The surprising Elbow song that Robert Plant called “magnificent’
Former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant has covered many bases throughout his career. With the classic rock quartet, Plant veered from swaggering blues rock in their early days to later esoteric-sounding pieces that evoked guitarist Jimmy Page’s original idea of taking rock down an expansive route. In terms of lyrics, everything from the fantasy works of J.R.R. Tolkien to Joni Mitchell informed some of Plant’s best moments.
After Led Zeppelin called time on proceedings in 1980 following the unexpected death of drummer and Plant’s best friend, John Bonham, Plant was opened up to a whole new world in which he would continue to explore a variety of fields.
Outlining this range, you could look at tracks like ‘Big Log’, ‘Please Read the Letter’, and more recently, ‘New World’, to prove just how much Plant has been willing to experiment throughout his entire career. Mentioning these three tracks only covers part of it, too, with world music, jazz and heavy metal twists in Plant’s oeuvre.
As such a broad artistic scope might suggest, Robert Plant is a fan of music from the world over. Whether it be Elvis Presley or The Rolling Stones, the vocalist has showered praise on a host of different artists over the years and has consistently imbued real insight into his accounts.
When speaking to BBC Radio 6 for 6 Music’s Festive Takeover in 2021, Plant exhibited the variety in his record collection by picking some of his favourite songs of all time and explaining why he loves them. Whilst he selected offerings from artists such as Turin Brakes and Lucinda Williams, the most surprising pick was a tune by the Bury rock band, Elbow.
Not only did the classic rock legend choose a song by Guy Garvey’s outfit, but it was a lesser-known cut to really prove his knowledge. The number in question is ‘The Blanket of Night’, the closing track of the 2014 album The Take Off and Landing of Everything. Plant treasures the track so much that he described it as a “magnificent” piece of music.
He said: “It’s a magnificent, very, very succinct piece of music that echoes the circumstances that before so many families and individuals who were trying to beat it and get out of the great problems that we were all watching, almost helpless, as the people head from the coast of North Africa, and on looking for some solace and world without intimidation, perhaps”.
Listen to ‘The Blanket of Night’ below.
