Plant's view on punk and his sexuality(long)

[darwin@xxxxxxxx (Darwin)]

Hi all,

With the current conversation about Zeppelin and punk and Robert Plant's
sexuality I found an interview from the New Music Express done with Robert
which includes his thoughts on the punk rock scene and his sexual persona.
Exerpts feom the interview follow:

"I'm never to far from Robert Johnson.  There's no way on this earth that I
could ever find his work tiring.  And then there are several things which
have come up very nicely-Fleetwood Mac have taken a nice turn.  Obviously
it's not new, but I do like that kick-in-the-air California-sand music when
it's played really well.  A lot of it went sour, but Fleetwood Mac have
brought something good out of it.  You can never get too far away from Mick
Fleetwood's drums, which is just like it used to be, the way he uses tom-tom.
   "Little Feat have always intrigued me.  They've never really got their
just deserts for what they don't play, rather than for what they do play.
Lots of varying styles appeal to me.  There's one track over here by a group
called Kansas that hasn't even come out in England, which is a big hit
single here.  I think they're probably a bit like bands like Boston, who
seem to have one good song on every album!"


"It was like playing in a living room tonight at Madison Square Garden.  You
could easily walk to the edge of the stage, just catch somebody's eye and
work to that person, like in any club.  Okay, so there were 20,000 people
there, but I'm willing to bet that nearly every one of them left that place
happy at what they'd seen.  It certainly sounded like it to me, anyway,
judging from the reception they gave us.  Let's face it, if Johnny
multi-vocabulary Rotten gets his act together he'll have to take it
elsewhere, leave Nottingham Boat Club behind, because they'll be too many
people to get into that size of a place and he'll have more people being
unhappy at his lack of foresight.  He'll just have to open it up bigger than
that.  He'll also have to change his act soon.  It's getting a bit tiring,
all that, because the dinosaur bands are still dancing."
Kim Fowley's the closest I've ever seen to him, but Kim Fowley's old enough
to be Johnny's dad, and Johnny's as old as me.  Kim Fowley's great, one of
the great innovators of all time, but he's so permanently weirded out on
such a nice level, freaky but great...anyway, I went to the Roxy and got
frightened to death, but at the same time I stood my ground for all we
dinosaurs, and I saw the Damned.  I found them very exciting, thrilling.
Rat Scabies is a great drummer.  He's no spring chicken either, and when I
look at those eyes-well, I know that those leapers do terrible things to
your eyes, but I can read the sands of time as well!  But they're good, the
Damned.  If they didn't have the paint and clothing ir whatever and just
came along and did it, they'd probably be twice as big as they are now.
Other bands?  I saw the group-what's that one with the 15 year old drummer?
Eater! Well, a lot of people need ti gi home and do thier homework.  I mean,
I play guitar on four tracks on our albums but I wouldn't DARE play on
stage....The Stranglers, for example, sound like an English Doors pre-LA
Woman.  So that doesn't do much for me or anyone else, really....But you'll
only be asking these punk rock bands or new wave bands, or whatever, if they
vary what they're doing because there is no staying power in staying the same."



"I suppose that if I wear a Wolverhampton Wanderers football shirt, that's
hardly sexual, but I still read a lot of things saying I'm sexually doing
this and sexually looking that on the stage.  If any of my movements appear
sexual, then they are really just accessories to the music at that point in
time.  I get quite heatedly involved with what's going on musically, and
invariably I'm right in front of John Paul's equipment or Jimmy's.  I'm
concentrating on what I'm listening to and I move accordingly.  There are
movements I do all the time, regularly, but if I was going to start
consciosly thinking about how I was going to appear, I might begin to take
myself a little too seriously in the wrong direction.  I'm a member of a
band.  I remember reading once something John Entwhistle said about "there
go Zeppelin again, saying how they're one big happy family and they'll never
break up and we've heard all this before."  But all those critics should
realise that I have no vocal acceleration or any vocal movements.  They are
all inspired by the music around me and the knowledge that I can do it
anyway and want to push it a bit farther.  And that could only come from
playing with people who surprise you.  Like Jimmy's solo tonight on No
Quarter-it was just fantastic, very well constructed in such a manner
different from before, so I cant help but respond differently to that."


Well that is just an excerpt from a very lengthy interview done by Ray
Coleman on June 25th, 1977.  Hope it didnt bore you too much but Im sure a
few might find it interseting.

"Now I've got friends who will give me thier shoulder
In event I should happen to fall
And time and his bride growing older
I got friends who will give me, fuck all."

Rock on

Darwin