This particular meander began for me a number of years ago when Eric Clapton disassembled his screaming rock and roll classic Layla and lovingly rebuilt it and rearranged it into the hypnotic, folky, acoustic Layla that most people are familiar with today. That rearrangement was an amazing act of maturity on Clapton’s part - a confidence and\clarity that can only result from owning the song by having played it thousands of times. The resulting product was as smooth as the original was blistering. But this was coming from a man who was once equated to God and who penned one of the all-time heart-breaking ballads after his infant son fell to his death from an apartment window.
A young Robert Plant
It further came together when Robert Plant, rock singer and former front man for Led Zeppelin, recorded an acoustic collaboration with country star Alison Krauss about five years ago.
I had never been a big fan of Led Zeppelin but I was certainly aware of their tall, blonde, lead singer with the voice that could cut through cold steel. The Plant/Krauss recording, Raising Sand, was stunning. It was a beautifully delicate and thoughtful recording that cast Plant in a whole new light. His voice was still powerful but now subdued and restrained.
He had aged like fine wine.
I had never been a big fan of Led Zeppelin but I was certainly aware of their tall, blonde, lead singer with the voice that could cut through cold steel. The Plant/Krauss recording, Raising Sand, was stunning. It was a beautifully delicate and thoughtful recording that cast Plant in a whole new light. His voice was still powerful but now subdued and restrained.
He had aged like fine wine.
Robert Plant today.
I became more interested in Plant and began listening to his recordings on YouTube. I was familiar with the Raising
Sand work so I concentrated on the middle years and early Zep classics from the 70’s like Black Dog, Going To California, Kashmir and Whole Lotta Lovin. They were songs that I’d been hearing on the radio for years, but had never REALLY LISTENED to. When I did listen, especially to Plant’s voice, I began to more fully appreciate the power and the subtlety that that man was able to simultaneously project. This made his current work with Kraus all the more interesting. With Krause, Plant is holding back and channeling his fury into sterling vocal gems. It’s like using a shotgun to paint a small picture.
Also popping up on YouTube, in stark contrast, were quiet, subtle acoustic versions of these rock classics from the obviously aging Plant. There was a mid-career solo version of Going To California, and a bluegrass version of Black Dog with Krauss, in which you could actually hear honey drip. The years and the life style had left their tracks on his face, but his voice was still as powerful and expressive as always.
In my Internet travels, I came across an interview with Plant; I think it was a fairly recent appearance on the David Letterman Show. With Letterman, the aging Plant sat cross-legged on the interview chair and recalled a meeting with Elvis, back stage at one of Zep’s early shows. According to Plant, Elvis hung out with them that night, and later in their hotel room, curious about the logistics of a modern rock band and sharing stories of the road. Here was the sagging face of primordial rock and roll hanging out with the new darlings of Big Time Rock. Elvis saw the future and it had to have made him jealous.
So naturally I began to wonder - had Elvis managed to survive the 70’s, and had he lived a long and productive life – like Clapton and Plant – what would he be doing today? What if he hadn’t died bloated on a toilet seat, preserving himself in our minds as that hideous, sweating Vegas/Disco character that he had become when he died? What if he had lived on to be an old man, and like Clapton, Plant, Willie Nelson, Paul McCartney and others, had aged gracefully and productively?
What if Elvis had eventually taken Hound Dog, Don’t think Twice, Jailhouse Rock and Heartbreak Hotel and recast them, rearranged them, regeared them and sang them with new feeling? Can’t you just hear a Layla-esque version of Blue Suede Shoes? He might have ended up a sage old grandfatherly mentor to modern music. Maybe he would have collaborated with Maroon Five, Gotye, Nora Jones, Tony Bennet and k.d. lang. He might have become a regular in Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and had bit parts in CSI and Hawaii Five-0. In fact, can’t you just hear cackling old Mother Janis Joplin, gimp-legged Duane Allman and bald Buddy Holly sittin’ on Elvis’s porch on his farm in Tennessee, drinking V-8 and jamming and harmonizing way into the evening?
I don’t know. It’s interesting to speculate. But I think that if Presley had been able to weather the hard times, he would have become a beloved and talented iconic figure like Clapton and Plant.
I think he would wear it well.
Sand work so I concentrated on the middle years and early Zep classics from the 70’s like Black Dog, Going To California, Kashmir and Whole Lotta Lovin. They were songs that I’d been hearing on the radio for years, but had never REALLY LISTENED to. When I did listen, especially to Plant’s voice, I began to more fully appreciate the power and the subtlety that that man was able to simultaneously project. This made his current work with Kraus all the more interesting. With Krause, Plant is holding back and channeling his fury into sterling vocal gems. It’s like using a shotgun to paint a small picture.
Also popping up on YouTube, in stark contrast, were quiet, subtle acoustic versions of these rock classics from the obviously aging Plant. There was a mid-career solo version of Going To California, and a bluegrass version of Black Dog with Krauss, in which you could actually hear honey drip. The years and the life style had left their tracks on his face, but his voice was still as powerful and expressive as always.
In my Internet travels, I came across an interview with Plant; I think it was a fairly recent appearance on the David Letterman Show. With Letterman, the aging Plant sat cross-legged on the interview chair and recalled a meeting with Elvis, back stage at one of Zep’s early shows. According to Plant, Elvis hung out with them that night, and later in their hotel room, curious about the logistics of a modern rock band and sharing stories of the road. Here was the sagging face of primordial rock and roll hanging out with the new darlings of Big Time Rock. Elvis saw the future and it had to have made him jealous.
So naturally I began to wonder - had Elvis managed to survive the 70’s, and had he lived a long and productive life – like Clapton and Plant – what would he be doing today? What if he hadn’t died bloated on a toilet seat, preserving himself in our minds as that hideous, sweating Vegas/Disco character that he had become when he died? What if he had lived on to be an old man, and like Clapton, Plant, Willie Nelson, Paul McCartney and others, had aged gracefully and productively?
What if Elvis had eventually taken Hound Dog, Don’t think Twice, Jailhouse Rock and Heartbreak Hotel and recast them, rearranged them, regeared them and sang them with new feeling? Can’t you just hear a Layla-esque version of Blue Suede Shoes? He might have ended up a sage old grandfatherly mentor to modern music. Maybe he would have collaborated with Maroon Five, Gotye, Nora Jones, Tony Bennet and k.d. lang. He might have become a regular in Mr. Rogers Neighborhood and had bit parts in CSI and Hawaii Five-0. In fact, can’t you just hear cackling old Mother Janis Joplin, gimp-legged Duane Allman and bald Buddy Holly sittin’ on Elvis’s porch on his farm in Tennessee, drinking V-8 and jamming and harmonizing way into the evening?
I don’t know. It’s interesting to speculate. But I think that if Presley had been able to weather the hard times, he would have become a beloved and talented iconic figure like Clapton and Plant.
I think he would wear it well.
Elvis then and now?
© 2012, Jeff L. Howe, all rights
