<P> `` When the Levee Breaks '' was originally recorded by the blues musical duo Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie . In the first half of 1927 , the Great Mississippi Flood ravaged the state of Mississippi and surrounding areas . It destroyed many homes and devastated the agricultural economy of the Mississippi Basin . Many people were forced to flee to the cities of the Midwest in search of work , contributing to the `` Great Migration '' of African Americans in the first half of the 20th century . During the flood and the years after it subsided , it became the subject of numerous Delta blues songs , including `` When the Levee Breaks '' , hence the lyrics , `` I works on the levee , mama both night and day , I works so hard , to keep the water away '' and `` It 's a mean old levee , cause me to weep and moan , gon na leave my baby , and my happy home '' . The song focused mainly on when more than 13,000 residents in and near Greenville , Mississippi evacuated to a nearby , unaffected levee for its shelter at high ground . The tumult that would have been caused if this and other levees had broken was the song 's underlying theme . </P>
<P> `` When the Levee Breaks '' was originally recorded by the blues musical duo Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie . In the first half of 1927 , the Great Mississippi Flood ravaged the state of Mississippi and surrounding areas . It destroyed many homes and devastated the agricultural economy of the Mississippi Basin . Many people were forced to flee to the cities of the Midwest in search of work , contributing to the `` Great Migration '' of African Americans in the first half of the 20th century . During the flood and the years after it subsided , it became the subject of numerous Delta blues songs , including `` When the Levee Breaks '' , hence the lyrics , `` I works on the levee , mama both night and day , I works so hard , to keep the water away '' and `` It 's a mean old levee , cause me to weep and moan , gon na leave my baby , and my happy home '' . The song focused mainly on when more than 13,000 residents in and near Greenville , Mississippi evacuated to a nearby , unaffected levee for its shelter at high ground . The tumult that would have been caused if this and other levees had broken was the song 's underlying theme . </P>
when the levee breaks led zeppelin lyrics meaning
when the levee breaks led zeppelin lyrics meaning
13,000 residents in and near Greenville , Mississippi evacuated to a nearby , unaffected levee for its shelter at high ground
13,000 residents in and near Greenville , Mississippi evacuated to a nearby , unaffected levee for its shelter at high ground