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With a band new album hitting the stores today with Alison Krauss entitled Raise The Roof’, Robert Plant has just been quoted in an interview with a British Newspaper that he has no plans to retire. At the age of seventy four and having been in the music business since he was a teenager, Robert Plant still has that creative spirit and the yearning to continue to grow and develop as a musician. It’s in that statement where one can easily read why its has always been his decision to not reunite Led Zeppelin or to embark on any sort of renusion tours. It’s in his blood to continue to grow as an artist while moving forward and not looking back. Any true fan of this brilliant artist who stands as possibly the greatest rock and roll singer of all time must respect the man’s wishes to be be seen as an artist rather than an oldies act. It’s that fever to create that made him so brilliant in the first place.
There is a world of difference between the mindsets of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. While Robert Plant has continued to release new music even over the past ten years, Jimmy Page has spent most of his time reshaping the Led Zeppelin catalog. That’s not a knock on Jimmy Page at all. The legendary guitarist understands what the music of Led Zeppelin has meant to classic rock history. The man has spent countless hours trying to make sure the sound on the old albums sound as best as they can in the modern world by remastering the catalogue over and over again.
The most recent reissues contained so many bonus tracks even though most of them were alternate mixes and rare outtakes., There is only so much he could do with that as Led Zeppelin pretty much released everything they recorded at the time. Still, preserving one of the most treasured catalogs in classic rock history is an important job and Jimmy Page deserves a lot of credit for taking care if it. However, it seems to have come at the expense of the man not moving forward as an artist as he has not really released anything new in a long time. You can’t say the same for Robert Plant who has continued to release new material.
You have to give Robert Plant a lot of credit as an artist for his will to continue to release new music across multiple musical genres. Despite being one of the most loved rock stars of all time, he has had to endure much criticism from fans who have written and commented so horribly about Robert Plant’s solo material. There are so many Led Zeppelin fans who just simply wanted Robert Plant to continue to release music that sounded like Led Zeppelin. Of course we do understand that mentality. Led Zeppelin is our favorite band of all time. They were Gods to us.
There is nothing we would love more, than to hear a new Led Zeppelin album. But you know what? If they ever did release a new Led Zeppelin album there would be thousands of fans and critics who could say they should have given up or it doesn’t compare to anything from their glory days no matter how good that new album might be. Robert Plant understands all of that. Is that the driving force behind his refusal to go back? Absolutely not. His fuel to continue is driven by his creative spirit and his long term standing as a student of music history and music itself. He proves that point in his recent interview.
When asked by the British Press and the Daily Telegraph why he has continued to work with Alison Krauss again Robert Plant answers by talking about how much he has learned from her. He so admires her work ethic and her expertise in the world of harmony. In fact, Robert Plant stated that he was happy to become Alison Krauss student as far a vocal harmonies go. That’s a pretty bold statement but it’s also an eye opening as to the depths of the man soul and spirit It’s always been about the music to Robert Plant. The man could have easily just repeated the success of his Led Zeppelin persona all these years. Instead he has decided to dig deeper as a musician and an artist despite the criticism. In a modern world of music where we hear the same thing over and over again from shallow artists just repeating hit formulas driven by their producers, Robert Plant has remained true to the most important person in his life…himself.
Robert Plant Intends To Keep Releasing New Music article published on Classic RockHistory.com© 2021
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