Former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant revealed why it was ‘thrilling’ to do his first mini Led Zeppelin reunion (Greta Van Fleet’s ex-manager recently said their singer could front one) with bandmate Jimmy Page after the band ended on his podcast ‘Digging Deep.’ Alternative Nation transcribed his comments.
Plant: It’s quite a band [The Honeydrifters].
Co-Host: Yeah, what can you remember? Like, if I arrived in the studio for one of the recording sessions of that who would I see and what would be the vibe in there?
Plant: Well the vibe was: “Let’s get everything going quick and hurry up”. So Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Nile Rodgers played along side the rhythm section. It’s funny really because it was so nonchalant as a recording in New York when we did Good Rockin’ At Midnight which is a great track and made the top thirty singles in America. Sea of Love was my biggest solo hit ever. I’ve heard better versions of it but there we go!
Jeff came in, put a little amp on a table and it was probably about three yards from the drum kit and we just started playing it. Of course, in the cans, in the headphones, it sounded all mighty. So we just cut the track, then later on we came to mix it and I wanted to bring the drum kit a little bit louder. The symbols, the overhead microphones that mic’d up the top of the drum kit. Every time I lifted that up Jeff got louder and louder. That is the story of really, thousands and thousands of amazing records that if you go back and strip them down – that’s what happens. Jimmy played on Sea of Love and he played on this, I get a thrill because for at least an afternoon we were back together.
I think it’s [originally] a Wynonie Harris track and I chose it because it was the first time that I was able to sing with a really organized backing vocal setup. That was like a dream come true. I guess that was the beginning of what happened to me in the last ten years or so, you know? Fitting my vocal style in and around other people’s organized singing. That’s a fantastic thing to do. I was starved of that up until that point in 1984 when I went: “Yeah I can do this, yeah.” Jimmy Page recently revealed how he was savagely disrespected at a Robert Plant show.
