Re: Robert's personal class, style, and grace?

[Steve Thomson <zeppelin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Good post, Glenn. I've been fairly critical of Robert Plant on this list and 
elsewhere over the past few years. This has been mainly due to an underlying 
feeling of almost outright betrayal I've felt towards him as a fan who followed 
his career for thirty years and bought all the arguments he made over the 
years. It's really only since the end of the Page-Plant project that I've felt 
this way. I won't get into the specifics, we've been through them all before.

What bugs me most is related to what I wrote a few minutes ago in the other 
thread, the part about Jimmy often being portrayed as unaccomplished and 
inactive since Bonzo's death as opposed to Plant the supposed ever onward 
innovator. At least a good portion of this is because Plant is a masterful 
communicator and a charmer. You find yourself listening to his interviews or 
reading them and believing what he's saying is the only logical and reasonable 
truth, that he does indeed possess a lot of personal class, style and grace. If 
you stop and think about it afterwards, then there are several paths you can go 
by (not two ;) : either you continue to fall under the spell and thus the 
class, style and grace remain unassailed; you think he's being clever and 
having fun with the interviewer and/or the fans; you realize he's a conflicted, 
troubled individual who can't quite make up his mind; or else he's a charlatan, 
a real con man. The reality is probably a mix
 ofall these and then some.

I read earlier (I think it was Joe's comment) that in his view, Robert will 
most likely never recreate Led Zeppelin again (actually he's only one of four 
people needed) and only did so because of his great admiration for Ahmet. I 
certainly don't deny how important Ahmet was to his career, but what about 
Jimmy Page? Like it or not, Robert Plant owes Jimmy a lot. No matter how good a 
singer he was, he'd been out there for a few years and wasn't experiencing any 
great degree of success in the business. Page and Grant rescued what was in 
reality a fading career that never got off the ground. Would he have succeeded 
otherwise? Perhaps. But he hadn't done so up until then in spite of several 
tries. Does Jimmy and the others owe him, yes that's true as well, but if 
Robert Plant felt he owed Ahmet Ertugen the effort to reform Led Zeppelin for a 
show, my God he owes Jimmy Page about 20 years more of constant touring by 
comparison, surely an album and a few gigs
 is not too much to ask!


--- On Mon, 12/8/08, Glenn Saunders <mos6507@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: Glenn Saunders <mos6507@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Robert's personal class, style, and grace?
> To: zeppelin@xxxxxxxx
> Received: Monday, December 8, 2008, 9:28 AM
> "Robert Plant is an absolutely brilliant and
> fascinating man who has a
> highly evolved set of professional ethics. He exudes
> personal class,
> style and grace. His life and creative accomplishments are
> indeed
> nothing short of a master stroke."
> 
> Remember that show LA Law?  One of its trademarks was you
> would have a long monologue buy one side of a case and by
> the end of it you were TOTALLY on that lawyer's side,
> then they would cut to a commercial.  But then they would
> let the other side pontificate and it would be equally
> moving, leaving you totally confused about which side you
> were rooting for.  That's kind of the way Robert Plant
> is.  He is an expert at rationalizing himself.  He is
> nothing if not pathologically self-analytical.  But some of
> the things he's done are clearly indefensible, like how
> the P/P project was handled regarding JPJ, bad enough to
> later cause him to beg for forgiveness on bended knee (and
> fail), or the way he left Jimmy high and dry at the end of
> the P/P project in a rather cowardly way, and now with the
> way he skulked away from a Zep reunion after months of
> self-serving equivocation.  Even Jason has his beef with
> Robert, namely that Robert failed to answer his call
>  when in rehab.  Robert had to explain that he was playing
> a game of "tough love".  But it's clear that
> Robert often does things in personal relationships that to
> him make sense but actually wind up alienating him or
> causing bitterness.  I mean, most of the fences that needed
> mending leading up to the O2 were between Robert and the
> others.  And despite that, Robert still had to say things
> like "I'm wearing an emotional condom".  There
> is a guy who, while he talks a good game, still has
> unresolved issues.