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Stairway to Heaven: Fantasy, D&D and rock music

In 1994 the (then) new rock band Weezer released its first album with the eighth track title being a little song called “In the Garage.” The very first line of the song mentions the Dungeon Master’s Guide. The second line brings up a 12-sided die.

That same year a silly movie called “Airheads” hit the theaters. It’s about three stoner rockers who take over a radio station in an attempt to have their song make the airwaves. Towards the end of the movie, Dungeons & Dragons is mentioned.

Nerds throughout the world applauded.

Okay, yeah, such a little thing as bringing up D&D in a pop/rock song or movie might seem hardly worthy of note today, but you’ve got to remember that nerd and geek culture were far less accessible back in the day, and until then about the only time Hollywood had admitted D&D existed was during a scene in Spielberg’s E.T. Comic books, role playing games, even fantasy and science fiction literature, had not become accepted so much by the larger, overall culture, and often seemed shunted off to dark, little stores surrounding college campuses. Fantasy and the other speculative genres were often considered the stuff of children, worthy only of Saturday morning cartoons.

There were always the occasional spots of light in the morass that was mass culture, but they seemed few and far between. A big boost hit science fiction in 1977 when Star Wars was released, but broader culture still wasn’t fully accepting for more than a decade. Meanwhile, the rest of us watched old Star Trek re-runs late at night, shuffled off to basements to play role-playing games, and listened to our rock music.

Yes, rock music.

Specifically heavy metal and some portions of the hard rock community had reached out and pulled fantasy literature within its own folds. My guess would be this was an outpouring from the 1950s when folk music began to become more popular, and the days of the counter culture (ie. hippies) in the 1960s when there had been rather strong growth in the interest of all things fantasy, mainly the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and historical re-enactments, all things Celtic, etc. After all, the earliest days of Renaissance festivals in the U.S. got their start in California, then considered a hub of the counter culture movement.

Getting the Led Out with Rock Music

By the mid-1970s or so, some of the interest in fantasy had seemed to melt away from the larger culture, with perhaps the one big exception being rock music.

Most famously, the 1969 Led Zeppelin song “Ramble On” makes references to Mordor and Gollum. This was the most obvious Tolkien reference from this band, but throughout its career (lasting until 1980) many songs and even album covers leaned heavily upon fantasy and mythology. “The Battle of Evermore” mentions Nazgul, and “Over the Hills and Far Away” and “Stairway to Heaven” could practically be sung by a number of mythological heroes. In truth, the influence of fantasy upon Led Zeppelin can almost not be mentioned enough, as to no small extent the band built much of its persona and career from the subject, along with the blues.

Yet Led Zeppelin was not the only band to hold a fantasy influence. The song “Rivendell” was released on the band Rush’s 1975 album, Fly By Night. Made even more famous by Jimi Hendrix, the Bob Dylan song “All Along the Watchtower” from 1967 harkens back to a day of balladeers. Prog rock musicians from the same period, such as King Crimson, often focused upon folk music to the point of seeming downright Medieval at times, while also mixing in jazz and psychedelic sounds. Even bands which did not fully embrace fantasy imagery would occasionally put out a song related to the genre, such as Aerosmith’s “Kings and Queens.”

From the 1970s to early 1980s, the Southern rock band Molly Hatchet featured album covers from such famous heroic fantasy artists as Frank Frazetta, Paul R. Gregory and Boris Vallejo.

There is also the 1981 film, Heavy Metal, which is steeped in iconic fantasy, science fiction and horror. The soundtrack features works from the likes of Sammy Hagar, Devo, Cheap Trick, Nazareth, Black Sabbath and numerous other artists.

Still, while not so strong on Tolkien or D&D specifically, perhaps the most fantasy-esque era for rock music was the late 1970s and 1980s, especially during the first half of the ’80s when many a heavy metal album cover seemed to scream “fantasy,” sometimes even horror or occasionally science fiction.

Iron Maiden. Dio. Judas Priest. KISS. Meat Loaf. Whitesnake. Metallica. All of these and more showed some fantasy influence in the music, and often across the album covers, music videos, T-shirts, etc. Even in the late ’80s at the height of the hair bands, certain musicians continued to call upon Led Zeppelin and fantasy as an influence to their music and image, such as bands like Kingdom Come and, to a lesser extent, Great White.

And who could forget Queen’s 1986 album, A Kind of Magic, which was basically an unofficial soundtrack to the famous movie Highlander, starring Christopher Lambert as the unforgettable immortal Connor MacLeod.

D&D: It’s not all in the past

It might seem today as if fantasy is not a hot genre for popular and rock music, but it continues to rear its head from time to time. For instance, in 1997 the band Marcy’s Playground came out with a song called “Cloak of Elvenkind.” You can’t get any more D&D than that.

More recently, the heavy metal band The Sword has drawn upon a huge fantasy influence for its album covers and music, perhaps most noticeably with its 2008 song, “To Take the Black,” an obvious reference to George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire epic fantasy novels.

Then there is the Liverpool doom metal band Conan, the title alone a reference to the most famous barbarian of all time, the Cimmerian creation of author Robert E. Howard. With songs such as “Foehammer” and “Blood Eagle,” it would seem these relative newcomers have found their niche along with a long list of great company.

As I draw to a conclusion here, let me point out that the musical mentionings above are not meant to be an exhaustive list. I’m sure there are other D&D and fantasy-related bands and songs out there which have either slipped my mind for the moment or of which I’m not aware. If you know of such music, do me a favor and let me know about it in the comments.

Until then, keep on rockin’ and keep on Nerdin’!

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