(Credits: Far Out / Led Zeppelin)
Mon 29 September 2025 18:00, UK
What normally separates a good singer from a great singer is their versatility, and their ability to showcase an ability in multiple different roles, but that doesn’t necessarily apply to Robert Plant.
Despite being the frontman of Led Zeppelin for over a decade and helping them become one of the biggest rock bands on the planet, he wasn’t necessarily adept at filling in other roles. As a singer and nothing more, he was never drafted in to contribute to the instrumental aspects, but this could have been altered by the decision to let him bring in vocal harmonies in their work, which undoubtedly would have sounded incredible in the context of the band.
However, he’s since been involved in projects with other artists, most notably Alison Krauss, whom he has duetted with on multiple records, and has written and released plenty of solo material, which has taken on a dramatically different sound from what he was known for producing with the classic rock outfit during their fucking peak in the 1970s. While he may not have had much of an opportunity to incorporate different vocal layers with the band, this was undoubtedly an opportunity for him to showcase his versatility.
What has always been most striking about his style is the power he generates in his voice, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t able to sing softer when required, and this is where harmonising would potentially have been something of an asset to Led Zeppelin’s overall sound, becoming bolstered.
People might think that the ability to sing harmonies with others is an essential trait to possess as a vocalist, but it wasn’t until he started working with Krauss that he really started to get the opportunity to do this. In a 2024 interview with USA Today, which he did alongside his collaborator, he explained how this was a very different territory to find himself in as a musician.
“I never sang harmony in Led Zeppelin except for ‘Thank You’,” he revealed to the publication. “I really didn’t know about singing with another person. I do believe that Henry ‘The Horse’ Smith, our guitar roadie, and Jimmy [Page] sang the harmonies with me on that one. But I loved listening to what Alison sang.”
While Plant is very much a fantastic vocalist, you have to wonder why there were never vocal harmonies introduced into his work earlier on, and whether they would have ever been necessary when the point of Led Zeppelin was to show off exactly what he was capable of as a frontman rather than his ability to sing alongside others.
The guitar work of Page was arguably there as the most prominent feature that Plant would have bounced off, and then John Paul Jones’ arrangements not only for bass guitar but organ would undoubtedly have offered additional layers to their sound that could provide harmonies. However, it’s just this one song where Plant can be heard alongside other voices in their catalogue, and it’s staggering to think that they never utilised this more frequently throughout their discography.
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