Led Zeppelin Presence For Your Life Lyrics (revised)

For those who don't understand the song click

The lyrics came from the song book Led Zeppelin Off The Record (ISBN 1-85909-253-5) Order Ref 2912A, isolated voice track and band member comments.
I have done the best I can to verify the lyrics are correct and I realize some will disagree so it is what it is.

About the song:
From the book Tight but loose: His depressive state in Malibu gave rise to the venomous theme of ‘For Your Life’. “That was a bitter treaty with rock’n’roll,” he commented later. “The girls who in ‘Sick Again’ had been wonderful were now suddenly… well they were hung on the balance of a crystal paying through the nose.”

The girls in the song "Sick Again" were the groupies/girlfriends of the band while on tour.

From the 60's and 70's the terms "cook it" and "frying" meant to put a drug (like cocaine) into water heat it with a flame so it would mix for intravenous injection ("run it").

It appears that they/someone became hooked on "running"/snorting cocaine (Heard a cry for mercy (from a gutter) in the city of the damned, oh oh babe, deep down_ in the pits you go no lower the next stop's underground, oh__ how low underground.") and fell from grace with the band/Robert ("Your wine and roses ain't quite over, till favor deals a losing hand").

"You didn't plan it, you over-ran it" means the person overdosed ("over-ran it") and from the pervious "in the pits you go no lower the next stop's underground" alludes to dying if you don't stop.

So IMHO Robert is worried about someone becoming addicted and dying from cocaine use.

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