The other day over on his blog, Michael Beziat talked about the rumor that Robert Plant may stay far away from the reunion tour of Led Zeppelin and Beziat was pretty okay with the notion. He used Journey and Styx as examples of where this has worked in the past. I can see where he is coming from but I totally disagree.
I know that I may become a bit wishy-washy on this but with a band as iconic as Led Zeppelin I think that they are held to a different, higher standard than most. Sure bands like Journey or Styx have done well without their “classic” lineup singer and continued to rock out but these bands are of a lower caliber. Yes, Journey sounds sufficient with that YouTube-discovered Filipino guy and Tommy Shaw and James Young get on well enough without the vocal stylings of Dennis DeYoung but Zeppelin without Robert Plant? It doesn’t seem right.
Would you pay $100 or more to see the Rolling Stones with Joe-Blow from a tribute band belting out “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” instead of Mick Jagger? Would it be right for Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to tour together as the Beatles? Of course it wouldn’t. There are, however, several exceptions to this rule (at least in my own mind).
- Queen. Queen is an exception for a couple of reasons. Queen has added Paul Rodgers as their new vocalist with the passing of the legendary Freddie Mercury. Rodgers is a great rock vocalist but nothing close to the greatness of Mercury. Personally, I don’t like the way his voice sounds singing the Queen tracks but the thing is he isn’t just singing Queen songs but some of his own that he made famous. Plus, they are not billing themselves as just Queen but as Queen + Paul Rodgers. That to me is a totally different band.
- Lynyrd Skynyrd. Skynyrd lost their singer in a plane wreck. He is dead and gone. Ronnie Van Zant didn’t have the option to NOT sing. They replaced him with a dead ringer, his little brother Johnny. They get a pass.
- The Beatles. I would accept a possible Beatles reunion with McCartney and Starr only if Julian Lennon and Dhani Harrison were in the band. They are family.
These are just a few. With Zeppelin they didn’t feel they could carry on when John Bonham died. Why is it okay to continue now without Plant? When Page and Plant hooked up several years ago without John Paul Jones they didn’t use the Zeppelin moniker and they were more Led Zeppelin than a duo of Page and Jones.
As far as Pink Floyd is concerned, by the way, it is okay in my book, too. Roger Waters tried to say that HE was the Floyd and made it sound like the rest of the band couldn’t carry on without him. Now most people would say that the new music created by the Floyd was sub par but I find it to be some of their best work. It is better than The Final Cut, that’s for sure. Anyway, those are my two cents.
