I watched The Song Remains The Same (off of You Tube on the desk top-- Tom Verlaine's Television is the only TV in my house) and I realized it was a much better movie all those years ago when I was stoned. Plant & Krause was a delightful surprise for me. It was hard not to miss Zep on the radio, all the "Classic Rock Bands", really, but for the most part I did, because there was a great Alternative/Underground FM (and AM during daylight) station--- KFML, and NPR had a jazz programmed station, and there was a station that played Soul and Staxx, and Motown (which I remember as a weak signal), and Saturday was Gunther Aurbach's (I hope I got the name right) German/Polka show... Later on Bill Ashford took over programming on an AM country station and it went classic country in a big way (yay!) I wasn't aware of Nugent's "Stranglehold" until middle age. Such a sheltered life... I probably have four, maybe five, "classic" Zep albums and today and tomorrow will be the last record cleaning days before hand surgery, so along with Delbert McClinton, and the Texas section, I'll throw them in and step back in the way back machine.....I'm looking forward to my recovery. I rambled, sorry. What I could have said in one sentence, but never do, is that Robert Plant has grown on me, maybe because of The Honeydrippers, and the Moroccan/Egyptianl/ Najma Akhtar material on No Quarter. MERRY CHRISTMAS and/or Winter Solstice, Festivus..... wat evah... I hope 2024 is a better year than '23, but that's a pretty low bar.
Robert Plant
I’ve been a Zeppelin fan since I was a little kid. Was obsessed with them in high school. I always thought Plant was one of the best singers in rock and roll. A lot of people still do. I never saw Zep but did see Plant in concert several times in the 80s/90s.
Over the decades I find that I don’t listen to Zep all that much for whatever reason.
This Christmas Eve morning I stayed home from church because of a nasty cold and dug out some of my old LPs. One of them was a bootleg (at the time) of Zeppelin's live BBC performances. I bought it used in 1984 for $20 which was a ton of money for me back then. (You can get this on Qobuz etc now.)
About 4 minutes into Whole Lotta Love the band lapses into a blues/Elvis medley of songs that is simply epic. The entire band is right on point and amazing as always but in this medley Plant really shows you his stuff. The range, the control, the timing, the soul. All there. Is he the best rock and roll singer ever? I can think of a lot of challengers to that idea but he’s certainly up around the top.
Give this song a listen. The initial part of Whole Lotta Love is not my favorite. But this medley and the ending are Zeppelin at its best.
Merry Christmas all.
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- 75 posts total
- 75 posts total