In The Studio with Redbeard

Tag: Robert Plant

  • Led Zeppelin IV- Jimmy Page, Robert Plant

    Led Zeppelin IV- Jimmy Page, Robert Plant

    It is one of rock history’s most popular, as well as most important, releases from Led Zeppelin. Officially untitled (Jimmy Page explains why here), what became known as Led Zeppelin IV forged the molten metal template for all hard rock that followed in the Seventies. Yet Page’s superb acoustic guitar, mandolin, plus the voice of Robert Plant that all weave and soar like eagles on “Battle of Evermore” (with the late Sandy Denny from Fairport Convention guesting), “Going to California”, and “Stairway to Heaven” provided the contrast Led Zeppelin mastermind Jimmy Page calls “light and shade”, emulated by pop, rock, and country musicians ever since.

    Anyone assuming that Led Zeppelin‘s allure was limited to the decade of the Seventies, or even the 20th century, simply has not been paying attention: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction 1995; Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award 2005; a single performance in November 2007 at London’s O2 Arena had six MILLION ticket requests; recipients for its lifetime contribution to American culture at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2012, awarded by US President Barack Obama; and winners of the Grammy Award in 2014 for the recording of that O2 concert. In 2014 the first three Led Zeppelin albums were re-issued as deluxe expanded editions, with all three debuting in the Top Ten on Billboard‘s album sales chart! The impressive reissue campaign continued with deluxe expanded remastered editions of one of the biggest sellers in rock history, Led Zeppelin IV (23 million sold just in the US; that’s third best all time), with single, deluxe two disc, and super deluxe boxed set versions on compact disc, vinyl record, and digital download available of each.In this classic rock interview Jimmy Page and Robert Plant reveal the details of making “Rock and Roll”,”Misty Mountain Hop”, “Going to California”,”When the Levee Breaks”, “Black Dog”, and “Stairway to Heaven”. Page and Plant are my guests here In the Studio. –Redbeard

  • Jimmy Page/ Robert Plant- No Quarter: UnLedded 25th Anniversary

    Jimmy Page/ Robert Plant- No Quarter: UnLedded 25th Anniversary

    “Moroccan vocal music is just like blues from Mars!” exclaims Robert Plant in today’s Medium Rare interview. The MTV Unplugged television series was getting long in the tooth by the time Robert Plant agreed to join Jimmy Page on it in 1994, but in spawning a US Top 5 selling platinum album No Quarter: UnLedded , an award-winning top-selling DVD, and a sold out 1994 US arena tour, no one got more mileage from the concept. And by playing loose & liberally with the unspoken unplugged  norms, nobody achieved more spectacular musical results, either. Just listen to the sublime “The Rain Song”, “Gallows Pole”,”Four Sticks“, and of course “Kashmir” with Egyptian ensemble,mandolin, banjo, didjeridu, hurdy-gurdy…and the London Metropolitan Orchestra. –Redbeard  

  • Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, Robert Plant Recall Rehearsal

    Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, Robert Plant Recall Rehearsal

    “I controlled the level of the PA from an amplifier that sat in front of the bass drum,” Robert Plant mused to me about Led Zeppelin’s first public performance November 9, 1968 at The Roundhouse at Chalk Farm. On  Rolling Stone‘s  Top 500 Albums of All Time list, magazine writers, contributors, and hundreds of recording artists ranked Led Zeppelin‘s January 1969 debut at #29. The UK magazine Uncut‘s list of the “100 Greatest Debut Albums placed it at no less than #7, but when the Q glossy compiled “The 21 Albums That Changed Music”, Led Zeppelin 1    clocked in at a breathtaking #6 on that uber-elite accounting. “Heavy metal still lives in its shadow”,  Rolling Stone reminds us. Not bad for a fifty-plus  old pensioner.
    This remarkable first effort from young but experienced in-demand London session players Jimmy Page of the Yardbirds and John Paul Jones, plus unknowns Robert Plant and John Bonham, redefined the limits of rock music while magnifying its visceral power, its reckless abandon, and yes, some of its faults. Case in point: Led Zeppelin 1 received a surprising number of negative critical reviews from leading rock writers at Melody Maker, the Village Voice, and the aforementioned upstart Rolling Stone, whose heavy metal harangue blathered on whether white Anglo boys could play black American blues without exploiting  the originators, a specious argument since the white music critics didn’t see the hypocrisy in them writing about African-American blues musicians for money while co-opting every lyric phrase and song title ( “Rolling Stone” is a Muddy Waters song, for Pete’s sake). The manufactured debate eventually was squashed by Led Zeppelin’s sheer worldwide popularity.

    John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant were  awarded America’s highest cultural award by President Barack Obama before the 2013 Kennedy Center Honors gala for , among others, the songs on the January 1969 debut such as “Good Times, Bad Times”,”Babe I’m Gonna Leave You”,”Dazed and Confused”,”Communication Breakdown”, and Willie Dixon‘s “I Can’t Quit You”, while Page has released  deluxe editions of the first three Led Zeppelin albums with alternate mixes, previously unreleased live performances, and remastered sound. Page and Plant are my guests In the Studio for this  classic rock interview.- Redbeard

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