Today marks the 75th birthday of the man considered by many to be the greatest rock vocalist of them all - the King of 70s stadium rock and the godfather of metal.
Happy Birthday Robert Anthony Plant.
The Early Years
Plant was born on 20 August 1948 in West Bromwich in England's West Midlands, the son of a civil engineer and a mother with Romani roots. He would grow up in Halesowen, another Birmingham suburb a few miles south.
He was influenced by the burgeoning rock n roll scene, especially Elvis Presley, but later also by the blues of people like Willie DIxon and Robert Johnson.
He had an unsuccessful spell as a trainee accountant, which lasted two whole weeks, before returning to college and simultaneously immersing himself in the Midlands blues scene of the mid-60s. He would have brief stints in other jobs, including as a tarmac layer and behind the counter in a local Woolworths.
But his reputation as a singer began to grow. He cut several obscure singles for CBS and was in the band Crawling King Snakes, where he would meet John Bonham. Those two would then go on to form Band Of Joy.
Whole Lotta Zepp
Jimmy Page was already something of a legend, having already been an in demand session musician (The Kinks, The Who, Them, Marianne Faithful, Nashville Teens, Donovan, John Mayall, to name a few) and the last of the three great guitarists to play in The Yardbirds. When they started to fall apart in 1968 following the departure of Keith Relf and Jim McCarty, Page attempted to keep the band going.
He initially tried Terry Reid (formerly of the Jaywalkers) for the role of lead vocalist, but he turned him down. Then he happened to see Plant singing in a band called Hobbstweedle, with Page later remarking;
I immediately thought there must be something wrong with him personality wise, or that he had to be impossible to work with, because I just could not understand why, after he told me he'd been singing for a few years already, he hadn't become a big name yet. So I had him down to my place for a little while, just to sort of check him out, and we got along great. No problems. (Dave Schulp - Jimmy Page: Paging The Yardbirds)
With Bonham onboard, and bassist John Paul Jones also recruited, the band set out to play as The New Yardbirds, but quickly changed to Led Zeppelin.
Led Zeppelin: Communication Breakdown https://youtu.be/KqF3J8DpEb4
(Live at the Royal Albert Hall, 1970)
Page took on the heavy lifting for their debut album, but by Led Zeppelin II, Plant was starting to take on some songwriting duties, including Thank You, written for his wife Maureen. He would become famous for intertwining his love of Norse mythology (such as Immigrant Song and Rain Song) and Tolkein (like Battle Of Evermore, Misty Mountain Hop and Ramble On) into his lyrics. By Led Zeppelin III in 1970, Plant was referencing his love of Asian music, which he had absorbed as a child growing up in multicultural 1960s west Birmingham.
Led Zeppelin: Thank You https://youtu.be/12KbOAc8vmk
(Audio only)
With Bonham's sad demise at the end of 1980, so came the end of Led Zeppelin, probably the most storied band of the previous decade. The following year, Plant was considering ditching rock music altogether and becoming a trainee teacher, but was encouraged by Phil Collins to carry on and go solo.
Solo
Pictures At Eleven, his debit solo album was released in 1982, but this phase is probably best marked by the trio of albums he worked on with Phil Johnstone - Now And Zen (1988), Manic Nirvana (1990) and Fate Of Nations (1993). He rounded off this phase with an appearance at Glastonbury in 1993.
There was a brief Zeppelin reunion - for the massive Live Aid concert of 1985 - which saw the remaining three members joined by Tony Thompson and Phil Collins as guest drummers.
Collaborations
He was back with his old sparring partner, Jimmy Page, in 1994, and over the next four years they would put out No Quarter and Walking Into Clarksdale. They also managed another Zeppelin reunion, this time for their induction into the Rock n Roll Hall Of Fame. This time, the trio were joined by Jason Bonham (John's son) and Neil Young, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry.
The end of the millennium saw him playing in a folk band called Priory Of Brion, who toured playing lots of small club gigs. He was back in the limelight, to some extent, in 2007, when he collaborated with country-bluegrass star, Alison Krauss. The result was Raising Sand, a fantastic album of less well known country and R&B covers, by the likes of the Everly's, Townes Van Zandt and Tom Waits.
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss: Gone Gone Gone https://youtu.be/9YVRxAX6fwg
(Official video - Everly Brother cover)
There was also time amongst all that, for one more (perhaps final) Zeppelin reunion - this time for a tribute to Ahmet Ertugan (founder of Atlantic Records). It was their first full-length show in almost three decades.
Led Zeppelin: Rock and Roll https://youtu.be/K793n62HvaI
(Ahmet Ertugan tribute - O2 Arena, 2007)
Band Of Joy were reformed for 2010-11 with a tour and an album, before Plant formed a backing band called the Sensational Space Shifters, who worked with him for much of the decade. Members included, at different times, Liam Tyson from Cast, John Baggott from Massive Attack and Patty Griffin (his muse and later girlfriend).
Robert Plant & The Sensational Space Shifters: The May Queen
(Live at Manchester Apollo, 2017)
Life and legacy
Plant was married to Maureen in 1968, with whom he had three children - Carmen, Karac and Logan. Karac tragically died aged 5, and the song All My Love was written by Plant and John Paul Jones for him).
In 1991, he had a son called Jesse, from a relationship with Shirley Wilson (Maureen's sister). He was later in a relationship with collaborator Patty Griffin.
In 2009, Plant was made a Vice President of his beloved Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, of whom he has been a fan since the age of five.
While he has undoubtedly inspired and influenced many of the great rock singers that have come since the 1970s, such as Sammy Hagar and Axl Rose, there can perhaps be no greater indication of that influence than that he had on Freddie Mercury. Brian May would later recount that a young Mercury modelled himself on Plant and tried to emulate his style on stage. Considering that Mercury himself, is considered one of the all time great showmen - that is indeed an honour.
So, Happy Birthday Robert!