Robert Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English musician, singer, and songwriter best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Possessing a powerful and wide vocal range (particularly using his trademark high-pitched vocals), he has also had a successful solo career spanning more than 40 years. In 2009, Plant was voted “the greatest voice in rock” in a poll conducted by Planet Rock. In 2011, Rolling Stone readers ranked Plant the greatest of all lead singers. (More from Wikipedia)
Lead singer Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin heard “Heartbreak Hotel” when he was just 8 years old; he has said that the song “changed my life”: “It was so animal, so sexual, the first musical arousal I ever had. You could see a twitch in everybody my age. All we knew about the guy was that he was cool, handsome and looked wild.”
(June 2013/1)
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I found a couple of quotes from Robert Plant about “Stairway to Heaven” on a website called enotes.com: “It [the song] was done very quickly. It took a little working out, but it was a fluid, unnaturally easy track. It was almost as if — uh oh — it just had to be gotten out at the time. There was something pushing it saying, ‘You guys are okay, but if you want to do something timeless, here's a wedding song for you.’ . . . Robert Plant once stated that the song was ‘. . . a woman’s quest for spiritual perfection’ and ‘. . . a simple wedding song’.”
In an interesting take on the legacy of this song, Wikipedia adds: “Erik Davis, a social historian and cultural critic, commented on the song’s massive success, subsequent backlash and enduring legendary status: ‘“Stairway to Heaven” isn’t the greatest rock song of the 1970’s; it is the greatest spell of the 1970’s. Think about it: We are all sick of the thing, but in some primordial way it is still number one. Everyone knows it. . . . Even our dislike and mockery is ritualistic. The dumb parodies; the Wayne’s World-inspired folklore about guitar shops demanding customers not play it; even Robert Plant’s public disavowal of the song — all of these just prove the rule. “Stairway to Heaven” is not just number one. It is The One, the quintessence, the closest AOR [album-oriented rock] will ever get you to the absolute.”
(November 2014)
