Robert Plant: Fans Should Move On

Robert Plant Tells Zeppelin Fans to “Stop Dwelling on That Old Crap" | Q104.3

 

Horribly misleading article title. He's referring to music publications, not fans. Here's a quote:

"All these magazines and internet platforms should be supporting new music and help new musicians to find an audience, instead of dwelling on the old crap all the time. It’s like there is nothing new and exciting out there any more, when in fact there is. So stop living in the past. Open your ears and your eyes. It’s not that difficult, is it?"

 

Fixed that for you

 

Plant tells Classic Rock magazine​

irony much?

 

He's right, of course.

 

Old crap sells magazines to old farts like me. It may not be good for new music, but it is the bottom line.

Hopefully, new music has (or will get) a new promotion platform.

btw, I do listen to new artists but sometimes it's hard to relate to issues that affect folks 30 years younger than me.

My preference is for "mature" artists singing about topics I can relate to. I would like to think that young people have the same attitude.

 

Kudos to Robert Plant for being one of the few "Classik Rawk[tm]" artists who are still interested in making new music.

 

I'm still struggling to find bands that sing about weight gain, dementia and incontinence though...

 

TBH I stopped picking up the Mojos and Uncuts for that reason. (Never made it to Classic Rock.) IMO, they end up rehashing the same stories from various angles, depending on which legacy act is touring or has a new reissue to push. If you just end up reading those, it becomes all to easy to miss newer music.

(And I'm aware they cover new music. But seemingly always with Dylan or McCartney on the cover.)

 

Speaking solely as a fan and obviously not a magazine, I don't wanna. I like that old crap.
But I get his point. And yes, the article's headline is pure clickbait.

And for the record, I am not dreaming, hoping, or even want a LZ reunion.

 

Weight Gain - BTO
Dementia - Pink Floyd
Incontinence - A lot of bands make me feel incontinent . . .

 

I still like the old stuff better.

 

Robert's vibe can be summed up in a song he released a little while back called Tin Pan Valley

"My peers may flirt with cabaret, some fake the rebel yell. Me, I'm moving up to higher ground, I must escape this hell"

 

"I'm turning down the talk shows, the humour and the couch
I'm moving up to higher ground, I've found a new way out"

 

Sounds like he's speaking directly to the members of this forum...

 

Hard to take that song seriously when he plays Zep songs every single night. He said he was moving up to higher ground and yet 12 years later his setlist and musical style hasn't changed much.

 

or "I used to shoot drugs now I shoot insulin for type 2 Diabetes"

 

I have said it before and I guess I will say it again, hahah. If Plant wants us to move on than so should he. Stop the Zeppelin tunes in your live shows. Just play your solo stuff.

 

At least he's down to less than half show being Zep material, 7 of 18 songs on most recent setlist on setlist fm, but it's enough to make his proud declarations of not wanting to be a traveling jukebox or stuck in the past feel weak. He's perfectly happy singing Zep, just not with Page and Jones and maybe he prefers smaller audiences, who knows. But his truculence on this point never made a lot of sense to me, and feels churlish besides.

 

Translated:

My 70 year old throat can not withstand going out there and singing like it's 1975 night after night, so please leave me alone about touring with Zeppelin again, and let's pretend there's all this really great new music that matters.

 

The point though isn't that he doesn't do ANYTHING from the past though. I have seen him twice in the past few years and he does Zep songs but changes it up

He is not saying he doesn't like Zep songs or isn't afraid to do any of them live. There is a difference between having the freedom to do anything you want to do in the confines of a solo band that releases new material, compared to being chained to the confines of a huge arena tour with one of the most popular bands ever in history being suffocated by expectations, nonstop media, the whole spectacle, etc.

I feel like the people going, "oh Plant is contradicting himself because he plays Zeppelin songs live still" need to understand the big picture, and the freedom that is offered by doing what he does, when he wants to do it, when he wants to do it.

As a musician, I totally understand and respect what Plant is doing and why he is doing it the way that it is being done. I don't see any contradictions here

 

so he won't be cashing any more of his Led Zeppelin royalty checks?

 

How about poor vision, declining physical capacity and memory, and the inability to sleep through the night?

 

I feel like everyone who says this is missing the point by in large

"Moving on" doesn't mean ignoring great songs from one's past. "Moving on" means simply moving on from the expectations of Robert Plant rejoining Zeppelin and projecting our wants onto him. He comes across as a guy who simply wants to play whatever songs he wants to play, whenever we wants, and however he wants.