
And I know that one day, baby, it's really gonna grow, yes, it is
We gonna go walkin' through the park every day
Come what may, every day
Oh, my, my, my, my, my, my babe
I'm gonna leave you, go away
Oh

So good, see, baby
It was really, really good
You made me happy every single day
But now, I've got to go away
Oh, oh, oh

Baby, baby, baby

That's when it's callin' me
I said that's when it's callin' me back home

Overall Meaning

The song "Baby I'm Gonna Leave You" by Led Zeppelin is a classic rock ballad that explores the conflicting emotions of a man who is planning on leaving his lover. The song starts with the man making it clear that he is going to leave her come summertime. The lyrics convey that the man feels conflicted and sad about leaving her but he has to "ramble" and go back home where he hears something calling him. In the end, he makes the decision to leave her, despite his deep love for her.

The chorus of the song emphasizes his deep love for the woman and his struggle to leave her. He repeats "Babe, babe, babe" several times, showing his deep affection for her. The chorus ends with the line "I know I never never never never never gonna leave your babe, But I got to go away from this place." This line emphasizes his internal struggle and reluctance to leave her.

The final verse of the song brings a sense of peace and acceptance. He acknowledges that leaving her was not an easy decision but that it was something he had to do. The final line, "I said that's when it's callin' me back home," suggests that he will always carry a part of her with him and that he will return to her someday.

Overall, the song "Baby I'm Gonna Leave You" is a poignant exploration of love, loss, and the difficult choices that one must make in life.

Line by Line Meaning

Babe, baby, baby, I'm gonna leave you
I'm addressing my lover, saying that I'm going to leave them

I said baby, you know I'm gonna leave you
I repeat that I am planning to leave my lover

I'll leave you when the summertime
I'll leave you in the summer

Leave you when the summer comes a rollin'
I'll leave you when summer arrives

Leave you when the summer comes along
I'll leave you in the summer season

Babe, babe, babe, babe, babe, babe, baby, baby
I address my lover with several pet names

I don't want to leave you
I express that I don't want to leave my lover

I ain't jokin' woman, I got to ramble
I'm not kidding, I have to leave and travel

Oh yeah
I show agreement with my previous statement

Baby, baby, babe, I believin'
I address my lover again with affectionate names, and express that we need to go on a journey

We really got to ramble
We need to travel

I can hear it callin' me the way it used to do
I can hear the call to travel again, as I used to hear it before

I can hear it callin' me back home
I can hear the call to return home

Babe, I'm gonna leave you
I repeat that I'm going to leave my lover

Oh, baby, you know, I've really got to leave you
I repeat that I have to leave my lover

I said don't you hear it callin' me the way it used to do?
I ask my lover if they don't hear the call to travel, as they used to before

Oh
I express sadness or regret

I know, I know
I know, and I acknowledge my previous statement

I know I never never never never never gonna leave your babe
I reassure my lover that, despite leaving, I won't truly leave or forget them

But I got to go away from this place
Regardless, I still have to leave here

I've got to quit you, yeah
I have to stop seeing my lover, at least for now

Ooh, baby baby baby baby baby baby ooh
I address my lover again with pet names and express my emotional connection to them

Don't you hear it callin' me?
I ask if my lover doesn't hear the call to travel

Woman, woman, I know, I know
I address my lover with another affectionate term, and express understanding of how they feel

It feels good to have you back again
I express how happy I am to be with my lover again

And I know that one day baby, it's really gonna grow, yes it is
I express hope that our relationship will one day become even better

We gonna go walkin' through the park every day
I describe something we'll do together in the future, walking through a park daily

Come what may, every day
No matter what happens, we'll still do this every day

Oh, mama baby
I address my lover again with pet names

I'm gonna leave you go away
I repeat that I'm going to leave my lover and go away

It was really, really good
I express that our time together was really good

You made me happy every single day
I express how much my lover means to me and how happy they made me every day

But now
But things have changed

I've got to go away
I repeat that I have to leave

Baby, baby, baby
I address my lover again with pet names

That's when it's callin' me
I explain that the call to travel is coming again

I said that's when it's callin' me back home
I clarify that the call is to come home again

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Robert Anthony Plant, James Patrick Page, Anne L. Bredon

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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