The 1976 song that became Robert Plant’s proudest Led Zeppelin moment: “This is it”
For Robert Plant, discussing Led Zeppelin brings back as many painful memories as jovial ones. While they might have been the band that knocked The Beatles off their perch and made rock music a towering monolith, their career was profoundly human, providing many challenging personal moments.
Tragically, the band ended in 1980 following the death of their drummer, John Bonham. Known for his technical genius and natural force, he was a vital part of their operation artistically and an integral part of the gang outside of the music, which meant that after his sudden death aged just 32, Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones knew that Led Zeppelin was over. They could not continue without their good friend and fellow sonic argonaut.
While Bonham’s family felt the pang of the disaster most, in terms of Led Zeppelin, it was Plant who was arguably the most heartbroken. After all, he and the bearded stickman were best friends and had a long history before the band had officially formed, playing in groups together in the West Midlands.
Significantly, this was not the only immense tragedy Plant suffered during his time with Led Zeppelin. In 1977, his five-year-old son, Karac, died following a stomach illness. The band was on tour in New Orleans when the vocalist was informed of the devastating reality, and the run was immediately cancelled as he raced home to his family. Demonstrating just how important Bonham was to him, his old friend was the only one of his bandmates at the funeral; Page and Jones were nowhere to be seen. Naturally, this made Plant seriously question his relationships.
‘If I ever play somebody something from Led Zeppelin… This is it. Listen to this, this is what we had.’
Robert Plant
While these two moments would be the undoing of most of us, Plant continued on his path. What’s more, they weren’t the only obstacles he had to outmanoeuvre when in Led Zeppelin. 1976’s lauded album Presence was conceived during a fraught time, with Plant demonstrating just how much of a trooper he is by recording his vocals in a wheelchair as he was still recovering from the severe injuries he sustained in a 1975 car accident.
Given the gravity of the situations he had suffered, it’s not surprising that Plant is more reluctant to effuse about Led Zeppelin than fans would first expect. This was something Bonham’s son, Jason – another drumming powerhouse who played with the reformed iterations of the band – outlined during a 2022 conversation on the Eddie Trunk Podcast.
Bonham recalled working in Nashville with Sammy Hagar and The Circle and that when he was there, he got to spend time with Plant after a long time of not being able to. Of course, they spoke about Led Zeppelin, and at one point, now that it was just the two of them, Bonham took the opportunity to ask the frontman what his favourite song by the band was. He put a few choices forward.
Outlining the balanced way he views his time with the band, Plant told Bonham: “What you have to remember is sometimes some of these songs bring back a time in my life that wasn’t great. I was in a wheelchair after almost dying in a car crash at the time. So I was in pain.”
It transpires that despite the hardship of the period, Plant’s favourite Led Zeppelin song is ‘Achilles Last Stand’ from Presence. It has long been deemed one of the group’s finest efforts and a manifestation of total triumph out of adversity, directly inspired by the vocalist’s brush with death. This is also the track by the band that Plant would still play as a solo artist if forced to.
“And he sang the way he did on those songs, so God bless him for that,” Bonham said. “His favourite was… ‘Tea for One,’ he still loves, and ‘Achilles [Last Stand].’ He said, ‘If I ever play somebody something from Led Zeppelin… This is it. Listen to this, this is what we had.’ He’s very proud of that. So that was a wonderful thing to have.”
Did the rest of the band like the track?
You’ll struggle to find a Led Zeppelin fan who would place 1976’s Presence as their favourite body of work by the group, but it still had it’s eureka moments and opener, ‘Achilles Last Stand’ would be worthy of a place on any record by the Zep.
This song epitomised why John Bonham was such an integral part of the success of the band. It’s a clear indication that his powerhouse talents were still going strong in the later years of his life and perhaps even improving with age. The drummer still possessed all the rhythm and technique which had seen him grow in majesty as one of the world’s best.
Page later commented about the boldness they showed by opening the album with this number, stating: “We could have just eased into familiar stuff but we went straight into the deep end by trying out ‘Achilles’. I thought I’d have to use the twin-neck [6- and 12-string Gibson EDS-1275 guitar] but it actually sounded better with the six-string using different effects. When we did that first rehearsal it just all clicked all over again.”
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