I was listening to Led Zeppelin's Since I've Been Loving You the other day in the car. As usual, I tried to sing along. Tried. As usual, I failed.
This has nothing to do with the fact that Robert Plant's range is an octave and a bit higher than mine. What it is, is the fabulous, natural, inimitable timing Plant applies to the vocals.
The timing imparts such raw, powerful, overwhelming emotion that I just get into the song, and so I try and sing along.
Except I can't because his rendering is so unpredictable that each time I hear it, it feels like he's delivering the performance for the first time. So even though I've listened - and tried to sing along - like, a million times, I can't get the timing down. When does he pause? When does he repeat that line? When does he stutter? When does he wail?
It's just not possible.
It's qualities like this that made Led Zeppelin so amazing, and Since I've Been Loving You one of my favourite all time blues songs.
Yes, I can hear some of you purests saying it's not proper blues; it's too white, too psychedelic, too English - but that's the subject for another blog, I think.
And yes, maybe, just maybe, Plant is having us on and giving us more show than real emotion. Maybe he's just drawing from his formidable bag of tricks to make us think he's suffering. Maybe he's not taking himself too seriously. Led Zeppelin was good at that.
But it doesn't matter. The result feels genuine.
He's says his life is a drag, and you relate and you think life is a drag, and ...
it kinda makes life a drag, drag, drag ... whaaaaaaaaa!
This has nothing to do with the fact that Robert Plant's range is an octave and a bit higher than mine. What it is, is the fabulous, natural, inimitable timing Plant applies to the vocals.
The timing imparts such raw, powerful, overwhelming emotion that I just get into the song, and so I try and sing along.
Except I can't because his rendering is so unpredictable that each time I hear it, it feels like he's delivering the performance for the first time. So even though I've listened - and tried to sing along - like, a million times, I can't get the timing down. When does he pause? When does he repeat that line? When does he stutter? When does he wail?
It's just not possible.
It's qualities like this that made Led Zeppelin so amazing, and Since I've Been Loving You one of my favourite all time blues songs.
Yes, I can hear some of you purests saying it's not proper blues; it's too white, too psychedelic, too English - but that's the subject for another blog, I think.
And yes, maybe, just maybe, Plant is having us on and giving us more show than real emotion. Maybe he's just drawing from his formidable bag of tricks to make us think he's suffering. Maybe he's not taking himself too seriously. Led Zeppelin was good at that.
But it doesn't matter. The result feels genuine.
He's says his life is a drag, and you relate and you think life is a drag, and ...
it kinda makes life a drag, drag, drag ... whaaaaaaaaa!
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