Music How Talking Heads almost ruined Robert Plant’s career
After 12 years of pioneering stadium rock and securing their place as one of the most important bands in music history, the untimely death of John Bonham in 1980 marked the end of Led Zeppelin. In the wake of the drummer’s passing, the band announced that they would be calling it a day, and lead singer Robert Plant reluctantly embarked upon a solo career.
Grieving his bandmate and going it alone for the first time, Plant initially struggled with the adjustment. The singer spoke about the experience of beginning his solo career with Vulture, explaining, “After John passed away and there was no Led Zeppelin, there had to be a way to go. I floundered around a lot because until I was 32, I was in some kind of wild and absurd adventure. I went through all that stuff.”
To avoid floundering, Plant sought help through collaborative relationships with the likes of Phil Collins and honed success alone before the formation of Page and Plant over a decade later. Plant’s sophomore solo album, The Principle of Moments, featured Collins on drums for a number of tracks on the album.
On writing with other people, Plant shared: “It’s a very intimate thing to do. It’s hard for anybody to expose themselves musically. Other people with me, and me with other people. I have a lot of songs under my belt, which I co-wrote with the members of Zeppelin. It was a lot to live up to. I had a lot of people who gave me support and strength around that time, so I suppose the first two albums were driven by great friends.”
Despite finding success with Collins on his first two records, Plant’s third full-length solo endeavour, Shaken ‘n’ Stirred, contained one song that was ridiculed and rejected by audiences upon its release. The third and final single from the album was titled ‘Too Loud’, and it stemmed from Plant’s increasing preoccupation with Talking Heads.
As Plant recalls, he was determined to open for the new wave pioneers, so he began penning “more and more oblique pieces of music – embracing what had become new studio techniques and stuff.” He suggests, “I probably lost my way, but then there are so many LPs in my being, so you have to live with it and live by it.”
Plant spoke about the failure of ‘Too Loud’, which was majorly inspired by Talking Heads frontman David Byrne, on Digging Deep: The Robert Plant Podcast. He deemed it “very funny, it’s a funny song, it’s supposed to be funny”. Plant may have intended for it to be funny, but audiences weren’t laughing – or if they were, it was at him rather than with him.
The Led Zeppelin frontman stressed the importance of calls to radio stations, which he called “a very important aspect of floating a new collection of songs”. Unfortunately, listener reactions to ‘Too Loud’ were less than complimentary. As he recalls it, “The calls that came into WXRT in Chicago were, ‘Get that shit off the [air], who is that, what the hell is that? Who is he trying to be?’”
Plant’s love of Talking Heads had veered too far into the weird obliqueness of post-punk and new wave scenes, alienating his rock-loving fanbase. Though fans certainly weren’t happy, the release didn’t quite ruin his career, as he redeemed himself with a more Led Zeppelin-like sound on Now and Zen in 1988.
