He was singing in a non-descript band named Hobstweedle (I’ve seen it Obs-Tweedle as well). Jimmy Page had been urged to check out their singer by Terry Reid, who’d declined Page’s invitation to join his new band. Jimmy checked them out, and thought the music was flashy and overdone. But the singer, a 19 year old named Robert Plant from West Bromwich, well that was another story. He couldn’t understand how so fantastic a singer hadn’t made it big yet. “His voice was too great to be undiscovered. I immediately thought there must be something wrong with him personality-wise, or that he had to be impossible to work with.”

Before Hobstweedle, Robert had been the lead singer for Band Of Joy, a band that played R ‘n B and had a following near Birmingham. 56 years ago today, Band Of Joy made their London debut when they opened for Edwin Starr at the legendary Marquee Club. By May of ’68, the band had split over the lack of any record company response to their 3-song demo. Robert was in professional limbo and had joined Hobstweedle over a lack of any other opportunities. Then Jimmy Page showed up, they chatted after the show, and Jimmy suggested they get together, see if there’s any chemistry there, listen to some music. “Why don’t you bring some of your favorite records down?” He did. It worked out well. See below for Today’s Playlist celebrating this vinyl summit. Robert must have had a lingering fondness for Band Of Joy though, musically, and especially in his friendship with the drummer, John Bonham.

I love Robert Plant. I greatly respect him. So many other musicians in his position would either retire or go churn out the Classic Rock jukebox for mega-money. But not Robert. Many Zep fans think he’s the bad guy standing in the way of their fantasy of seeing Led Zeppelin again. For all of Jimmy Page’s work on the protection of the band’s legacy, it’s just as much Plant who is the protector, but he protects it by not keeping the machine going, seemingly knowing they’d not hit the heights the band had in their heyday. It would just be playing a role he’s long grown out of. Zep had a couple of one-off reunions since the end, and they were by and large awful. When they nailed it for their 2007 show in honor of Ahmet Ertegun, Plant was as moved as anyone. He has been protective of that legacy since, by not reviving it, even when Desert Trip offered insane money for two performances.

Instead, since beginning his solo career, he has followed the wind and pursued any number of fantastic musical adventures. His bands have been exceptional throughout, especially The Sensational Space Shifters.

He doesn’t formally end any of his ventures. They evolve, they don’t perform much, either one-off or sporadic, and each has its own distinct sound and character, even with Robert Plant out front. He’s got a band now that has only been playing in Europe so far, a folky sort of collective called Saving Grace. One other project, as of now just one self-titled album 14 years ago and a 1-1/2 year live existence at that time, was the revival of Band Of Joy, as a concept anyway. The lineup included Patty Griffin and Buddy Miller. The album has some fine tracks but their live show did them justice.

One thing that all of these projects of Robert’s include is Led Zeppelin songs in the live show. It isn’t that he feels he has to play them. And he plays them on his own terms and with pride, always doing them justice, keeping the legacy firmly intact.

On a side note, he gave my son and I a night we both badly needed, July 27, 2013 at the Prospect Park Bandshell in Brooklyn.

In honor of Band Of Joy, Today’s Playlist is a SomethingIsHappening compendium of some of the songs from the records Robert Plant and Jimmy Page listened to together at their first meeting in 1968…

#RobertPlant #BandOfJoy #LedZeppelin #JimmyPage #JoanBaez #FairportConvention #BuddyMiller #PattyGriffin #Albums #Records