The genre Robert Plant admitted he “was so wrong” about and embraced in later life
Throughout his formative spell fronting the West Bromwich group Band of Joy and later soaring to fame and glory with Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant conveyed a deep passion for traditional American music. Most palpable were influences in the blues, the genre from which rock ‘n’ roll mutated. As a singer, Plant was particularly enamoured with the hearty projection of Howlin’ Wolf.
Plant was lucky enough to see Howlin’ Wolf during one of his early tours of the UK. Describing his favourite song by the Mississippi artist, ‘Forty-Four’, as “insane”, Plant mused, “The bands I’ve been around, everybody just marvels about the cross-timing of that stuff. I saw the Wolf when I was 16; he was on tour for about five or six years.”
Plant explained that, during his teen years, some of the most important blues artists toured in the UK courtesy of two German promoters. The “remarkable collection of musicians” included Skip James, Bukka White, Son House, Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, Sugar Pie DeSanto and Hound Dog Taylor.
Although the blues formed the solid base of Plant’s early musical education, his extraordinary vocal talent was shaped by stars of soul and early rock and roll music. When it came to soul, no other singer caught Plant’s imagination quite like Betty Harris and in rock ‘n’ roll, his first love was The King, Elvis Presley.
Presley was one of rock ‘n’ roll’s earliest innovators, whose influences resided mainly in blues, gospel and country music. Plant once recalled trying to emulate Presley as a child, using the small space between the curtains and the French windows for optimal acoustics. “I used to hide behind the curtains at home at Christmas, and I used to try and be Elvis,” he remembered. “There was a certain ambience between the curtains and the French windows. There was a certain sound there for a ten-year-old. That was all the ambience I got at ten years old… And I always wanted to be a bit similar to that.”
Plant’s affections for Presley were mostly rooted in the artist’s versatile and distinctive vocal abilities; however, he no doubt appreciated the blues influences in the music. When it came to country and folk music, Plant was mostly disinterested, especially when it came to white roots music.
As a disciple of the blues, a genre established by Black people, Plant felt white country and folk music were derivative. Presumably, he respected Lead Belly as an innovator of the folk and blues tradition but erroneously deemed white folk artists as derivative musicians.
Speaking to The Guardian in 2007, Plant reflected on his misconception while picking out ‘Little Maggie’ by Roscoe Holcomb as one of his favourite songs. “I’ve met my match with the American roots musicians I’m working with at the moment. My love for discovering new things is ceaseless, but I have missed white American roots music entirely,” he admitted. “I thought it was just guys in the hills singing Black people’s songs, and I was so wrong.”
Softer songs in the Led Zeppelin catalogue, such as the folk-infused ‘Going to California’, suggest that Plant’s affections were latent through the 1960s and ’70s. Elaborating on his appreciation of Holcomb, Plant noted the artist’s ability to convey emotional narratives. “This is a mountain song about a woman who goes off the rails, and he tells a tale, and he’s got a way of singing that goes deep; you can hear the experience in his voice,” he said.
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