Robert Plant Shares Which of His Songs Is the ‘Most Powerful’ to Perform Live
Robert Plant has a tremendous career in music that has spanned decades. As the lead singer of Led Zeppelin, Plant has performed many of the most impactful rock songs ever conceived. However, his answer for the most powerful song he has ever performed may surprise his fans.
Robert Plant has performed many incredible rock songs
Led Zeppelin is a legendary rock band that has been responsible for many of the most iconic rock songs. Part of that is due to the unique vocal performance of Robert Plant, a singer whose high-pitched, booming voice gave these songs an extra flavor. He has proven to possess an incredible range as his softer delivery in songs like “Stairway to Heaven” differs from his more aggressive delivery in “Immigrant Song.”
After Led Zeppelin disbanded, Plant embarked on his solo career, where he has also collaborated with other rockstars, including guitarist Jimmy Page and Phil Collins. While he never recorded anything as memorable as Led Zeppelin’s work, he believes his most powerful song came during his solo career.
Plant says his ‘most powerful’ song is ‘Embrace Another Fall’
In an interview with Vulture, Robert Plant answered what he believes is the “most powerful” song he’s ever performed live. The English singer surprisingly didn’t select a Led Zeppelin song, and chose “Embrace Another Fall,” a track from his solo career. The track comes from his 2014 solo album Lullaby and the Ceaseless Roar. Plant said performing the song live was a mesh of “everything I hold close to me musically.”
“The Sensational Space Shifters were a mix of musicians — my brothers indefinitely for the rest of my time. This song and the projection of it into a crowd was a meld of everything I hold close to me musically. Their performances were jaw-dropping and dramatic. The personality of each player flooded the stage, and it was unbounding. Although it was organized with the dramatic and the explosive, it still had a sort of crazy way it would take off and dissolve again, and return to a West African riff and rhythm. All the lyrics are so poignant to me because it’s about my return to the Shire. For all the things that I really want to do, for everything that I’ve tried to think I’m a traveler, I ultimately keep coming back. The Shire draws me back and sometimes it leaves me in pieces as I take off. The tension and release of “Embrace Another Fall” has been a major moment for me in all my time. It was so difficult to get it there because it was crazy just trying to keep it under control.”
‘Embrace Another Fall’ is influenced by African music
Another reason why “Embrace Another Fall” is one of Plant’s favorite tracks is because it’s heavily influenced by North African music, which Plant has been an admirer of for a long time. He mentions that he has been influenced by African music since the 1970s and even found ways to incorporate it into Led Zeppelin.
“I’ve always spent time in North Africa. I’ll sit somewhere out of the way in the shade and listen to life go by. I listen to the musicians moving around the cafés,” Plant shared. “I became more and more engrossed in it. From my adventures in 1971 and 1972, I got Jimmy to come out to southern Morocco to work on ‘Kashmir.’ I brought the whole thing home with ‘Embrace Another Fall’ because I’ve taken elements of everything that I loved and that trip.”
