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Mon 28 April 2025 10:15, UK
Following The Yardbirds’ exodus, guitar virtuoso Jimmy Page took it upon himself to rebuild a band to rival the likes of The Who and The Rolling Stones. With Led Zeppelin, joined by Robert Plant, John Bonham and John Paul Jones, Page did just that. The band’s heavier blues approach, fuelled by Bonham’s thunderous percussion and Page’s rapturous guitar command, would become the perfect conduit for Plant’s powerful yet dynamic vocals.
As Page built his new incarnation of the Yardbirds, he carefully selected bandmates for both talent and demeanour. After catching wind of a unique rock singer from Birmingham, Page put his nose to the trail and found Plant at the other end. He was a golden-haired god who has since formed the very image of a rock ‘n’ roll frontman. If you think of a rock star, you invariably think of Plant.
However, the musical edifice hailed from humble beginnings. “I was appearing at this college when [manager Peter Grant] and Jimmy turned up and asked me if I’d like to join the Yardbirds,” Plant recalled of his first meeting with Page in a 2008 interview with Classic Rock. “I knew the Yardbirds had done a lot of work in America – which to me meant audiences who would want to know what I might have to offer – so, naturally, I was very interested.”
The frontman sang Jefferson Airplane’s song ‘Somebody To Love’ to Page during this first encounter. Tackling anything sung by Grace Slick is always inherently difficult, but he matched her soaring power with aplomb in a way that Page found almost peculiar. The guitarist later recalled the moment: “When I auditioned him and heard him sing, I immediately thought there must be something wrong with him personality-wise or that he had to be impossible to work with because I just could not understand why, after he told me he’d been singing for a few years already, he hadn’t become a big name yet.”
Awed by his seamless performance, Page added, “So I had him down to my place for a little while just to sort of check him out, and we got along great. No problems.” He remained puzzled by his unrealised greatness for the foreseeable. Eventually, 300 million record sales later, he would become puzzled by his realised greatness, such was the virtuosity of the singer he had unearthed.
With a big check mark next to social compatibility and vocal talent, Page and Plant got on like a house on fire and entered one of the finest partnerships in rock history. After establishing Led Zeppelin’s bold sound over two albums in 1969, they began the 1970s poised for dominion. Flower power was out, and their unique brand of heaviness was in—a more fitting encapsulation of the ruptured era.
It is widely accepted that Led Zeppelin hit an artistic peak between 1970’s Led Zeppelin III and 1975’s Physical Graffiti. Throughout this period, the band’s burgeoning capability was complemented by optimal intra-band chemistry. They had arrived at their heyday.
In a 1980 interview with journalist Tony Bacon, Plant was asked to appraise the band’s work. Firstly, he was asked to pick out what he deemed Page’s finest guitar work. After a pause for thought, he picked out ‘In My Time of Dying’ from Physical Graffiti. “It goes on and on,” Plant admitted playfully. “But it’s a great ramshackle blues slide. Straight off the top.”
Later, Plant was challenged to pick out his finest vocal contribution. Picking out ‘The Ocean’ from Houses of the Holy as his finest vocal achievement. It saw the singer go back through the repertoire of sounds that had inspired him throughout his life. Plant revealed how he used slapback echo, inspired by Gene Vincent’s 1956 song, ‘Woman Love’. However, he brought this classic rock groove forward with a bold dose of experimentation.
“The more you listen to rock ‘n’ roll and early rockabilly, [you realise] there’s some incredible echo effects,” he added. “They were promising you something that actually wasn’t for real, you know? The very idea of putting an effect on the voice, in this dream wonderland, this promise of safe love and no tears, whatever it is [laughs]. That’s what it all started from.”
So, in typical Led Zeppelin fashion, he was already assured enough of his quality that it was the moment he played around with new ways to package it that stood out as his crowning achievement. It’s a roving, rollicking yet highly nuanced take that isn’t just Plant’s best, but perhaps one of the best in rock ‘n’ roll history.
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