First off, musically, Led Zeppelin was my first obsession. After listening to IV, I went and bought II on cassette (remember those?) and then proceeded to buy everything Zep. This included a VHS copy of The Song Remains the Same and the 45 rpm single of the Immigrant song, with Hey,
Hey, What Can I Do on the B-Side. I went to bootleg shops to get more live material, bought the Page and Plant solo records, the Firm, learned No Quarter, All My Love, Kashmir on the keys and Stairway on acoustic. I saw Plant on the Now and Zen tour, when he first started playing LZ tunes in concert again. I spent my highschool days making enemies by ragging every Led Clone and hair band while preaching the gospel of Zep. I followed every rumor of reunion tours, watched the Live Aid reunion with Phil Collins on drums, and hoped Jason Bonham would take his dad's place eventually. Eventually I resigned myself to the acceptance that a reunion tour wasn't going to happen. Plant's voice had changed so much over the years that really didn't blame him for vetoing every attempt by Page to do it.
Then the change began. I'm not sure of the order, but the offenses included selling Rock and Roll to a Cadillac ad campaign. Then there was the Coverdale/Page album and tour. This to me illuminated the rift between Page and Plant. Page wanted to relive his former Zep glory. After Plant went on record dissing Coverdale, possibly his biggest disciple, he goes on tour with Page, leaving John Paul Jones out in the cold and adding hurdy gurdy and indian accompaniant to classic Zep tunes. Also, Plant's vocal limits were highlighted by the pitch lowering of some songs and his singing an octave lower on others. Fine. Even though I didn't really like the changes, I could respect them wanting to put a new spin on it. I actually liked Page playing Zep with the Black Crowes better. They obviously put much more effort into their next reunion show, with Jason Bonham fulfilling his destiny in his father's place. No reunion tour followed, despite Page, Jones and Bonham wanting to. Again I put Plant's fear of his voice failing as the real reason for his objection. If he wanted to finish his tour with Allison Krauss, fine. The true fans would've patiently waited. Plant finally received a grammy for his work with Krauss, which to me seems more of another one of the academy's belated corrections, in the line of giving Jethro Tull a grammy for best metal album, which it wasn't.
Now Robert is on record trashing Radiohead and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Maybe his critiques are sincere, but it seems to me that he's become a way too critical. Does he disdain the music industry's glowing praise of these groups? After all, Zep got panned by the critics throughout their career. He goes on about how Radiohead's music is rhyming crap then said RHCP's music was like a nursery rhyme. Are you serious? Aren't you the one who shamelessly ripped off blues artists without acknowledging them, and sang the profound lyrics "oh oh oh oh oh oh, you don't have to go"? I know you think you've evolved and lyrically I can't totally dispute that. But you really come off as a grumpy sourpuss. Do you hate the fact that your Zep fans would rather listen to them than your bluegrass records or Elvis impersonations? Commercially your solo career success is directly proportional to the amount of similarity your songs have had to Zeppelins. And who the hell is Captain Beefheart? I have to download some now that your plug has aroused my curiousity.
