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Spotlight: Robert Plant
Robert Anthony Plant (born
August 20, 1948, West Bromwich,
West Midlands, England)
is a British rock singer
famous for being the frontman
for the band Led Zeppelin.
He is known for his powerful
style with a wide vocal
range.
Although born in West Bromwich,
Plant actually grew up in
Halesowen, formerly Worcestershire,
now part of Birmingham's
commuter belt. He left school
in his early teens and developed
a strong passion for the
blues, abandoning a potentially
promising career as a chartered
accountant to become part
of the Midlands blues scene.
He sang with a variety of
bands including The Crawling
Kings Snakes, which brought
him into contact with drummer
John Bonham. They both went
on to play in the Band of
Joy, merging blues with
newer psychedelic trends.
Though his early career
met with no commercial success,
word quickly spread about
the "young guy with
the very powerful voice".
In 1968 guitarist Jimmy
Page was in search of a
lead singer for his new
band and met Plant after
being turned down by his
first choice, Terry Reid,
who referred him to a show
at a nightclub where Plant
was singing in a band which
included drummer John Bonham.
Plant and Page immediately
hit it off with a shared
musical passion and after
Plant joined the band, they
began their powerful writing
collaboration with reworkings
of earlier blues songs.
Plant brought along John
Bonham, and along with Jimmy
Page's friend John Paul
Jones, Led Zeppelin was
formed in 1968. Their self-titled
debut album hit the charts
in 1969 and is widely credited
as a catalyst for the heavy
metal genre.
A well-read individual,
Plant was influenced by
J.R.R. Tolkien, which inspired
some lyrics on early Led
Zeppelin albums, most notably
the hit "Ramble On"
from the 1969 album, Led
Zeppelin II (He named his
dog "Strider"),
and philosopher Friedrich
Nietzsche. The passion for
diverse musical experiences
drove Plant and Page to
explore the African continent,
specifically Morocco, which
most evidently culminated
in the classic track, "Kashmir."
They both revisited these
influences during their
reunion album No Quarter:
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant
Unledded in 1994. In his
solo career, Plant again
tapped from these influences
many times, most notably
in the 2002 album, Dreamland...
More:
Wikipedia about Robert Plant
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