The classic Led Zeppelin song that defied logic: “That three people and a singer can do that!”
Some bands just represent a sort of coalescent predestination, whereby each of its members were meant to be together.
It quite simply would not work were any of the members to be replaced by someone else, and the obscure stories that got them in the same band only go to prove that. The Beatles would be one such example, maybe The Smiths would be another. But one band that certainly fits that mould is Led Zeppelin.
Because in the 1960s, when Jimmy Page was playing in almost every band the London blues scene had to offer, the possibilities of which band he could join were endless. He was of course a part of the famous Yardbirds, but he was so prolific as a session musician and writer, that his fingerprints could be found on the music of everyone from The Who, The Kinks and Van Morrison.
Simply put, any musician worth their salt, of which there were many in the ‘60s, would have jumped at the chance of having Page standing alongside them with a guitar in hand. But as fate would have it, he wasn’t. Instead, he found his musical soulmates in John Bonham, John Paul Jones and Robert Plant.
Sure, Page’s desperate need to form his own band, under his own steam, could arguably undercut any suggestions that the band’s beginning was fate. But when he finally found the three men with whom he’d embark on this journey and played the very first note, it was clear that their union was the work of the musical gods.
The first four albums that came in the space of two years were nothing short of triumphant. Their aggressively beautiful brand of rock and roll was on display for all to see, as the band simultaneously operated like a well-oiled machine while transfixing listeners with the individual brilliance of each playing member.
While their 1976 album Presence showed glimpses of that bulletproof formula, eroding away ever so slightly, there was one track where the band uplifted their greatness once again to create something entirely transcendental.
“‘Achilles Last Stand’ Fucking hell!” the band’s frontman Plant exclaimed, “Just extraordinary that three people and a singer can do that.”
The song came at a time when the band perhaps doubted how long they could sustain their powerful brand of music. The self-imposed bar of standards was at an unfairly high level, and so otherwise exciting ideas were paled into mediocrity in comparison to their previous work. In truth, it felt as though the appetite for diversity and intensity had been somewhat lost on the record, but given the backdrop, it was understandable.
But despite the fact that Robert Plant had experienced a horrific car crash, which left him in a wheelchair temporarily, he still mustered up a performance that may have lacked in power, but certainly made up for it in character. In support, the remaining band members stepped up and delivered some of their most ferocious individual performances.
“With ‘Achilles Last Stand’, the music I was so fortunate to be around,” Plant explained. “So many amazingly gifted players and if you think about Led Zeppelin as being a trio, really with a kind of wedding singer, stuck up the front. I always saw the reality of what was going on, my enthusiasm was a good contribution but in truth those guys were amazing. I think ‘Achilles Last Stand’ was an uncomfortable time recording the album from which it arrived, which is ‘Presence’. It was a desperate time, I was in a wheelchair for seven months or whatever it was at that time.”
Nevertheless, Plant delivered a vocal performance that was beyond what many in his situation could, proving his acute and diverse ear for arrangements, laying down something well beyond the limitations of a wedding singer.
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