Cultural Influence
In the United States, the song is commonly played by marching bands at high school and college football games. The song is also one of the few Led Zeppelin songs to have been licensed for a film. For the 2003 film School of Rock, actor Jack Black filmed himself on stage, along with thousands of screaming fans, begging Led Zeppelin to let them use "Immigrant Song". The song also appears, in a slightly changed version due to licensing reasons, in Shrek the Third, when Snow White attacks the city gates, guarded by Huorns. She cries the characteristic war cry of Robert Plant, backed by the riff, as in the beginning of the original song.
"Immigrant Song" also appeared in the 1999 documentary about the 1972 Munich Olympic Games massacre, One Day in September, the trailers for the BBC1 drama series Life on Mars and during the Christmas 2010 episode of Doctor Who Confidential. Starting from the 2007 season, the Minnesota Vikings play this song during their team introductions and before kickoffs. During the 2007/8 football season, Brentford FC played this song immediately before kick-off. Late professional wrestler Frank Goodish, better known by his ring name Bruiser Brody, used this song as his entrance music, along with Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5". In Japan, he had a cover of this song without lyrics.
"Immigrant Song" was the name of an episode of That 70s Show.
The Max Weinberg 7 played this song regularly during Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The song was placed over an animation of kittens in Viking costumes on rathergood.com.
Comedian Denis Leary did a comedic cover of the song during his MTV Unplugged special in 1993. Vanilla Ice used "Immigrant Song" as the basis for "Power", a rap metal song performed in concerts in 1999. An instrumental version of the song was used in the opening credits of a 1973 martial arts film, Young Tiger, starring Fei Meng and a young Jackie Chan.
In May 2011, it was reported that Karen O from The Yeah Yeah Yeahs had collaborated with Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and fellow musician Atticus Ross on a cover version of "Immigrant Song" for the soundtrack to the English-language version of the film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, for which Reznor and Ross composed the score. This version can be heard over the "red band" trailer for the film for the International release and in the "green band" trailer for the North American release. The version was incorporated into the film's public release and plays during the opening credits.
The 2011 American pop hit "Loud Music" by Michelle Branch briefly quotes the song's opening vocal cry after referring to Led Zeppelin.
The Winnipeg Jets use "Immigrant Song" as their opening song before play starts.
Read more about this topic: Immigrant Song
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