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Wed 29 October 2025 4:00, UK
A lot of people tend to forget that artists like Robert Plant are still human.
Say what you want to about the towering presence that he had during Led Zeppelin’s prime, but the version of ‘The Golden God’ that stands before the world today is a lot different from the guy who was belting blues songs at the top of his lungs every single time he walked into the studio in the 1970s. There were always going to be limits on where his voice could go, and ‘Percy’ could feel that his voice could only take so much after a while.
Hell, even before Zeppelin was over, it felt like Plant’s voice had started to hit the ceiling in terms of vocal range. It’s a miracle that we managed to get as many great vocals in the can as we did, but when looking at the track record that he had on records like Presence and In Through the Out Door, you can hear him slowly start to explore his lower range rather than reaching up to the rafters every single time he sang.
And should we really expect him to? Sure, there are vocalists like Rob Halford that can manage to hit high notes all the way up into their 70s, but those guys practically aren’t human half the time. They have done whatever it took to take care of their voice, and while it did result in a few mammoth songs in their later career, Plant knew that there had to be some time for him to evolve.
Which probably explains why the Zeppelin reunions ended up sounding so different. Their true reunion in the 2000s did end up capturing the same sense of excitement that they had in their early days, but even when he teamed up with Jimmy Page off and on through his solo career, fans were a bit disappointed knowing that they were going to get the same acoustic cuts that they had been familiar with ever since Led Zeppelin III.
Then again, there should be no slander levelled against the band’s third outing. It certainly wasn’t the same kind of record that their first two were, but hearing them take a few risks by getting introspective on ‘Tangerine’ and downright ethereal on ‘Friends’ is what made the record so special. And it’s not like they didn’t manage to kick down the door once ‘Immigrant Song’ opened up the record.
But even then, Plant had to admit that there was no chance he was going to be singing that tune into his twilight years, saying, “We were great when we were great. I was part of something magnificent which broke the Guinness Book of Records, but in the end, what are you going to get out of it? Who are you doing it for? You have to ask these questions: who pays the piper, and what is valuable in this life? I don’t want to scream ‘Immigrant Song’ every night for the rest of my life, and I’m not sure I could.”
Even if Plant isn’t singing it, that hasn’t stopped the song from being one of the go-to choices for people that want to show off their hard rock vocal chops. The excitement of the riff alone is enough to make anyone want to take on a god, and if you’re in the right mood for it, that scream alone can make you want to grab up a battle-axe and start laying waste to everyone that stands in your path.
Since Plant has been spending time working on traditional blues tunes and the occasional record with Allison Krauss, it’s not like people are asking that vocalist to somehow stretch his larynx like that again. Besides, we have the next best thing with Jack Black, so Plant deserves to have a rest from the tune.
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