‘Forty-Four’: Robert Plant on the “insane” song that blew people away
“Two German promoters brought over a remarkable collection of musicians,” said Robert Plant when reflecting on a show he went to at 16 that changed his perception of music. He rolls off the icons he saw and who shaped an unrelenting love for the blues, R&B and rock ‘n’ roll. “Skip James, Bukka White, Son House, Sonny Boy Williamson, the Wolf, Muddy Waters, Sugar Pie DeSanto, Hound Dog Taylor.”
It’s difficult to pinpoint precisely what inspired Led Zeppelin. When Jimmy Page started working as a session guitarist, he was exposed to a number of different styles of music, and it’s safe to assume that all these forms of music contributed towards what Led Zeppelin ended up making. After all, it was their versatility and willingness to cross genres that separated them from other bands.
When Jimmy Page was asked about his inspiration for Led Zeppelin, he said that after improvising a lot in other bands, he had worked out the different styles of music that he thought would go well together. The band managed to bring these ideas to life and elevate rock music as a result.
“I had a lot of ideas from my days with The Yardbirds. The Yardbirds allowed me to improvise a lot in live performance, and I started building a textbook of ideas that I eventually used in Zeppelin,” said Page, “I wanted Zeppelin to be a marriage of blues, hard rock and acoustic music topped with heavy choruses – a combination that had never been done before […] Lots of light and shade in the music.”
While there were a number of different styles of music that might have contributed to the band, there is no escaping the fact that blues and R&B were both built into the foundation of Led Zeppelin. As such, it hardly comes as a surprise to hear that Robert Plant and Co were all inspired by various R&B gigs they attended when they were younger. Plant was exposed to some of the greats by attending the gig he referenced above, but there was one artist and one song in particular that he remembers most, which blew everyone away.
“Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘Forty-Four- recorded in 1954, insane,” said Plant, “The bands I’ve been around, everybody just marvels about the cross-timing of that stuff. I saw the Wold when I was 16, he was on tour for about five or six years.”
Howlin’ Wolf was a musical legend who set the groundwork that the rock movement of the ’60s would eventually be built upon. His influence can be heard in Led Zeppelin, not only in their studio albums but also in how they performed live and how often they left crowds shocked after their live shows. While many people look towards the ‘60s and ‘70s as the peak of rock, it would never have happened were it not for the iconic artists who took to the stage prior.
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