Lyric discussion by eggeggegg 

For me the song is exploring the vagaries of love, the desert is allegorical in its meaning I think, even if 29 Palms was featured in a real life romance either personally experienced or read about. Though on reflection upon listening to the track I think to be able to write a song like this, you must have had first hand experience of something in your life, because it is mightily emotionally charged. I think it's possibly based on his own life experience of love and loss and the resulting confusing thoughts and emotions which derive from these experiences. The sense of isolation in the desert, the reflection, feelings, the sense of longing to return to a past or current love. Those landscapes, those places allow your mind to open up, like a moment of realisation and everything makes sense. I may be wrong, but this is how I interpret it. An amazing tune....Love it.

This may be another interpretation. Knowing what I know of Robert Plant, which isn't much, in regard to his tenure with Led Zeppelin, with songs like "Achilles Last Stand", "Gallows Pole", "Immigrant Song", "Kashmir", "Misty Mountain Hop", "No Quarter", and "The Battle of Evermore," I think the meaning of“29 Palms” may be more metaphorical in its nature. By that, I mean, he is taking a physical reality, that is, a particular location and the contemporary circumstance of the location, to convey a multi-layered explanation of its reality: not only its reality but our reality. Basically, Mr. Plant is using a...

line break paragraph the layers must be seperated to be digested

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