Re: My immediate thoughts on Robert

[Rob Weinstein <rawb.87@xxxxxxxxx>]

Zeppelin, too. Heh.

On Sun, Sep 13, 2009 at 9:54 AM, Rob Weinstein <rawb.87@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Take another look at this...if *I* went to a Robert Plant concert and
> did NOT hear a Zeppelin song, I'd be pissed.
>
>
> It wouldn't be the same, it might be a hack job of a performance...But
> I'd still feel cheated and end up saying the show was par at best.
>
> Because Robert fucking Plant will always be the front man of Led god
> damn Zepelin to me.
>
> On Sun, Sep 13, 2009 at 9:33 AM, Steve Thomson <zeppelin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
> wrote:
>> Wyatt Brake wrote:
>>>
>>> I have to wonder if the vitriol expended in Plant's direction by many
>>> Zeppelin fans would be more or less than it presently is if they had
>>> not reformed with Jason Bonham for the O2 show in December 2007.
>>> Would the resentment be of greater or lesser intensity?
>>
>> Good question, Wyatt. I think the level of resentment would be somewhat
>> less, but it would still be there for many of us simply because he'd still
>> be doing those twisted, "different for the sake of being different" versions
>> of LZ songs. What pissed me off personally after seeing/hearing the Youtube
>> footage yesterday is that the vocal performance was definitely good enough
>> for him to be doing LZ songs with LZ. If it were still 2005 and he was doing
>> that wheezing old geezer, out of tune/breath voice, I'd regrettably say to
>> myself, ok he's incapable of doing LZ justice and it would be just downright
>> embarrassing for all concerned if he tried. But that's not the case. His
>> pipes may not be Osaka 1971 capable, but he sounds closer to the late 80's
>> strong, resonant voiced Plant, the kind who could really belt out "mature
>> Zeppelin." Likewise, we saw at the 2007 O2 show a rejuvenated Page, a Jason
>> Bonham worthy of the drum seat, and of course Jonesy who never needed
>> rejuvenation!
>>
>> So the sad reality is that the window of opportunity was there, and Plant
>> blew it. In public, he played a cat and mouse game with the fans by dropping
>> statements denying any intention of reforming so he could point back to them
>> and say "Hey, I bloody well told you I'd never do it again" while at the
>> same time throwing out lots of little threads and hooks we could all cling
>> to for a possible LZ reunion down the road. It's no wonder some of the more
>> cynical among us have felt he was doing this in a perverse sort of way to
>> drum up publicity for Raising Sand.
>>
>> That brings me to a similar but different question. How well would Raising
>> Sand and the subsequent tour have done had there not been a 2007 Led
>> Zeppelin reformation with all the hype, media coverage, etc.? By 2007 Robert
>> Plant as a solo artist was a commercial failure. I know you liked Mighty
>> Rearranger, but face it, the album opened high in the charts on advance hype
>> but then nosedived off the charts. On tour, he packed a few big halls but
>> played to a lot of half empty ones too and often chose small venues sure to
>> be filled somewhat by those faithful fans who'd go supposing he read the
>> phone book! Had he gone from that directly to Raising Sand, it would
>> probably have been nothing more than a footnote.
>>
>> And so here we are in 2009, the window for LZ is gone. We can cling to blind
>> optimism and hope something will change in the remaining years these guys
>> have to be musically active, but my take on it is that Jones is gone, gone,
>> gone done moved on. Sure, that can be blamed on Page for apparently holding
>> out for Plant and not following through on the idea for a new group with
>> John and Jason plus a new singer, but I'm not talking about that, I'm
>> talking about the "reconstituted" Led Zeppelin, the band that wowed so many
>> at the O2. The momentum for THAT band continuing is dead. There's only one
>> person to blame for that. To hear him continuing to perform the music in
>> such a twisted way is something akin to his digging up the corpse and
>> painting it with clown make-up and dressing in some ethnic clothing.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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