Legendary LED ZEPPELIN singer Robert Plant says that he doesn’t find much of value in the band’s ongoing reissue campaign, calling the previously unreleased bonus tracks “mostly work-in-progress stuff” that offer “nothing relevant” to him personally.
The ZEPPELIN reissues are being made available in a range of digital, CD, vinyl, and deluxe box sets through Atlantic/Swan Song, accompanied by previously unreleased bonus tracks including rough mixes, backing tracks, alternative versions, and new songs.
Asked if these versions shed any new light on the music for him personally, Plant tells Billboard.com: “No, not really. Because it’s so long ago. What you’re hearing there is mostly work-in-progress stuff. Things on their way to completion, and maybe there’s some little quirk or something that led to an either/or moment. But it’s nothing relevant, really. Not to me, at least.”
Plant remains respectful of his accomplishments with guitarist Jimmy Page and LED ZEPPELIN, telling The Telegraph in a recent interview: “I had no history to speak of, really, before I met Jimmy. I hadn’t stepped into my physical personality. In ZEPPELIN, I learned how to apply myself, how to express myself as a writer, how to shut up and listen. So I grew, I got some of my chops.”
During LED ZEPPELIN‘s 2012 New York City press conference to publicize “Celebration Day”, Robert Plant admitted that the pressure of making music under the LED ZEPPELIN moniker is tremendous. “I think expectations are horrific things,” he said. “I mean, if you go off and play in North Africa, or something like that, you just, you know you’re going to have a good time and you’re going to work with people and there’s nothing else about it. That’s how we started, in a little room with Jason‘s [Bonham] dad [John Bonham, late LED ZEPPELIN drummer] all that time ago. So, to actually, to do anything at all together is such a kind of incredible weight, because I think we were really propelled by Jason [who played drums at ZEPPELIN‘s 2007 reunion show] and his enthusiasm.”
Source: Blabbermouth
