Royal Orleans

"Royal Orleans" is a song by English rock group Led Zeppelin, from their 1976 album Presence.

When in New Orleans on concert tours, members of the group would stay at the Royal Orleans Hotel, and the song is reportedly based on an incident that occurred there. The story goes that, once when staying at the hotel in the early 1970s, John Paul Jones brought a woman from the bar up to his room, unaware she was a transvestite. Both smoked marijuana and fell asleep, the transvestite with a lit joint in her hand, which caught fire and burned the room down (though everyone escaped). The lyrics include lines such as "Be careful how you choose it" and "Poor whiskers set the room alight" to reference the event.

The song alludes to the fact that it was John Paul Jones from the line:

And when the sun peeked through
John Cameron with Suzanna,

He kissed the whiskers, left & right

John Cameron was a studio rival of John Paul Jones. The song also alludes to Barry White.

Also note that Jerry Cameron was from Cameron Sound, Miami, FL a sound reinforcement company which may have been used on the tour. This was supposed to be a compliment to include Jerry's name in the lyric.

In an interview he gave to Mojo magazine in 2007, Jones clarified the reliability of this rumour, stating that:

The transvestites were actually friends of Richard ; normal friendly people and we were all at some bar. That I mistook a transvestite for a girl is rubbish; that happened in another country to somebody else... Anyway 'Stephanie' ended up in my room and we rolled a joint or two and I fell asleep and set fire to the hotel room, as you do, ha ha, and when I woke up it was full of firemen!

"Royal Orleans" is the only song on the album credited to all four members (or any members besides Robert Plant and Jimmy Page). Vocalist Robert Plant wrote most of the lyrics, using the song as a way to poke fun at Jones, allegedly because of a comment Jones once made that vocals were the least important part of the band. The song was the B-side of "Candy Store Rock". Drummer John Bonham played bongo drums on this track.

Poet and folk musician Jack Royerton did acoustic covers of this song on his 2005 world tour.

"Royal Orleans" was never performed live by the band at Led Zeppelin concerts.