Robert Plant’s favourite song of all time: “It’s so evocative”
Robert Plant’s prestige among rock fans is hard to match. A bonafide legend, his role as the leading figure of Led Zeppelin and, by proxy, the leading man of the 1970s cast him not only as the proverbial ‘Golden God’ but as the archetypal rock star. Wailing his vocal cords and shimmying his low-slung hips, Plant’s turn as the frontman for the monstrous rock band has ensured he will remain legendary forever.
Of course, Led Zeppelin’s success doesn’t only relate to Plant’s showmanship; he more than played his part in making them an era-defining rock superpower. Most importantly, each of the four members complemented each other tremendously, which made them the most dominant force of the 1970s. They were more than a sum of their parts, and Plant benefitted hugely from the supporting cast of Jimmy Page, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones.
According to Page, they are the greatest band to have ever existed. While it’s a bold claim, it’s difficult to disagree with his logic. The guitarist once told Uncut: “What I mean is: when you talk about a band as a collaborative musical unit, we were the best. I am not talking about one or two genius songwriters and everyone else tagging along. I am talking about a collection of musicians who are each at the top of their craft in their own right. In Led Zeppelin, we were exactly that.”
However, despite their prowess, a few institutions can dwarf his band’s impressive rock and roll stature. Desert Island Discs is one such institution. When Plant joined the iconic radio programme to discuss the eight songs he would take with him to an inescapable desert island, he delivered not only a number of tracks which have inspired and influenced him, but he also took part in one of Britain’s finest broadcasting traditions.
The programme has been woven into the dense tapestry of British pop culture for decades. It’s a time-honoured tradition that has seen Prime Ministers and rock stars alike walk through its studio doors. Created by Roy Plomley back in 1942, the format is always the same; each week, a guest is invited by the host to choose the eight records they would take with them to the aforementioned doom-laden beach.
Along with their eight discs, a complimentary collection of the complete works of Shakespeare, and a copy of the Bible, the star in question also gets to choose one luxury item and one book. It offers a crisp insight into the life and times of our most notable figures in Plant’s life. During the conversation, he opened up about his parents, the impact of Birmingham Town Hall, and how he still missed one of the most influential figures in his life, John Bonham.
The loss of Bonham was highly significant to Plant. His sad passing not only meant the loss of his beloved bandmate, and later the band itself, but his best friend. He told Lauren Laverne about that treacherous time: “I drove down with him on the day of the rehearsal, and I drove back without him. He was an incredible character and so encouraging for me, despite the fact he was always sending me up and taking the mickey out of me and all that. I loved him desperately.”
The singer continued: “We were really kids, and we grew up not having a clue about anything at all. Just the two of us, sort of loud, confident and mostly wrong. It was really good. We covered most of the squares on the board as time went by, so I do miss him.”
Before Led Zeppelin, Plant and Bonham were already joined at the hip. Therefore, the success that the band endured was made even sweeter by doing it alongside his best friend, who sadly departed the world far too early.
In addition to Bonham, Plant’s parents were positive influences on his pursuit of musical fame. While the singer used cycling to get a little closer to his father, he called his mother “suitably and joyously combustible… like a big fizzy bottle of pop… She loved songs, and she had a great voice. She used to dance around the house, twirling and swirling and singing these remarkable songs, whether it would be Kathleen Ferrier or the Skye Boat Song, and she was hysterical. She was very funny. Good Black Country stock.”
The Midlands helped to shape a series of heavy metal’s finest acts. Not only can the area boast of Led Zeppelin’s dynamic duo, but it also lays claim to the other forbearers of the genre, Black Sabbath. In truth, the area provided a multicultural experience that few could attain in Britain at the time, which gave the town a sense of purpose. Coupling that with the abundance of acts arriving at Birmingham Town Hall, Plant was perhaps destined to reach the heights he did.
He told Laverne: “Birmingham Town Hall had several years of these remarkable visitations from musicians like Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter… Howlin’ Wolf to me, he’s… magnificent, strong, powerful, and his lyrics – I think a lot came from Willie Dixon to make his songs absolutely otherworldly.”
One of those names would feature in Plant’s list of essential records, as he picked out Howlin’ Wolf classic, ‘I Ain’t Superstitious’. Elsewhere, Plant also picks out notable rock acts such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s triumphant protest anthem ‘Ohio’, as well as the Eddie Cochran song ‘Pink Peg Slacks’. However, when asked to save only one of the eight songs from being washed out to sea, Plant had only one choice in mind.
Taking from the titular 1956 film, Mario Lanza’s ‘Serenade’ would be the only disc Plant truly concerned himself, telling Laverne: “When I was invited to do this programme, I started looking at something would say wouldn’t be ‘Nelly The Elephant’, it wouldn’t be ‘Runaway Train’, it would be something that made stop and feel goosebumps, and this was the first song that did that to me.”
When asked why he would choose this track over his other picks, Plant noted: “It’s so evocative and it carries so much presence and beauty, and it just lifts at the crescendos that are… I mean, imagine singing along with that until you got it right?”
Although it’s somewhat of an unexpected track for Plant to choose, considering his background is rooted in the realm of rock, Mario Lanza’s ‘Serenade’ evokes a certain emotion in the former Led Zeppelin frontman, which asserts its position at the top of the pile.
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