{"id":186941,"date":"2025-10-03T07:41:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T07:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/186941\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T07:41:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T07:41:09","slug":"the-only-led-zeppelin-song-to-feature-a-female-vocalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/186941\/","title":{"rendered":"The only Led Zeppelin song to feature a female vocalist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Led<\/p>\n

Credits: Far Out \/ \u00a92025ParadisePicturesLtd<\/p>\n

Wed 1 October 2025 21:48, UK <\/p>\n

The voice of Robert Plant<\/a> is probably the most immediately identifiable element of any Led Zeppelin song. <\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s the throes of passion that open \u2018Black Dog\u2019, the shrieking cries that provide the hook for \u2018Immigrant Song\u2019, or the furious scat-singing in the breakdown of \u2018Babe I\u2019m Gonna Leave You\u2019, or the sexually-charged sounds punctuating \u2018Dazed and Confused\u2019 and \u2018Whole Lotta Love\u2019, Plant\u2019s rasping falsetto is unmistakable.<\/p>\n

At the time of Zeppelin\u2019s rise to prominence, it was unique in the history of rock and roll that someone\u2019s dominant mode of vocal expression would be an octave or two above their natural singing voice, yet filled with such grit and menace. But Plant\u2019s vocal style opened the floodgates, shaping the sound of everyone from AC\/DC to Wolfmother and Greta Van Fleet. By the time the group disbanded, the influence of Zeppelin\u2019s singer on the future of rock and metal was already beyond question.<\/p>\n

His vocal range also negated the need for a female singer, even when melodies soared far above the reaches of most male voices. Singing on a Led Zeppelin record was reserved strictly for Plant. That is, except for one solitary song. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really more of a playlet, rather than a song,\u201d he told Roy Carr in a 1971 interview. \u201cAfter I wrote the lyric, I realised I needed a completely different voice, as well as my own.\u201d And so, he approached the frontwoman of a band Zeppelin were friends with at the start of the \u201870s.<\/p>\n

Fairport Convention were a well-established British folk band from whom Plant and Jimmy Page drew inspiration for the acoustic-driven elements of their music. And their singer was one of the country\u2019s most prominent female vocalists during the latter part of the previous decade. <\/p>\n

\u201cI asked Sandy Denny along to sing on that track,\u201d Plant said. \u201cI found it very satisfying to sing with someone who has a completely different style to my own.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, what was the song she sang on?<\/p>\n

It was a session for Led Zeppelin\u2019s fourth album that Denny was invited to join. She sang on the epic high fantasy-themed composition \u2018The Battle of Evermore\u2019, in which Plant narrates the story of a mythical castle siege based on The Lord of the Rings<\/a>. Backed by Page\u2019s medieval mandolin, he and Denny joust to tell the story from opposing perspectives. Denny springs forth at the start of the second verse with an ethereal counter-melody that rises in notes of sustained purity, complementing Plant\u2019s more prosaic and staggered delivery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I sang about the events of the song,\u201d Plant added, \u201cSandy answered back as if she was the pulse of the people in the battlements.\u201d This back-and-forth dialogue helps give the track its sense of grandeur, as though it\u2019s an epic poem told through the voice of multiple protagonists. <\/p>\n

\u201cSandy was a town crier urging the people to lay down their weapons,\u201d its writer observed.<\/p>\n

While Zeppelin would never repeat this experiment of having a female vocalist duet with Plant, there\u2019s no doubt that it works a treat in \u2018The Battle of Evermore\u2019. And it\u2019s one of the aspects of Led Zeppelin IV which sets it apart from the rest of the band\u2019s canon, confirming it as the most creative and far-reaching work they ever produced.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n

The Far Out Led Zeppelin Newsletter<\/p>\n

All the latest stories about Led Zeppelin from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credits: Far Out \/ \u00a92025ParadisePicturesLtd Wed 1 October 2025 21:48, UK The voice of Robert Plant is probably…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,1351,341,24427,93853],"class_list":{"0":"post-186941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-led-zeppelin","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-robert-plant","14":"tag-sandy-denny"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}