Superlatives
A Vulture series in which artists judge the best and worst of their own careers.
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Its a gray and miserable day in western England, butRobert Plantis in the mood to be challenged.
If anything, the mist is making him stronger.
As he likes to put it, Ive sort of woven my way through it all.
Or you could actually explain some of it away.
Nonetheless, I still know those stories, and thats what got me to those songs.
Mercifully, he chose the latter path this time around.
Think of No Quarter, The Song Remains the Same, Kashmir, and Ramble On.
And today onRaise the Roofwith High and Lonesome.
As a teenager, I was drawn to the work of C.S.
Lewis and Lewis Spence and the unknown works, or mostly forgotten works, of J. R. R. Tolkien.
The little shards and shivers that make myths and seek the magical adventure.
My first influence was coming face-to-face with other times before the mass onslaught of everything that we now know.
The whole idea of quest and the value of movement.
This area that we live in and around was once considered to be the end of the world.
So people came through here.
I was intrigued because I could see it in the buildings and in the landscape long before colonialism.
But then, of course, it was always colonialism anyway.
So, yeah, Achilles Last Stand.
I was unable to walk.
Then we move along and we leave that moment of enlightenment or madness or whatever behind.
I mean, does Black Dog work anymore for me?
It did in 1971.
Does it represent me now?
It doesnt represent me now, but maybe it still does in a way.
I was leaning on a lot of those Mississippi sort ofplays on words.
It seemed to fit in with the blues at the time.
But if I look back at it now, do I really think its meaning has changed?
No, because it was written in the spirit of the time.
It happened and then you move on.
Look, its 50 years later.
Its just a bunch of terms and phrases taken from African American shenanigans.
Whether its Beale Street in Memphis or Clarksdale in Mississippi.
Its just these are all a bunch of things put together in straight lines.
Id only ever co-written one song until I teamed up with Jimmy and John Paul Jones.
John Bonham and I took his mothers car and drove down to the first meeting and rehearsal.
So I didnt really know too much about writing.
I was wedged in the tail end of Dion and the Belmonts Dion DiMucci is a spectacular singer.
I also loved the lyrics and the shuffle of what was going on with early Buffalo Springfield.
The thought process was far more coherent and challenging coming out of America at the time.
Yeah, it was cute.
But did it make any sense?
I was 19 when I went to the first rehearsals and 20 when the first record came out.
So does Living Loving Maid (Shes Just a Woman) work for me now?
Well, I can dig it, but I dont really know the guy who wrote it.
I wouldnt recognize him in the street.
Nerdiest song for Tolkien lovers
This is a windup, isnt it?
So that gives me … no, that doesnt give me any parlay in this situation.
I have to say that The Battle of Evermore is the right thing for me.
Tolkien was a professor of medieval history and he lived and taught about 30 miles from where Im sitting.
He took his inspiration from the landscape, which Im a part of now.
In a few years, Ill definitely be a part of it.
In fact, hopefully itll be a few years.
The Shropshire Hills and the Clee Hills are where he sat and he saw the Shire below.
These stories that exist in what you would call post- or pre-romance or whatever.
The eternal rub of cultures is unremitting in this area.
Ive always been as into the world as possible.
I have a romance with Morocco southern Morocco, specifically.
And the Hill Country of Texas, Oregon, and Montana.
It goes back to what we talked about with the idea of journey songs.
I think The Battle of Evermore is that ebb and flow of the constant rub of cultures.
Theres no time more evident.
We care a lot.
Its a dirty job, but someone has to do it.
I probably need help.
These songs had gotten so much air.
My musical personality is the ability to sit down and work on ideas and themes.
I could say When the Levee Breaks.
It was an absolutely stunning recording.
But I keep thinking of him playing on Achilles Last Stand.
You just needed to listen to what those three guys were doing in the studio.
Listen to Jonesy with the eight-string Alembic bass.
Its just really, really something.
There was not really a great deal for me to do, except what I ended up doing.
And thats not very often.
TheSensational Space Shifterswere a mix of musicians my brothers indefinitely for the rest of my time.
Their performances were jaw-dropping and dramatic.
The personality of each player flooded the stage, and it was unbounding.
All the lyrics are so poignant to me because its about my return to the Shire.
The Shire draws me back and sometimes it leaves me in pieces as I take off.
The tension and release of Embrace Another Fall has been a major moment for me in all my time.
It was so difficult to get it there because it was crazy just trying to keep it under control.
But there it is.
Ive always spent time in North Africa.
Ill sit somewhere out of the way in the shade and listen to life go by.
I listen to the musicians moving around the cafes.
Its another way of doing everything.
I became more and more engrossed in it.
I cant really complain.
Because am I thinking about whether the public accepted it?
Or am I thinking about whether I accepted it?
We can give up because theres nothing else to offer.
Or we could just write and sit back on our laurels.
After John passed away and there was no Led Zeppelin, there had to be a way to go.
I went through all that stuff.
Ill write with other people.
Its a very intimate thing to do.
Its hard for anybody to expose themselves musically.
Other people with me, and me with other people.
I have a lot of songs under my belt, which I co-wrote with the members of Zeppelin.
It was a lot to live up to.
Phil Collins especially was a driving force and had positive energy with the first record,Pictures at Eleven.
With Phil, it wasnt so much advice as encouragement and consideration.
He was taking no prisoners.
Nobody was hiding behind the performance.
That was at the time when In the Air Tonight came out.
Yet he was still mixing and working with me while kicking off a particularly impressive andsuccessful timefor himself.
Hes a great spirit, a good man.
ByShaken n Stirred, I was so determined to become the opening act for Talking Heads.
I came back onboard again.
I think that was probably where I finally did find my way out of the passing of Led Zeppelin.
Who was I sitting next to?
What was going on?
I didnt even know the people anymore.
How did we move across from being a British blues band to this ridiculous achievement?
Well, ridiculous is a multifarious term.
We all stood back at the end of the sessions, reeling from the transitions throughout the song.
But Stairway to Heaven has its own life.
Later I often felt estranged.
It began intimate and vulnerable and sincere, and then the years carried on.
It was no longer ours and neither should it be.
Now its out there driving people to distraction and then maybe driving a hard bargain.
Ive left so much of it all behind.
And that night I was watching a reenactment clever, well intentioned, and respectful.
I was in the gallery peering and following an excellent display.
It had its own impetus.
I watched it go.
It was like a beautiful feather, balloon, or bubble.
Something out of a clay pipe that had been blown with soap.
It was just something that Id never, ever thought I would look at from this gallery.
I didnt ever see myself as smarting around seeing an artists impression of it.
It was a spectacular performance.
Im now a voyeur.
Im not responsible for it anymore.
Im not in guitar shops being told not to do it.
Im not going down the aisle at a wedding playing it with a flute.
I love the song.
It came upon me and stripped away all the years of being a part of all that.
It just rubbed it right back to the bone.
Because maybe it was all over for us a long time before it was all over.
It was definitely all over without John.
Were talking here about one song from 50-plus years ago.
Its just a magnificent performance to watch and it kills me every time.
It kills me in two or three different ways.
Its just like,Oh my God.
Some people are completely trapped in their achievements, and that must be real hell.
Somehow it was something very, very special, which I dont really have a great connection to.
It wasnt really about who did a great job, althoughAnns a spectacular singer.
The whole choreography of it was blindingly sort of a were not worthy moment.
Why you said yes toSchool of Rocks Led Zeppelin music cue
My response is: Why not?
Our songs didnt come from Valhalla.
Its not a preferred destination, either.
I like the idea of taking the hammer to another time.
Jack Black made a magnificent meal of it.
Its a killer guitar riff.
What a shame Immigrant Song isnt easy for kids to play, by the way.
Everyone gets it, young and old.
Its a great song.
Not only slightly ridiculous but ridiculous.
To give it to the kids is important.
Send it up, send it down, and just keep sending it.
Just dig it because theres no hierarchy.
There are great risks.
There are risks that are immediately attractive.
Jimmy Page has got that thing down.
I thought Immigrant Song was great because it goes back to the Dark Ages effect on my being.
Im sitting here looking out into the darkness in the building that was built in the 15th century.
Its not a fancy building, its just a building thats been brought back from a thousand different deaths.
I know that before the Civil War, before Cromwell came through here, and before everybody would hide.
Before, before, before, before, before, before.
That Viking side of stuff is very funny.
They used a huge fuck-off drum to choose the speed of the oars.
Everybodys seen Tony Curtis and Kirk Douglas inThe Vikings.
Its just so evocative.
So to give it to the kids, its great.
I mean, Jack Blacks got it right down.
All of my grandkids have all been able to play Jack Blacks riffs.
Because its all myth.
Ive watched the film and find it funny.
Im not responsible for all the decision-making when it comes to where we allow our music.
There are two Capricorns and one Leo.
We have to go through the whole thing together.
The music is dynamic.
But those arehard to come by.Its not easy to find that.
A lot of stuff is completely tasteless.
It just goes straight for violence and dynamics.
So when good ones come, its a different story.
You cant put it in the wrong hands.
Weve already done too much of that.
Fondest memory ofTheStarship, Led Zeppelins private plane
Im going to make it nice and PG.
They hadnt quite finished the paint job.
The planes were quite often just on theirlast legsbefore they ended up in the boneyard down in Arizona.
I remember one time we got on the plane and took off from Dallas to New Orleans.
We got up to about 8,000 feet or whatever it was pretty low.
He finds its time to quickly visit the bathroom.
And as he opened the door, his hat blew off and was sucked down the toilet.
There was this great sort ofwhoosh.
There was absolutely no pressure.
We flew from Dallas to New Orleans at 8,000 feet.
See, this is the trouble.
There are so many movies and so many things I know that are absolutely hysterical.
I mean, never mind the mystery.
We can do without the mystery and just talk about the crazy things that happened.
Alls well that ends well.
It was just another night in paradise.
