“Millions would agree”: The sound Jimmy Page thought was essential to Led Zeppelin

All the pieces of a musical superband can be found in everything that Led Zeppelin played. As much as people like to talk about them as one of the greatest bands ever to exist, they do at least make a good argument when looking at the kind of music coming out of Jimmy Page’s guitar whenever he had the right guitar lick in mind. Every member brought their signature touch to everything, but Page thought a few pieces of the puzzle were a bit more necessary than many may have thought.

Then again, Page truly is Led Zeppelin in every sense of the word. He had started the ball rolling when the band was still an offshoot of The Yardbirds, and if you take him out of the equation, the band would have ceased to exist pretty quickly. But when he got to working with John Paul Jones, he at least had a partner in crime who knew the studio as well as he did.

Jonesy may have been a session player beforehand, but looking at the ground the band covered over their time together, he was the glue that held all of them together. His arrangements were immaculate when the orchestras were brought in, and his bass playing was phenomenal locking in with John Bonham, but there was no one in that crowd who wasn’t paying attention to what Robert Plant was doing.

Granted, Plant would never be anyone’s first choice for the lead vocal spot. After a brief stint trying to get Terry Reid in the band, Plant’s work with The Band of Joy was a far cry from what he would later be doing with Zeppelin. He had a healthy respect for the blues, but he also had a love of folk music, and there was certainly room for that when working on the band’s debut album.

Despite most of the songs being covers of old blues standards, Plant sells every single moment that he has on the record. There was already some genuine pain in his voice when doing his version of ‘Babe I’m Gonna Leave You’, but listening to ‘How Many More Times’ is one of the times he truly comes alive, screaming to the high heavens in the same way heavy metal singers would be doing years down the line.

Some moments on the record were a bit too over-the-top for Plant to tolerate over time, but in Page’s eyes, he knew that what Plant was doing couldn’t be replaced, saying, “I think he should be really pleased with his vocal approach. He was performing in a very inspired way, like everyone else in the band. What he did was really fitting in terms of where we were going. It was an essential element. And millions would agree with me and not with him on how great his singing was on those first couple of records.”

Then again, Plant’s reservations might also have to do with the kind of people who went on to copy his style later down the line. It was nice to be sharing the same company as vocal legends like Paul Rodgers and Steve Marriott, but when looking at all of the hair metal icons that cited Zeppelin as an influence on their style, it’s clear that Plant wasn’t necessarily a fan of what his music did for the next generation.

But that’s hardly his fault. When listening back to Led Zeppelin I, Plant was simply doing what came naturally to him, and no matter how many people try to ape his style, everyone understands that there will only be one person who can reach those same ‘Golden God’ screams whenever he performed.