Led Zeppelin is dead. Long live Led Zeppelin.
Robert Plant has officially announced that he will not be touring at all for the next two years, effectively putting a stop to speculations of a Led Zeppelin reunion. Since last December and Led Zeppelin’s rock-solid (pardon the pun) appearance in London for a charity gig, rumors have been running rampant of a reunion tour. Especially given the band’s tight performance in London many have concluded that the band was on its way back together. However, after completing his current tour with Alison Krauss, which is in support of their joint album ‘Raising Sand,’ Plant has announced that he has no plans to tour at all for at least the next two years.
More than that (slightly ambiguous) statement, Plant goes on to state: “I wish Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham nothing but success with any future projects.” Which at least in the listener’s mind indicates a decision by Plant to put the past behind him and to forge ahead in favor of new musical and non-musical pursuits
This simple statement of course brings with it a certain sadness. No matter your taste in music, Led Zeppelin stands as a giant among the greats of classic rock and certainly as a standard of quality which has led the way for many musicians, and seems to have been utterly ignored but unfortunately even more… Being that I was born years after the death of John Bonham and the end of Zeppelin and not being able to travel to London, I would have loved to have seen them live. And yet, despite this sense of loss this announcement brings with it a sense of completion, a dignified end to one of the greats of rock.
This same sense of a dignified close cannot be attributed to very many other classic rock bands! These bands: Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Chicago, and so many more, created modern popular music. These were the bands who plunged into the wilderness and forged most of modern popular music, giving rise to new genres, techniques, styles, and even instruments that have irrevocably changed the direction of music. However, too many of them seem unable to let their hey days disappear.
I can understand the appeal of continuing to tour and perform live shows. There are many reasons for these bands to continue playing and performing. That is what tthey know how to do and, to their credit, many of them do it very well! People are obviously still willing to come and pack their shows, while paying huge ticket prices making it very profitable to continue performing as well as fun.
However, a problem seems to develop as many of these bands continue to age. It may be fun to continue touring but it creates no sense of dignity, no veneration for the greatness that they forged and in fact seems to diminish their reputations. This being especially true when a band, despite sporadically coming out with new music, tends to play its older, more “classic” songs rather than its new ones at shows. These bands simply use their status to sell-out shows without coming up with particularly new music, which tends to be rather tired variations of old hit songs. Now granted, these are amazing musicians, and so even their “same-old” music is good, I’ll give them that. But instead of being considered and venerated as great musicians or even competitively and critically reviewed they are led to a middle ground where their music is rated simply by expectation but with a sense of pity that does no justice to what it might be or what they were.
Basically, my issue boils down to taking issue with a band simply using its age as a crutch to sell-out shows without remaining musically competitive or even passing along its knowledge to a younger generation of musicians. Better for these bands to disband with dignity and their members to pursue separate paths as producers, directors, reviewers, or even as musicians in new bands, than for them to languish in the past playing old tunes with a small smattering of “new” songs that sound too much like the old classic songs to be considered of much new use. It is in this sense that I applaud Robert Plant’s decision to let the past remain where it is and for Led Zeppelin to ascend to its proper place of veneration rather than be dragged through the strain of a band past its prime. Robert Plant’s latest venture, Raising Sand with Alison Krauss, is fantastic but sounds nothing like Led Zeppelin. This is a perfect example of a band member who has gone his seperate way and is content.
Before I close what has become a rant, I must say that there are bands who avoid this problem by developing and creating truly new and innovative music. As evidence I give you Bruce Springsteen, Metallica, and U2, all of whom continue to produce new, competitive music. However, as much as these bands may be able to transition through generations of rock just as many and more should have ended their shows and entered their golden years of retirement long ago.
Thank you Robert Plant, for ensuring that Led Zepplin will remain truly classic rock.
