The one singer Robert Plant always wanted to be: “I want that voice”
It’s easy to get caught up in the brilliance of Led Zeppelin. As an outfit, they are certainly one of the most potent around. To include the mercurial guitar maestro Jimmy Page in your ranks and the powerhouse percussion of John Bonham and the dynamic rhythm of John Paul Jones too, and you have some serious credentials. But perhaps the brightest jewel in this particular crown is the supremely talented Robert Plant.
Plant quickly became one of the most desirable figures in the rock world. Whether it was his flowing locks, his billowing blouses or more simply his ability to smash notes out like an organ with incredibly tight jeans on, Plant has become the de facto rock singer.
Any singer who has tried to belt to the rafters in rock and roll has taken more than a few cues from Robert Plant. While there had been screamers in the world of rock before, like Little Richard, it took Plant’s bellowing howl to resonate with millions of fans worldwide, turning Led Zeppelin into a rock and roll institution. Though Plant had a sound all his own, he always tried to emulate one of the kings of heartache.
When working in The Band of Joy before Led Zeppelin, though, it was clear that Plant’s voice wasn’t entirely in place yet. Although there were traces of the belter he would become later, several songs seemed to be pulling from the realm of psychedelia, which would be transformed once Jimmy Page came calling.
Looking to put together an act even heavier than his old outfit, The Yardbirds, Page enlisted Plant for his gritty tone of voice. Bringing along John Bonham behind the drumkit, Plant would become known as one of the most powerful rock singers in England, making feral sounds that felt more indebted to acts like Janis Joplin from America.
Like with all great Led Zeppelin tunes, it all traces back to the blues for Plant. Throughout his time honing his craft as a singer, Plant was known for trying to deliver songs as powerfully as people like Robert Johnson and Howlin Wolf, all while Page played thunderous riffs behind him on tracks like ‘Dazed and Confused’.
When it came to the blues, Plant always had a soft spot for Sleepy John Estes. Long before rock and roll had even started, Estes was known for inhabiting his vocal cords with reckless abandon, making songs jump through the sheer power of his voice half the time. Whereas most of his contemporaries were put off by the magnitude of his voice, Plant saw a model for what he could be.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Plant would say that he would inherit a lot of the mannerisms that Estes had whenever he took to the stage, saying, “When I saw Sleepy John Estes and heard that voice – part pain, part otherworldly – I went ‘I want that voice’”. Then again, Plant wasn’t the only one looking to take a few notes from the blues titan.
When talking about approaching The Beatles’ bluesy tracks, John Lennon would also recall taking a few notes from the way that Estes sang, often incorporating that uninhabited sound to tracks like ‘Yer Blues’. While Plant wanted to have a voice that resonated as well as his hero, he would end up carving out a new sound in rock and roll all on his own.
Though many of Zeppelin’s early songs are firmly planted in the blues, Plant would expand what his vocal cords could do on record, eventually writing beautiful folk ballads like ‘Going to California’ along with epic songs that almost defy any genre label like ‘The Rain Song’ and ‘Kashmir’. Even though Plant may always return to the blues as a foundational part of his musical upbringing, his way of shaping his influences into something unique has made him the ‘Golden God’ he is today.
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