‘A Fool No More’: Robert Plant on a “superlative” forgotten epic
In addition to being one of the most lauded frontmen of all time from his tenure with stadium rock behemoths Led Zeppelin, singer Robert Plant has gone further than most of his contemporaries in eking out a creative life after his defining body of work across the 1970s.
Releasing a string of successful solo records, to particular acclaim for his collaborations with country artist Alison Krauss, and captaining projects such as the resurrected Band of Joy and The Sensational Space Shifters’ psych-pomp, Plant is not a man burdened with nostalgia.
He’s also a trusted authority on music. Remaining connected to the alternative music world around him, Plant is a vociferous fan of early Faith No More and is candid about owning several Cure and This Mortal Coil records, and offered interesting musings on punk, grunge, and on occasion hip-hop. With an open embrace of music’s myriad of flavours, Plant was the perfect guest to fill in for Iggy Pop’s 6 Music Radio show in 2022, selecting 32 tracks across a three-week residency that were his favourite of all time.
“Probably one of the most superlative, soulful singer/guitarists that Britain has been proud to call our own. This is from Peter Green, from his In The Skies record, which was released in 1979. So this came out after Peter spent nearly a decade out there away from the music scene.” Selecting the album’s ‘A Fool No More’ for notable praise, Plant alluded to the trials and tribulations that Plagued the guitar maestro’s life in the near decade between his first two solo LPs.
Filling Eric Clapton’s shoes after his departure from John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers in 1966 is no mean feat, the skill he wielded with his 1959 Les Paul earning him the nickname ‘The Green God’, a wry counter to the famous Clapton praising graffiti. So brilliant at playing the blues even heavyweight BB King declared his intimidation: “He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats.”
After only appearing on one album, just as Clapton had done, 1967’s A Hard Road, Green formed Fleetwood Mac along with Mick Fleetwood and John McVie as a strictly blues outfit long before the soap opera soft rock that saw them dominate the charts further down the line. Composing the instrumental ‘Albatross’ and future Santana hit ‘Black Magic Woman’, the initial success was marred by a growing mental health problem, compounded by incessant LSD use. After a sudden personality change and donning white robes and a crucifix on stage, Green was replaced by Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, and diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Spending several years in psychiatric units and receiving electroconvulsive therapy whilst Rumours was making millions, Green remerged professionally in 1979, offering an uncredited contribution to Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Brown Eyes’ from Tusk and finally releasing his sophomore to 1970’s The End of the Game. Showing no sign of dimmed creativity, Green was still capable of electric blues at its most stirring with Robert Plant’s pick ‘A Fool No More’, a cut that feels authentically channelled ten years before when considering the new wave climate that surrounded In the Skies‘ release.
Speaking to Guitar Player in 2003, Green offered a sanguine summary of his career, and suffering really can fuel great art: “I think it’s better to have suffered in life and been uncomfortable than comfortable. If you’re comfortable in life, I think the blues might evade you. Suffering is something holy, something very sad. If you grow up a rich kid with no problems, you miss a lot.”
