Robert Plant Opens Up About Led Zeppelin Reunion, Failed Follow-Up With Alison Krauss

Rolling Stone ^ | January 6, 2011 | Andy Greene

[ConservativeStatement]

In the new issue of Rolling Stone - on stands and online in the digital archives now (subscription required) — Robert Plant explains to writer Stephen Rodrick why he was unwilling to keep performing with Led Zeppelin after their 2007 reunion concert.

[winodog]

Thats too bad. I saw them closing night at the forum. I think they managed two more shows in SF before he passed away

[Lancey Howard]

...we had it much better.

I've always played a lot of music around here, and my three grown kids have all said the same thing to me at some point. That is, they said they wish their music was as good as what I grew up with - - you know, back in the olden days. (gulp)

[Yardstick]

Yes, it was three nights in LA and it’s well known that the final album spliced some songs together from the best parts of each night. That doesn’t change the fact that at any given point in the album you’re listening to four guys on stage, and they sound huge. It’s not like they dubbed in a B3 or a second guitar to fatten things up.

[Hotlanta Mike]

Yeah, I liked that version of Stop.

Here’s some Bonamassa playing ZZ Top

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiw1XAb8G9A

By the way the drummer Bogie Bowles just left the group...got tired of touring. Actually started out playing in coffee house with Joe a little over 5 years ago!

There a a number of interviews with him on youtube that you will find. He also takes time to meet with fans and young people wanting to be guitar players. Quite a good dude...

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Anyone seen his live show lately? He’ll be here next month and I’m thinking about going.

[jy8z]

Taurus is the fourth song on their self-titled 1968 album "Spirit" You make up your mind which LZ song this is. Taurus

[equaviator]

THAT’s a stretch...Oh great-Oh-great-oh, flex-o-flex, I reckon!

[dfwgator]

I commented to my daughter afterwards how impressed I was with all the sound produced by just three guys.

You should see Rush in concert, no band gets more out of three guys than they do.

[equaviator]

Best comeback!

[Lancey Howard]

I saw Rush in 1975 at Bucknell. Rush and Kiss opened for Blue Oyster Cult. That was, by far, the loudest concert I ever attended (and that includes a couple of Black Sabbath concerts at the Spectrum in 1970 - 71). I was on aspirin for a week, which helped with the headache but didn’t stop the ringing in my ears.

[Mr. Mojo]

thankfully i saw Zeppelin live, opening night at Madison Square Garden, 6/7/1977...

That's a couple weeks before I saw them (at the L.A. Forum, 17th row center). They played six nights, just like they did at MSG. Loudest show I've ever attended. Too loud, actually -- something I didn't think possible when I was that age. Not nearly has tight as the '73 tour -- the 35+ minute "No Quarter" was a bit over the top. IIRC, the songs from Physical and Presence were the highlights.

[RingerSIX]

I don’t think I could pick a favorite Zep album. I just remember back in 1978 my friends and I were awaiting their next release for what seemed like a very long time. Presence had come out a couple of years before, but like you noted, it didn’t satisfy, and hey... we were nineteen or twenty years old and life seemed to move like molasses. We wanted and expected something like Zep I, or II, or III, or IV, or Houses of the Holy or Physical Graffiti. Something with hard driving Blues/Rock. Old school stuff, with an easy to play song or two for those of us who liked to fiddle with the guitar. (Ala Stairway or Going To California or Babe I’m Gonna Leave You)

But to us “In Through The Out Door” sounded like some sort of unholy cross between Elvis, The Beatles (back-beat stuff), The Beegees and Benny Hill’s theme song. It just wasn’t at all what we were expecting, and it drove us away from Zeppelin for years to come. Years later we joked that Zep had singlehandedly caused the birth of disco when that album hit the streets. :) (I actually ticked off a few people with that comment) LOL!

[equaviator]

..."Years later we joked that Zep had singlehandedly caused the birth of disco when that album hit the streets."... Disco as I knew it was already fading by the time In Through The Out Door was released. I think the beginning of the end for Disco was the night in 1979 that rock DJ Steve Dahl held court at Comiskey Park where fans brought in their own disco records to be blown sky-high during the 7th inning stretch of a Chisox game.Steve Dahl

[RingerSIX]

Wow, a whole stadium full of “Disco Sucks!” :) I’ve not heard of that event before.

The vast majority of disco did suck. And what followed in the early 80’s sucked pretty hard as well. Political correctness was rearing its ugly head in music more than ever before. Not that there wasn’t some good stuff as well, but I just remember the 80’s bringing on the first era where I “looked back” to find the music to which I liked to listen. I guess you could say it was my first experience knowing what it was to listen to “oldies.” I was no longer a part of the NOW generation.

The guys that we ragged on about the birth of disco being spawned by Zeppelin were much too young to remember all of that. They would have been < 10 years old when In Through The Out Door was released. Thus, as 2nd generation Zeppelin fans, they were ripe for being told stories by us guys who “were there!” :) It sure ticked them off.

[equaviator]

...”...at Comiskey Park where fans brought in their own disco records...”

Uh, scratch that...they brought in whatever disco records they could find and probably didn’t even have any of their own unless they were received as gifts from well-meaning friends or family. HAHH!