The song started out as a song about Californian earthquakes and when Jimmy Page, audio engineer Andy Johns and band manager Peter Grant travelled to Los Angeles to mix "Led Zeppelin IV", they coincidentally experienced a minor earthquake. At this point it was known as "Guide to California". In an interview he gave to "Spin" magazine in 2002, Plant stated that the song "might be a bit embarrassing at times lyrically, but it did sum up a period of my life when I was 22."