(...Story Continued from Previous Page) And despite not really being a fan, it was T-Bone who
added a little-known Led Zeppelin song, "Please Read the Letter," to the album's
track list.
"T-Bone is fantastic, a legend. He put ['Please Read the Letter'] on his list
but I must have sent it to him because T-Bone would never have subscribed to
that era of music," Plant explained. "So he said, 'OK, I get it [Zeppelin] now,
it's a twilight band.' I think he was into Jimmy [Page]'s guitar because T-Bone
is a guitarist and Pagey has a sort of international exotica, he can go into
those dark places. Whatever, it's a song that hadn't reached its true potential
before. Now it's become something else."
We talk about how many older musicians are bringing politics back into music
-- in the last 12 months there have been self-dubbed "protest albums"
from the likes of Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, heck, even the Eagles indulged in some
Bush bashing on their comeback record. But perhaps it's no coincidence that
"Raising Sand" is more wistful than risible, as Plant takes a somewhat cynical
view.
"I was lucky because when I was about 14 I first heard 'Blowin' in the
Wind' and 'Don't Think Twice, It's Alright'," he recalled. "And Dylan gave everybody the capacity to have a social
conscience and actually speak up. In those days it was far more difficult
because segregation was still in place, within the land of America -- which just
as it is now, has so many contradictions and so many double standards. But
Springsteen and all these people were beaten to the hall by Green Day. Because they were the first major American act,
with "American Idiot," to bring it into common speech, you know.
"[Younger bands] do need to have a responsibility to speak up, everybody
needs to. But the thing is I don't know whether or not the words are ever
actually helpful. There's so much information everywhere all the time from all
the news networks about the treachery of our government, how can anybody take
anything in and say, 'That's that, I don't want to know'? You can't do anything
about it. You can only be aware."
While Plant may be despairing of politicians, at least he has plenty of
passion left for the music -- oh, and that reunion gig. He's still jolly, so we
slip in a question: How's he feeling about playing with his old band -- possibly
the greatest rock outfit of all time -- so many years on?
Plant laughed: "I shall be bare-chested, I will be the archetypal wild man of
rock. I'm feeling 98.6 percent about it. And no, that temperature won't go
up."
Krauss -- who's probably heard this question more than once in the three
weeks of promotion they've done together -- interrupts: "I'll answer for him.
He's very complimented by how happy everybody is that they're playing together,
he's thrilled about the reason they're playing together, and he's looking
forward to celebrating the success that Led Zeppelin had and the mark on history
they made."
Plant smiles: "You're a wonderful woman. Yes, we are looking forward to
that."
Related: See photos of Robert Plant and Alison
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