The quiet feud behind Robert Plant and Jimmy Page’s “perfect relationship”
When Jimmy Page walked into the first ever jam session for Led Zeppelin, he did so with an idea: to stuff every popular genre of music into one cohesive sound. Simple enough, right?
Wrong. Page had spent years working as a studio musician and touring with The Yardbirds. In doing so, he had come up with plenty of ideas surrounding what his band would sound like, and while the idea made sense in his head, there was no guarantee that it would translate to others.
Call it luck, knowing the right people, or pure serendipity, but somehow, when Page went to rehearsal with his complex idea in mind, he found himself explaining it to the only other three musicians who were likely capable of comprehending what he meant. Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham were all able to take Page’s idea and run with it, in turn creating a sound which was varied, layered and unlike anything a world already obsessed with rock music had ever heard.
Two of the frontrunners for the band were Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. Never has a voice and a guitar worked together as effortlessly as these did. You would think they were the by-product of the same person, but they were actually just different entities perfectly aligned. Page had been looking for a singer for his band for a while, and when he eventually stumbled upon Plant, he figured there had to be a catch.
“His voice was too great to be undiscovered,” said Page, “I immediately thought there must be something wrong with him personality-wise, or that he had to be impossible to work with.”
The feeling was mutual, as Plant didn’t only enjoy the guitar work of Page, but his work ethic in general, as Page seemed determined to bring out the very best in all of his bandmates. “I’d already played with people who’d got the same amount of adrenaline and drive as I’d got and it just so happened that Jimmy had got more than I’d got,” said Plant. “He could channel it. He knew which way to let it go. And that was the best thing that ever happened to me, musically”.
“I’d found someone whose tastes were basically along the same lines […] Perfect relationship.”
Robert Plant on Jimmy Page
Of course, while their relationship was perfect to begin with, all good things must come to an end. Led Zeppelin decided to call it a day after the tragic passing of drummer John Bonham.
The band was already at a slight impasse during this period, and the death of one of their most pivotal members (and a dear friend) was enough for the band to split. Since then, the only reunions have been for benefit concerts, and it’s an inability to reunite fully that may well be the result of a quiet feud that broods in the background.
So what was going on?
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant are by no means on bad terms with one another, the two are happy to be seen in public and generally they speak pretty highly of one another. They do both have differing opinions on the band and on the creation of music as a whole, though, which means in different interviews the two are seen to be having a secret debate with one another.
For instance, Plant has always been vocal about the fact his voice isn’t suited for the heavy Led Zeppelin stuff anymore. As a compromise, he pitched some acoustic reunion ideas with Page, which the guitarist shot down in flames.
“A couple of years ago, I said, ‘If you’ve got anything acoustic, let me know. I’ll give it a whirl’,” he reportedly said, “It was hands across the water. [But Jimmy] just walked away.”
Meanwhile, Jimmy Page has always been frustrated at the fact Robert Plant is reluctant to fully reunite the band. “I was told last year that Robert Plant said he is doing nothing in 2014, and what do the other two guys think?” said Page in an interview from around ten years ago, “Well, he knows what the other guys think. Everyone would love to play more concerts for the band. He’s just playing games, and I’m fed up with it, to be honest with you.”
The two might not be at each other’s throats, but there’s definitely a simmering tension in the background. It all goes back to a falling-out over what a Led Zeppelin reunion should look like. These days, it looks unlikely the band will ever get back together, and maybe that’s for the best.
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