“Remarkable”: The singer Robert Plant compared to Elvis Presley
Despite the legendary reputation attached to Robert Plant today, there were moments before he joined Led Zeppelin when he believed he would remain a nobody. “I had nowhere to live,” the singer once said, reflecting on his experience performing in previous bands. It wasn’t until he met Jimmy Page that things began to change for the better: “That is when I met Pagey.”
Although achieving success might have felt like a long and arduous process for Plant, Led Zeppelin’s fame felt almost instantaneous, likely due to Page’s established reputation as someone who knew how to be a true innovator with connections that spanned most corners of the industry. When forming the perfect lineup for Led Zeppelin, his criteria centred around collaboration and intuition, which is why Plant ended up fronting the group.
Page’s demeanour might have landed them their first contract, but Plant’s presence helped to establish their signature sound and influence, alongside his innate understanding of Page’s specific vision. Unlike the rock groups that came before, Led Zeppelin would be driven by their forward-thinking ethos, utilising different facets of traditional music with explosive new ones.
Plant reflected on this during a previous interview with Rolling Stone, in which he said that their focus on “diversity, self-satisfaction, and creativity” was the main reason they became untouchable to competitors. Though many of their contemporaries would disagree, Plant knew that because they created music for themselves in the first instance, they couldn’t truly ever go wrong.
Throughout his life and career, Plant has consistently been drawn to pioneers who honour the same values, regardless of whether their work comes across less as reinvention and more as repurposing the groundwork laid by earlier originators. Led Zeppelin would be accused of this throughout their entire tenure, but to the band members, there was no harm in taking something that had already been done and making it even better.
Most rock pioneers became drawn to Elvis Presley’s influence, namely his palpable stage charisma and energy, which reinvented what it meant to be a performer and entertainer in the rock world. Although The Beatles would later become the blueprint for record-shattering musical hysteria, Presley set the standard for rock ‘n’ roll confidence, paving the way for countless others to do the same in their own work.
For this reason, not many compare to Presley’s presence or mannerisms, except for the unique ways he continues to manifest in the showmanship of others. However, according to Plant, the figure who came closest to emanating such electrifying stage presence was Johnny Ray, mainly because he was able to exude the exact same disposition as the King himself. As Plant explained to Q in 1990: “I remember Johnny Ray. His voice and Presley’s had a similarity, […] Ray’s masculine whimper was remarkable, really. When you were holding your dad’s hand and looking up at all the men around on the street, nobody was making that noise.”
Plant might have an eclectic record collection, but his nuanced observation, including how he could compare one legend and another, made him one of the most qualified to lead the rock world into a new era. Most choose to remain loyal to either the past or the future, but Plant already came adorned with an innate ability to craft a meticulous bridge between worlds, if only by his penchant for absorbing the different qualities of others.
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