5 of Robert Plant’s Best Led Zeppelin Moments
All four Led Zeppelin members were instrumental to the band’s success. A few musicians hated the band, but fans embraced the songs that came from the chemistry between Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham. The three full-time musicians had plenty of chances to shine, but Plant’s best Led Zeppelin moments show he was an equally bright star.
1. Plant’s harmonica solo on ‘You Shook Me’
Page’s plan for Led Zeppelin I was to grab listeners’ attention right away. The opening song, “Good Times Bad Times,” set the tone, and the rest of the album followed. That included “You Shook Me.”
The cover of the Willie Dixon-penned Muddy Waters tune featured a unique Page guitar setup. Still, all four band members grab the spotlight during individual solos (except for Bonham, who shares solo space alongside Page). Plant proved he was more than just a leather-lunged frontman with a harmonica solo that fits in perfectly with the late-1960s update of a gritty blues song from earlier in the decade.
2. Rising to the challenge with his ‘Kashmir’ lyrics
Plant and Page both call “Kashmir” the definitive Led Zeppelin song. Physical Graffiti features some of the band’s best work, and “Kashmir” still stands out in the crowd.
And Plant was virtually in tears as he penned his lyrics.
The song’s epic sound demanded equally epic lyrics. The difficulty level rose several notches because Bonham played his drums in a different time signature from Page and Jones. Despite the challenges, Plant rose to the occasion and delivered some of his best Led Zeppelin lyrics — visual, timeless, and epic. They evoke an atmosphere that perfectly aligns with the music behind them. Would “Kashmir” be a classic without Plant’s lyrics? We don’t think so. That’s why it’s one of Plant’s best Led Zeppelin moments.
3. Plant’s singing on ‘Going to California’
Plant demonstrated that his vocals could match his bandmates’ intensity on their instruments. One of Plant’s Led Zeppelin highlights came when he didn’t have to.
“Going to California” features Page’s guitars, Jones’ mandolin, and Plant’s singing. The delicate tune from Led Zeppelin IV comes between the muscular “Four Sticks” and the epic closer “When the Levee Breaks,” but it’s more than a palate cleanser.
Plant once said he didn’t learn how to sing until the making of Led Zeppelin III, and he put his skills on display on “Going to California.” His vocals rise yet remain delicate in several moments (“Took my chances on a big jet plane / Never let ‘em tell you they’re all the same”). A few lines later, he eloquently implements his more powerful vocal approach (“Throw me a line, if I reach it in time / I’ll meet you up there where the path runs straight and high”) without damaging the song’s fragility.
“Going to California” is one of Led Zeppelin’s best acoustic songs and one of Plant’s finest moments on the microphone.
4. Matching Page’s guitar riff with his ‘Nobody’s Fault but Mine’ lyrics
Vocal chord issues are the last thing a singer needs. Plant had nodules growing on his, which required surgery to remove them (per Express) and put Led Zeppelin’s future in danger. One listen to “Nobody’s Fault but Mine” proves that he could still shine on the microphone.
Plant syncs his vocals to Page’s echoey guitar riff throughout the song and holds some tough notes along the way (“The devil he told me to roll-oh-oh-oll / how to roll the log tonight”), but it all reaches a crescendo in the song’s waning moments. Plant matches his wordless vocals to Page’s guitar and then graces Led Zeppelin fans with one of his best moments — the “N-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-nobody’s fault” that closes the song.
5. ‘All of My Love’
Plant and his family suffered a terrible tragedy when his son, Karac, died suddenly in 1977. Publicly dealing with the grief led to one of Plant’s best Led Zeppelin moments.
His lyrics poetically describe his love for his son, and his vocals take center stage in the emotional song from 1979’s In Through the Out Door. Led Zeppelin earned their reputation as a heavy band in their career, but “All of My Love” proved that the band excelled when they displayed their softer side.
He shined brightly alongside his bandmates throughout their career, and Robert Plant’s best Led Zeppelin moments show he was just as capable of carrying the band.
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