WEBVTT - Robert Plant 0:00:15.436 --> 0:00:22.956 Pushkin. Hey, y'all, it's justin Richmond. Today on the show, 0:00:22.996 --> 0:00:26.596 we have Robert Plant, someone whose voice I've probably listened 0:00:26.636 --> 0:00:30.516 to on record more than anyone else ever. Think about 0:00:30.516 --> 0:00:32.676 all the people in and around the UK in the 0:00:32.756 --> 0:00:36.116 late sixties who probably could have easily become the singer 0:00:36.196 --> 0:00:39.476 for Zeppelin, but of course just about any other singer 0:00:39.516 --> 0:00:44.036 would have grounded that band sound. Instead, by some miracle, 0:00:44.316 --> 0:00:48.356 they found Plant, who was able to expertly insert himself 0:00:48.356 --> 0:00:52.076 into their soaring, loud and hard dynamic, creating some of 0:00:52.116 --> 0:00:55.996 the last centuries best music. But naturally, we could only 0:00:55.996 --> 0:00:59.036 be lucky for so long. Zeppelin broke up in nineteen 0:00:59.116 --> 0:01:02.836 eighty after their powerhouse drummer John Bonham passed away. Afterwards, 0:01:03.076 --> 0:01:05.516 Plant set out on his own, recording songs that drew 0:01:05.556 --> 0:01:09.916 inspiration from North African music, The Blues and Foe the 0:01:09.996 --> 0:01:14.356 perfect setup for his next music collaborations with a wonderful 0:01:14.356 --> 0:01:19.156 fiddle player with an angelic voice named Alison Kraus. Producer 0:01:19.196 --> 0:01:21.716 T Bone Burnett paired them in two thousand and seven 0:01:21.756 --> 0:01:25.516 and recorded an album Raising Sand. That album sold over 0:01:25.556 --> 0:01:28.876 a million copies in the US, won five Grammys, including 0:01:28.876 --> 0:01:31.076 an album of the year, and if you're around at 0:01:31.116 --> 0:01:35.756 that time, you remember it received an incredible amount of 0:01:35.876 --> 0:01:39.236 praise and attention. A decade and a half later, the 0:01:39.316 --> 0:01:43.516 two plus TBone again finally reunited and released a new album, 0:01:43.876 --> 0:01:46.516 Raised the Roof. Let's hear some of the song Quatroll 0:01:46.556 --> 0:01:49.036 World Drifts in from their new project that came out 0:01:49.156 --> 0:02:03.476 last year. Robert Plant talks about this beautiful new collaboration 0:02:03.516 --> 0:02:07.276 with Alison Krause with Rick Rubin on today's episode. They 0:02:07.316 --> 0:02:09.956 also discussed Plant's life changing trip to the Sahara that 0:02:10.036 --> 0:02:13.436 inspired the riff for led Zeppelin's Cashmere, and he remembers 0:02:13.476 --> 0:02:16.796 Bonham declaring himself the best drummer in the world their 0:02:16.956 --> 0:02:23.436 very first meeting. This is broken record liner notes for 0:02:23.556 --> 0:02:28.036 the digital age. I'm justin Mischian. Here's Rick Rubin and 0:02:28.196 --> 0:02:31.236 Robert Blant. I was listening to one of your pre 0:02:31.476 --> 0:02:34.516 Zeppelin songs that I had not heard before, and I 0:02:34.556 --> 0:02:37.356 wanted to ask you about what singers inspired you when 0:02:37.356 --> 0:02:40.316 you were young, because what came to mind listening to 0:02:40.356 --> 0:02:42.596 it was Tom Jones, which blew my mind because I 0:02:42.676 --> 0:02:45.156 never made that. I never would have made that connection 0:02:45.396 --> 0:02:48.556 or thought that ever before. Yeah, it was a funny. 0:02:48.676 --> 0:02:52.436 It was like a kind of hefty tenor pitch that 0:02:52.556 --> 0:02:56.996 I created. There. I was listening to a guy called 0:02:56.996 --> 0:03:03.316 Otis Clay and another guy called Vernon Garrett, the Americans. Well, 0:03:03.356 --> 0:03:06.836 Otis Clay obviously moved over into gospel later on, but 0:03:06.916 --> 0:03:09.756 he cut some stuff on high records. As a kid, 0:03:09.956 --> 0:03:14.316 I didn't really know much about the history of anybody, 0:03:14.836 --> 0:03:18.476 and I was hugely inspired and could never get anywhere 0:03:18.516 --> 0:03:24.076 near Steve Marriott. He animated his inner turmoil. You know, 0:03:24.156 --> 0:03:27.836 he was like a wildcat really, but a great voice. 0:03:28.636 --> 0:03:31.836 And I think if you use the voice enough, bit 0:03:31.876 --> 0:03:34.356 by bit, you can expand the range. You can kick 0:03:34.396 --> 0:03:37.556 it up a bit, push it. Your high notes get stronger, 0:03:37.556 --> 0:03:39.276 and then you can move up the scale a little 0:03:39.276 --> 0:03:42.596 bit more. The more you work, the more flexible everything becomes. 0:03:42.636 --> 0:03:46.076 And so as a kid, I really love the guy 0:03:46.076 --> 0:03:48.436 out of the Temptations as well. I mean, what a 0:03:48.476 --> 0:03:51.956 great voice and smokey. But we you know, I was 0:03:51.996 --> 0:03:53.756 taking a hammer to the pearl or really I was 0:03:53.876 --> 0:03:56.596 just crashing everything around. But so my voice was very 0:03:57.836 --> 0:04:02.116 oh you know, it was an adventure. Tell me about 0:04:02.116 --> 0:04:04.156 the scene that you were born into. Tell me about 0:04:04.196 --> 0:04:06.236 what was the music scene at that point in time. 0:04:06.276 --> 0:04:08.436 What was on the radio. What would it be like 0:04:08.476 --> 0:04:11.116 going to an eight club as a kid, Well, there 0:04:11.156 --> 0:04:15.996 were no nightclubs. It's kind of really post Industrial Revolution 0:04:16.116 --> 0:04:20.436 Black Country stuff. So there were dance halls, ballrooms, and 0:04:20.476 --> 0:04:26.676 there was a very vibrant, very active gig scene going on. 0:04:26.836 --> 0:04:29.836 So in the Black Country and around Birmingham there would 0:04:29.876 --> 0:04:33.396 be three or four great rooms to go to with 0:04:33.476 --> 0:04:38.676 the beautiful sprung maple dance floors and coming out of 0:04:38.676 --> 0:04:43.316 the early sixties where everything was like imitation Chuck Berry, 0:04:44.116 --> 0:04:47.476 so you know that sweet little sixteen type of stuff. 0:04:48.396 --> 0:04:51.196 So the rhythms and the dance floor, the whole thing 0:04:51.436 --> 0:04:55.836 was just this motion of four or four time through 0:04:55.876 --> 0:04:58.716 those venues. I ended up getting a gig as a 0:04:58.756 --> 0:05:01.956 master of ceremonies, so I wouldn't introduce the groups that 0:05:01.996 --> 0:05:06.156 were coming on that night. Through those places came Wilson Pickett. 0:05:06.716 --> 0:05:10.476 I introduced little Stevie Wonder with his orchestra when Fingertips 0:05:10.836 --> 0:05:14.916 came out part one and two before the real explosion, 0:05:15.356 --> 0:05:21.596 and yeah, there's everybody, Johnny Kidd in the Pirates, the Beatles, 0:05:22.276 --> 0:05:25.076 and there was a town hall scene like here, I 0:05:25.116 --> 0:05:27.836 guess where the guy who used to run the net 0:05:27.876 --> 0:05:31.316 Worth concerts in the seventies. He captured the franchises of 0:05:31.356 --> 0:05:35.836 the local town halls in England, so yeah, you'd see 0:05:35.876 --> 0:05:39.036 some amazing artists come through, I mean, and the idea 0:05:39.076 --> 0:05:42.756 of actually packing a town hall with five hundred people 0:05:42.876 --> 0:05:47.276 dancing and a spot of fighting and pugilism in the 0:05:47.316 --> 0:05:52.436 corners just for a bit of spice was incredible. So 0:05:53.236 --> 0:05:56.516 it was a very active scene. But for me, I 0:05:56.556 --> 0:05:59.316 was younger than those guys, so a little bit younger. 0:05:59.356 --> 0:06:04.396 So I just used to stand in awe looking up 0:06:04.396 --> 0:06:09.356 at the stage, you know, watching these people make it work. 0:06:09.556 --> 0:06:11.596 How old were you at that time? Would you say? 0:06:11.916 --> 0:06:14.756 About fifteen? I was already in a group then, and 0:06:16.076 --> 0:06:19.396 we were murdering John Lee Hooker songs as only the 0:06:19.436 --> 0:06:21.596 English could. Did you think that this would be your 0:06:21.596 --> 0:06:25.076 professional life or was it just a passing fancy at 0:06:25.076 --> 0:06:27.396 the time? What was your guests? Well, I didn't have 0:06:27.436 --> 0:06:29.956 a guess, and I didn't I didn't see anything like 0:06:30.436 --> 0:06:34.876 the whole idea of a futurism at all. I was 0:06:35.156 --> 0:06:39.516 still in the cabins of learning, being educated at school 0:06:39.796 --> 0:06:43.396 and then are at college, so I didn't have any 0:06:43.476 --> 0:06:46.276 idea of anticipation. But I just knew that there were 0:06:46.356 --> 0:06:53.036 certain voices and chord structures and scales that did something 0:06:53.036 --> 0:06:55.476 to me that didn't have any nothing to do with 0:06:55.556 --> 0:06:57.596 anything that came before. I just didn't know what was 0:06:57.636 --> 0:07:02.116 happening to me when I heard particular musical notation, just 0:07:02.236 --> 0:07:05.796 some sort of heraldry, something that promised something at the 0:07:05.836 --> 0:07:08.676 beginning of a song that was like a kind of 0:07:09.396 --> 0:07:11.796 was showing me that there was a key to something 0:07:11.836 --> 0:07:15.116 that we didn't really have in England at all, but 0:07:15.316 --> 0:07:18.796 it was still going into my into my system and 0:07:18.876 --> 0:07:23.516 affecting my whole bloodstream with this kind of stuff. I 0:07:23.516 --> 0:07:25.956 didn't know what it was. It could have been John 0:07:26.036 --> 0:07:29.676 Lee Hooker just playing boogie chillen, you know, that kind 0:07:29.676 --> 0:07:36.596 of incessant one chord thing, which was so contra to 0:07:36.716 --> 0:07:41.276 the kind of sedate English popular themes in music. But 0:07:41.396 --> 0:07:44.116 it was almost like a funny, how ridiculous At forty 0:07:44.196 --> 0:07:46.996 fifty years later, I'd end up in West Africa with 0:07:47.076 --> 0:07:51.716 a bunch of Tuareg north of Timbuctoo who were playing 0:07:51.756 --> 0:07:56.516 that very deal. Unbeknown they had no idea about you know, 0:07:57.236 --> 0:07:59.996 John Lee Hooker at all, but it was the same groove. Yes, 0:08:00.316 --> 0:08:02.756 So as a kid, I just held these clarions of 0:08:03.876 --> 0:08:08.116 sonic clarions that came and arrested me, you know, much 0:08:08.156 --> 0:08:10.516 to the fear of my parents, who saw me as 0:08:10.516 --> 0:08:14.636 an academic icon. Do you remember any particular songs from 0:08:14.716 --> 0:08:16.716 that period that when you heard them, just sort of 0:08:16.756 --> 0:08:19.396 like blew your mind or felt different than everything that 0:08:19.436 --> 0:08:23.756 came before. Yeah. On a melodic level, I think it 0:08:23.796 --> 0:08:26.316 must be Alan Toussaint who played the piano lick that 0:08:26.396 --> 0:08:29.876 opened I like it like that by Chris Kenner. It's 0:08:29.916 --> 0:08:34.356 just that very the whole Crescent City intro because no 0:08:34.476 --> 0:08:38.636 sooner he created this introduction than the song kicked into 0:08:38.676 --> 0:08:42.676 a groove, very polished groove. I mean Chris Kenner's records 0:08:43.076 --> 0:08:46.916 really were well they were. It was a bad groove 0:08:46.956 --> 0:08:49.436 and about this soul thing, but they really polished up 0:08:49.436 --> 0:08:52.756 that track. But I didn't know anything about it really. 0:08:53.276 --> 0:08:55.676 I mean some of the John Lee Hooker stuff that 0:08:55.996 --> 0:09:01.476 I heard was, say, the opening of Boom Boom or 0:09:01.556 --> 0:09:05.516 Dimples that, the swing on that and the fact that 0:09:05.556 --> 0:09:08.716 the guitar I didn't know that at the time. I 0:09:08.716 --> 0:09:12.916 couldn't actually, I didn't have any vision of what was right, 0:09:12.956 --> 0:09:15.116 and what was wrong about people's playing But it just 0:09:15.156 --> 0:09:19.036 seemed so sort of random. Yes, there was no sign 0:09:19.036 --> 0:09:21.836 of Johnny Mathis. It was just this kind of wow, 0:09:22.516 --> 0:09:24.996 you know. Yeah, I was moved by this stuff, and 0:09:25.036 --> 0:09:29.116 I began to realize it was all black, you know 0:09:29.476 --> 0:09:32.876 that I could hear I could hear these chimes or 0:09:32.876 --> 0:09:36.556 whatever they were. But you know, so those were really 0:09:36.756 --> 0:09:40.636 sort of the bells that started ringing. I mean, really, 0:09:40.676 --> 0:09:43.396 it's a it's a that's a pretty profound question because 0:09:43.436 --> 0:09:46.316 if I think about it, I could also say that 0:09:46.876 --> 0:09:50.956 people like Snuff Garrett in La were producing for Liberty. 0:09:51.036 --> 0:09:53.436 I know this now. I didn't know then, but you 0:09:53.476 --> 0:09:58.196 could hear Johnny Bennett's Cincinnati Fireball on the flip side 0:09:58.196 --> 0:10:03.436 of Dreaming, and it was just everything was there, chick vocals, 0:10:03.436 --> 0:10:08.716 string parts, this guy who was somewhere near Elvis, you know, 0:10:09.156 --> 0:10:12.836 and it was a ditty. Yeah. But the word play 0:10:13.036 --> 0:10:16.036 in that kind of teen scene thing was right up 0:10:16.116 --> 0:10:18.196 my street then, because I was in love with everybody, 0:10:18.876 --> 0:10:21.916 you know, I had a dream about every girl on 0:10:21.956 --> 0:10:26.476 the street, and these songs kind of they spoke for me. 0:10:26.996 --> 0:10:29.716 So other than the bands that would come through, what 0:10:29.756 --> 0:10:32.156 was the local scene, Like, were many kids making music 0:10:32.196 --> 0:10:36.396 at that time? Yes, there were hundreds and hundreds of groups, 0:10:36.636 --> 0:10:42.036 and everybody was playing Bye Bye Johnny wrong. I mean 0:10:42.076 --> 0:10:45.996 the whole the chuck Berry rhythm sections, when we never 0:10:46.076 --> 0:10:48.476 kind of worked out that one part of the band 0:10:48.636 --> 0:10:52.236 was rocking and the other guys were swinging behind it 0:10:52.716 --> 0:10:56.436 the rhythm sections, and we just couldn't read that. Yeah, 0:10:56.476 --> 0:10:59.196 everyone was just playing the same part right. Yeah, it 0:10:59.276 --> 0:11:02.716 was awful. It was just like what wow. But then again, 0:11:02.796 --> 0:11:05.316 we were all making the same mistake. And people wore 0:11:05.356 --> 0:11:08.996 those jackets like you see with the Safaris now, the 0:11:09.196 --> 0:11:13.116 kind of surfbeat guys over here. So most people had 0:11:13.116 --> 0:11:15.876 a kind of maroon suit on with a black velvet 0:11:15.916 --> 0:11:19.956 collar and had those foot movements like Cliff Richard and 0:11:19.956 --> 0:11:24.836 the Shadows, that sort of strange choreography, which is really 0:11:25.596 --> 0:11:29.836 that's all we had. When did folk make its appearance, 0:11:30.636 --> 0:11:33.476 Well around the same time, I guess. You know the 0:11:33.876 --> 0:11:37.636 last clip in that Hairspray movie when the girl wins 0:11:37.636 --> 0:11:42.036 the dance contest and they're walking home down the street 0:11:42.076 --> 0:11:45.716 in Philly and some hipster beat nick knocks on the 0:11:45.756 --> 0:11:49.436 door and as they're walking past, the door opens and 0:11:49.436 --> 0:11:52.716 they're listening to Dylan and somebody hands them a spliff. 0:11:53.436 --> 0:11:58.796 It's that changeover, that moment where the teen scene just 0:11:59.556 --> 0:12:03.516 gave way because the generation half a generation older than 0:12:03.556 --> 0:12:10.236 me were already in the folk clubs singing Irish mournful ballads. 0:12:10.276 --> 0:12:15.556 And I was attracted to the whole deal because if 0:12:15.556 --> 0:12:19.596 I liked Chris Kenner and Two Saints production and I 0:12:19.636 --> 0:12:22.716 didn't know what it was, then I would go to 0:12:22.756 --> 0:12:24.756 a folk club and I'd hear some guy playing an 0:12:24.756 --> 0:12:27.556 eight string guitar. I didn't really recognize what it was 0:12:27.596 --> 0:12:30.036 at the time, but it was because it was kind 0:12:30.036 --> 0:12:35.636 of disheveled, was rough, and also it was an uncharted 0:12:35.756 --> 0:12:39.836 land for us to hear this, to try and play 0:12:39.916 --> 0:12:45.036 this music. So and the scene there, with that kind 0:12:45.076 --> 0:12:49.676 of folk club thing led to a whole different intellect. 0:12:49.916 --> 0:12:53.596 People were talking about wee free Kings, Roland Kirk and 0:12:54.876 --> 0:12:58.596 you know all the good looking girls. Now suddenly they 0:12:58.596 --> 0:13:01.076 didn't have a million petticoats, they had long hair, and 0:13:01.116 --> 0:13:04.396 they were carrying a buck, a white LP or the 0:13:04.556 --> 0:13:08.796 first Dylan album or whatever it was. So I suppose, really, 0:13:08.796 --> 0:13:13.676 if you think about Dylan's very first venture that Columbia record. 0:13:13.876 --> 0:13:17.996 It opened up for sure, all that buck a white 0:13:17.996 --> 0:13:21.716 stuff and fixing to die and you know, and the 0:13:21.756 --> 0:13:25.476 scene was amazing because that those people were again a 0:13:25.516 --> 0:13:28.116 bit older than me, but they had a key to stuff. 0:13:28.756 --> 0:13:31.676 They were employed, they had income so they could buy records. 0:13:31.916 --> 0:13:35.996 There was an RCA label in Europe called RCA Jazz. 0:13:35.996 --> 0:13:38.396 It was a French label that was putting out ten 0:13:38.436 --> 0:13:43.596 inch albums and six track EPs, which opened up the 0:13:43.636 --> 0:13:47.356 door to the original Sonny Boy Williamson, Elevated Woman and 0:13:47.396 --> 0:13:49.636 all that stuff. I'd take it home. By this time, 0:13:49.676 --> 0:13:54.396 my parents were really worried because it was all right, 0:13:54.476 --> 0:13:59.196 Johnny Bennett was palatable perhaps, but the idea of the 0:13:59.236 --> 0:14:03.756 blues thing must have been something else. Because I had 0:14:03.756 --> 0:14:05.636 one of those record players where you could lift up 0:14:05.636 --> 0:14:07.516 the central armor that you could just keep playing the 0:14:07.556 --> 0:14:12.236 same forty five over and again that yes, the playback 0:14:12.316 --> 0:14:14.756 arm would come back onto the where the stylus would 0:14:14.756 --> 0:14:18.876 come back onto the record for five hours or something, 0:14:19.436 --> 0:14:24.716 so you know, Spoonful or from the Howling Wolf that 0:14:24.756 --> 0:14:27.316 I think that's maybe something like that was the final 0:14:28.276 --> 0:14:32.396 frontier for my parents. And when I was when I 0:14:32.436 --> 0:14:34.956 went to school or I was doing a paper around us. Something. 0:14:35.116 --> 0:14:36.676 I came back and I cut the plug off the 0:14:36.716 --> 0:14:40.436 record player. That was it. That was open war. It's 0:14:40.476 --> 0:14:43.196 too much, too fine, too fine. Yeah, it was a 0:14:43.236 --> 0:14:47.236 plug too far. Yes, So that was it. Then I 0:14:47.716 --> 0:14:51.036 chose bohemia, you know, even though I could go home 0:14:51.076 --> 0:14:54.076 and have a nice, warm bath, that was not really 0:14:54.676 --> 0:14:58.276 And you know, people were carrying the literature the cam 0:14:58.516 --> 0:15:03.276 Albert Camu and Shatter and Darma Bum. You know that 0:15:03.356 --> 0:15:07.316 everybody suddenly was hip to this stuff. And then two 0:15:07.356 --> 0:15:11.836 German promoters, Lippman and Rao, who had been operating pre 0:15:12.036 --> 0:15:17.516 Second World War, representing well some of the main nightclub 0:15:17.836 --> 0:15:23.716 personalities then in the old days, they realized this bohemian 0:15:23.796 --> 0:15:26.956 scene was all over Europe, in all the main towns, 0:15:26.996 --> 0:15:34.156 and spiraling into small, smaller communities because pop music really 0:15:34.196 --> 0:15:38.556 in Europe didn't popular music was only the popular music 0:15:38.636 --> 0:15:43.036 that the program planners were prepared to give you. Oh, 0:15:43.116 --> 0:15:45.396 of course, that's how it always is. But it was 0:15:45.476 --> 0:15:50.356 so narrow an option that we all knew that there 0:15:50.396 --> 0:15:53.156 was something else, obviously, something else going on, you know. 0:15:55.236 --> 0:15:59.396 So I think this whole movement was inspired by the 0:15:59.516 --> 0:16:03.796 conservatism of our media and the fact that it seemed 0:16:03.796 --> 0:16:08.356 to me like the upper echelons of broadcasting and the 0:16:08.396 --> 0:16:11.436 British Board, I think, corporation whatever, we're waiting for this 0:16:11.476 --> 0:16:14.236 thing to pass over so they could get back to 0:16:14.756 --> 0:16:17.956 the audio volume that they knew and loved. So well, yeah, 0:16:18.156 --> 0:16:22.516 it's funny really, because the mainstream in Europe was augmented 0:16:22.636 --> 0:16:26.316 slowly by pirate radio that were ships out in the 0:16:26.356 --> 0:16:31.156 British channel English Channel who were transmitting programs which were 0:16:31.636 --> 0:16:36.676 sponsored by various record labels. So you know, when I 0:16:36.716 --> 0:16:39.516 was doing my homework at my grandparents house on a Friday, 0:16:39.556 --> 0:16:42.356 I could tune in to Tony Hall who had this 0:16:42.436 --> 0:16:46.116 amazing called the American Hot Ten, and it would be 0:16:46.196 --> 0:16:50.636 all London American Records, and London American as a record 0:16:50.716 --> 0:16:56.436 label was basically a conglomerate channel and filter smaller labels 0:16:56.436 --> 0:17:01.236 in the US who didn't have international deals. So it 0:17:01.316 --> 0:17:04.676 would you'd go right the way through from Shop Around 0:17:04.716 --> 0:17:09.556 by the Miracles to the Chimes or Dells, Alan or 0:17:10.636 --> 0:17:12.876 Chuck Berry was there on London, you know, and the 0:17:12.956 --> 0:17:16.476 whole Chess catalog from from Chicago came out through that label. 0:17:17.676 --> 0:17:20.716 So there was jazz, and there was Diana Washington, and 0:17:20.796 --> 0:17:23.516 there was that. So as time went on, more and 0:17:23.636 --> 0:17:27.076 more as an English kid, I was becoming more and 0:17:27.116 --> 0:17:32.436 more and more sort of engrossed and consumed by the 0:17:32.556 --> 0:17:35.956 variety of music from America. I'm surprised to hear about 0:17:36.036 --> 0:17:38.996 Dylan because I think of obviously, we all think of 0:17:39.036 --> 0:17:42.276 the blues coming from the States and then the British 0:17:42.316 --> 0:17:45.596 invasion kind of reacting to the American blues scene. But 0:17:45.676 --> 0:17:47.716 I never thought about that with folk, because we think 0:17:47.716 --> 0:17:51.156 of folk as being traditionally Irish music originally, so we 0:17:51.196 --> 0:17:54.876 don't think of the American connection here. But it's interesting 0:17:54.916 --> 0:17:58.276 to hear Dylan be the first name that you bring up. Yeah, well, 0:17:58.356 --> 0:18:02.076 girl from the North Country, what is that really? Is 0:18:02.116 --> 0:18:06.076 it Scarborough Fair or where does it come from? Of course, 0:18:06.156 --> 0:18:08.876 now I know a lot more historically. Now I can 0:18:08.916 --> 0:18:12.156 put people to sleep if they're feeling unsettled on an aeroplane, 0:18:12.396 --> 0:18:14.756 I can just give him a quick three hours About 0:18:16.076 --> 0:18:20.876 the conversation between the English Murder Ballad and Doc Bogs. 0:18:21.076 --> 0:18:26.116 I don't know, but I just think that there was 0:18:26.156 --> 0:18:30.116 so much romance about Dylan, so much enigma, and he 0:18:30.236 --> 0:18:32.076 was not on his own of course, but for us 0:18:32.676 --> 0:18:36.316 he was what he was the Dama bum. You know, 0:18:36.636 --> 0:18:39.116 he was bringing this, he was opening the doors. And 0:18:39.116 --> 0:18:42.716 then I suppose Leonard Cohen after him would be important 0:18:42.756 --> 0:18:45.036 in the UK. Sure, well, I don't know, you know 0:18:45.116 --> 0:18:48.716 I was. I think I could hear the sort of 0:18:49.436 --> 0:18:52.756 what everybody's opinion about music, that this very the very 0:18:52.796 --> 0:18:56.116 idea that we are doing this. You and I have 0:18:56.196 --> 0:18:58.196 to be both been aware of each other for a 0:18:58.276 --> 0:19:02.396 long long time, half a century. In my case, I 0:19:02.436 --> 0:19:05.196 suppose really to talk about music now is a bit 0:19:05.796 --> 0:19:08.436 It's a bit odd because I only know what I 0:19:08.436 --> 0:19:11.436 can tell you in this flurry of energy and a 0:19:11.996 --> 0:19:15.396 small coffee. But what's really happened to me all the 0:19:15.396 --> 0:19:19.276 way through was the causing effect, and one thing leads 0:19:19.276 --> 0:19:22.676 to another leads all the way through. Sir Dylan and 0:19:22.996 --> 0:19:29.196 his adventures opened up so that we knew about Dave 0:19:29.276 --> 0:19:33.276 van Ronk and you know Spider John Corner. I mean 0:19:33.316 --> 0:19:36.036 Canned Heat. Never mind the British bringing the blues to America, 0:19:36.316 --> 0:19:39.436 it was already that the young white kids were really doing, 0:19:39.556 --> 0:19:41.916 making a great job of it with Mike Bloomfield and 0:19:43.196 --> 0:19:46.836 Elvin Bishop and Canned Heat and seeing those clips of 0:19:46.876 --> 0:19:51.836 Newport Folk Festival and stuff that now or in nineteen 0:19:51.996 --> 0:19:54.316 seventy even looking back and see him our good friend 0:19:54.396 --> 0:19:58.676 armat Urtic and in the crowd. You know, it's the links. 0:19:58.676 --> 0:20:02.916 They are indelible parts of my DNA. They're fantastic in 0:20:02.956 --> 0:20:08.676 the true sense of the word, channels of stimulus. We'll 0:20:08.716 --> 0:20:11.876 be right back with more from Rick Rubin and Robert Plant. 0:20:11.916 --> 0:20:18.396 After a quick break. We're back with more from Robert 0:20:18.476 --> 0:20:22.516 Plant and Rick Rubin. When Zeppelin one first came out, 0:20:22.756 --> 0:20:25.076 did it take off right away or what was the 0:20:25.116 --> 0:20:29.876 reception right in the beginning, Well, we were playing before 0:20:29.876 --> 0:20:34.036 he came out, so we got to La December sixty eight, 0:20:34.196 --> 0:20:38.356 and it came out some time in January. And I 0:20:38.396 --> 0:20:42.996 guess Jimmy's reputation from the Yardbirds was powerful, and he 0:20:43.156 --> 0:20:46.756 threw some amazing shapes musically and physically. It was just 0:20:47.116 --> 0:20:52.956 there was a whole cavalcade of energy. And you have 0:20:53.156 --> 0:20:57.156 to be transmitting in the same on the same planet 0:20:57.236 --> 0:21:01.436 as that, otherwise you don't have there's no gig for you. Yes, 0:21:01.956 --> 0:21:04.356 and I really knew how to do that because John 0:21:04.396 --> 0:21:07.916 Bonham and I we already had our own similar but 0:21:08.316 --> 0:21:13.436 mysteriously obscure Band of Joy, which was nuts It was 0:21:13.476 --> 0:21:17.876 really stretching within the limitations that we had as kids, 0:21:17.996 --> 0:21:19.876 you know. I mean I was nineteen when I met 0:21:21.076 --> 0:21:25.636 Jimmy and John Paul. But the energy, the fireball that 0:21:25.676 --> 0:21:29.996 we developed and was created around us took no prisoners, 0:21:31.076 --> 0:21:33.196 with or without a success of an album or what 0:21:33.236 --> 0:21:35.356 everybody is. But it did kick in and it was 0:21:35.396 --> 0:21:42.476 a very stimulating, incredible surge because with the advent of FM, 0:21:42.596 --> 0:21:46.636 radio playlists were abandoned quite often. You know, it would 0:21:46.676 --> 0:21:51.596 just you could go from Voorjac to Kaleidoscope speaking from 0:21:51.676 --> 0:21:54.196 Mars or whatever it would be. It was just fantastic that, 0:21:54.756 --> 0:21:57.356 you know, people were just going, yeah, man, this is music. 0:21:57.516 --> 0:22:00.556 And then so we'd go places and they just put 0:22:00.556 --> 0:22:03.276 our record on and play both sides of it and 0:22:03.316 --> 0:22:06.436 then talk for a while and then they say, what 0:22:06.516 --> 0:22:08.436 do you want to play? You know, So they'd let 0:22:08.476 --> 0:22:11.636 us loose on the libraries in the radio stations, which 0:22:11.716 --> 0:22:14.476 was the wrong thing to do. Incredible, yea, so great 0:22:14.516 --> 0:22:17.076 though that you Yeah, so we were kind of passing 0:22:17.076 --> 0:22:21.196 them out through the toilet window. Look quick, take this, 0:22:21.836 --> 0:22:26.196 you know this thievery Yeah. Yeah, it was so much more, 0:22:26.356 --> 0:22:31.236 so much more freedom in the whole delivery of music 0:22:31.316 --> 0:22:34.796 to the people in those days. What was the feeling 0:22:35.276 --> 0:22:38.916 after bottom passes. Was there any talk of continuing or 0:22:38.996 --> 0:22:41.596 was it clear that that was not going to happen. Well, 0:22:41.636 --> 0:22:44.276 you know, as a four piece band, what are you 0:22:44.276 --> 0:22:47.396 going to do? I mean, I don't know how anybody could, ever, 0:22:47.636 --> 0:22:51.716 any group of people could find when twenty five percent 0:22:51.756 --> 0:22:57.516 of the driving wheel, which is so characteristic and really surges. 0:22:57.556 --> 0:23:00.596 I mean, it wasn't just that he was a magnificent drummer. 0:23:01.436 --> 0:23:03.516 It was just more of the point that he was. 0:23:04.556 --> 0:23:07.516 He could telegraph the turns in the songs. Yeah, he 0:23:07.556 --> 0:23:11.476 could make it all swear, and when he was tired 0:23:11.516 --> 0:23:14.756 of an idiom within the song, he'd go into Wolf's 0:23:14.796 --> 0:23:17.996 time for a minute and just look at me and laugh. Yeah. 0:23:18.236 --> 0:23:20.676 He was playing jazz, yeah, yeah, and he got fed 0:23:20.716 --> 0:23:23.316 up at one time. I remember in somewhere in New York, 0:23:23.436 --> 0:23:25.116 he just got up and walked through his drum kit. 0:23:25.516 --> 0:23:26.956 That's it. I don't want to do that. And we 0:23:27.036 --> 0:23:31.556 switched quickly to going to California or so what somebody 0:23:31.716 --> 0:23:35.436 lured him back onto the Riser. Well, it's funny, really, 0:23:35.436 --> 0:23:38.796 because last night I spent the evening with Jason Bonham, 0:23:38.796 --> 0:23:41.956 and it was fantastic. I mean, Jason's come a long 0:23:41.996 --> 0:23:44.636 way and he's he's fifty five, and I think I've 0:23:44.676 --> 0:23:48.996 known him since he was one. Yeah, so Bonham was crucial. 0:23:49.156 --> 0:23:52.436 Couldn't nobody could consider moving on? Since you played with 0:23:52.476 --> 0:23:55.436 so many great musicians over the years, would you say 0:23:55.836 --> 0:23:58.716 that the nature of playing with him was a particular thing. 0:23:59.316 --> 0:24:02.116 Was he unlike any drubber you've ever played with? Well? Yeah, 0:24:02.476 --> 0:24:05.156 Bearing in mind that we started playing together in one 0:24:05.196 --> 0:24:08.636 of those sprung maple leaf dance floors, and it's in 0:24:08.756 --> 0:24:12.036 a hall when I had a group caller Crawling King Snakes, 0:24:12.036 --> 0:24:15.556 And I mean we were too young to drive. We 0:24:15.636 --> 0:24:18.956 hadn't got driving licenses. We were just kids. And he said, 0:24:18.956 --> 0:24:22.436 you're okay, he said, you know, he said, but you'd 0:24:22.476 --> 0:24:24.116 be a lot better if you had the best drummer 0:24:24.116 --> 0:24:26.676 in the world behind you. I said, yeah, but I 0:24:26.676 --> 0:24:30.716 already do. And I said, well, okay, I know that 0:24:30.756 --> 0:24:33.036 you're good, but where do you live? And he told me. 0:24:33.076 --> 0:24:35.996 I said, oh, you can't join our group. We can't 0:24:35.996 --> 0:24:38.356 afford the gasoline to go and pick you up and 0:24:38.436 --> 0:24:41.756 drop you off. So so we did a bit of 0:24:41.796 --> 0:24:45.596 thievery and I got caught by the police for sucking 0:24:45.756 --> 0:24:47.876 fuel out of a gas tank one night, just to 0:24:48.636 --> 0:24:51.756 keep it going. I think most every drummer I've worked 0:24:51.756 --> 0:24:53.756 with in their own way has had a huge effect 0:24:53.796 --> 0:24:57.236 on me, really right up to right now, you know. 0:24:57.316 --> 0:25:00.796 But yeah, I mean clive'sma who played with us in 0:25:00.836 --> 0:25:07.556 the original post page plant times in strange sensations with Radiohead. 0:25:07.596 --> 0:25:10.756 Now when I met him, was just finishing off the 0:25:10.876 --> 0:25:14.556 Porter's Head era, and he in a totally different way. 0:25:14.596 --> 0:25:16.796 He'd done all that stuff with Runny size, the drumming 0:25:16.836 --> 0:25:21.716 bass stuffs from Bristol. He still is and at that 0:25:21.876 --> 0:25:27.236 turnaround of drumming and the incidental polyrhythmic stuff that which 0:25:28.076 --> 0:25:31.036 now you'd just get four good bars and loop it 0:25:31.156 --> 0:25:34.876