“A bit lost in translation”: The project Robert Plant never considered true rock
Whenever a band has to call it quits, it’s only natural for them to start moving on to their own projects. The inspiration doesn’t stop when everyone decides that they can’t work together any more, and the best musicians know how to go from being in one classic rock band to being able to move onto something completely different. Then again, it’s a bit of a different conversation when a band breaks up the way Led Zeppelin did.
No matter how much they wanted to keep going, there was no thought of the band carrying on without John Bonham. ‘Bonzo’ was the kind of drummer that no one could replace, so the idea of them continuing anything under the Zeppelin name would have been inauthentic at best and treasonous at worst. That didn’t mean they would stray from their signature sound, though.
Jimmy Page had started the band from the ground up, and he wasn’t about to let his career die with Bonham, so many of his ideas eventually got channelled into projects like The Firm. And while John Paul Jones was happy to move on to a career in the background as a producer and arranger, Robert Plant knew there was more to life than being treated as a ‘Golden God’ everywhere he went.
Although his experiments did lead to some strange moments like Shaken ‘n’ Stirred, it was clear that ‘Percy’ was far more content making that kind of music rather than relying on playing ‘Immigrant Song’ every time he took to the stage. If none of the members were going to make anything that sounded like Zeppelin, that meant more bands coming up to copy them, whether that was Rush, Van Halen, or even Dave Grohl channelling the spirit of Bonham once Nirvana hit the big time.
For all of Grohl’s flashiness, though, there came a point when even Jonesy was wondering what could happen if they teamed up. They had already started working together during the sessions for Foo Fighters’ In Your Honor, but with Josh Homme at the helm, Them Crooked Vultures became the kind of side project that was ripped straight out of the 1970s. It all seemed to fall into place, but Plant wasn’t exactly thrilled with what he heard either.
“The hybrids of rock have become like Them Crooked Vultures and people like that, which is good music but it’s not rock.”
Robert Plant
Despite having a quarter of Zeppelin in the mix, Plant felt that the album was far from the kind of rock that he heard in his head when thinking about what he could do, saying, “The hybrids of rock have become like Them Crooked Vultures and people like that, which is good music but it’s not rock. Well, maybe it is rock. Maybe my idea of what rock was probably was a bit lost in translation.”
Granted, that might be because the band were hitting the nail on the head a little bit too well. Not every one of their songs were steeped in blues the same way that Zeppelin’s catalogue was in their early years, but it’s hard to deny the massive swagger radiating off of songs like ‘New Fang’ and ‘Dead End Friends’, both of which feature some of the best riffs to come out of Jonesy’s amplifier in years.
It might not be rock in Plant’s eyes, but his definition of rock has changed more than a few times. And since he fits better in folk music alongside Allison Krauss these days, it’s easier for his old mates to make the kind of rock and roll they want to without having to hold for a potential Zeppelin reunion.
