Robert Plant is 78 years old on Thursday August 20…

From his initial forays in the Midlands scene in the mid 60’s leading to his first record being released in 1966, through to his vital contribution to Led Zeppelin and on to an always compelling solo career, Robert Plant has occupied a unique position at the forefront of the music world for over five decades…

With the long awaited Saving Grace album due on September 26, two launch gigs in Kingston on September 28 and a US tour ahead, Robert Plant  continues to enthrall and delight…

Happy Birthday Robert from all of us to you…

To mark the occasion – here’s a couple of playlists

Playlist 1:

Firstly the top ten I compiled for the Classic Rock website in 2016– an impossible task of course to get it down to just ten – apologies in advance if your fave is missing!

The Top Ten Robert Plant Solo Songs:
By Dave Lewis

Outside of his Led Zep legacy, Robert Plant has enjoyed a highly successful solo career – encompassing synth pop, blues, folk and African influences along the way. All performed with a vocal conviction that ranges from delicate fragility to full on rock power. Here are ten of his best solo moments…

10. Tye Die on the Highway (1990)

This is Plant’s nod to the peace and love generation he was a part of in the 60s. For extra authenticity, it includes samples direct from the Woodstock stage of the legendary hippie peace activist Wavy Gravy (‘’we must be in heaven!’’). An uplifting throwback to his hippie flower kid days.

9. In The Mood (1983)

Early on in his post Zep career, Plant was more than keen to step outside his comfort zone. This very 80s sounding synth led piece is one such example. Plant cleverly works around the hypnotic quality of the song with a vocal performance of deft agility. It also made for a great opening live number on his early solo tours.

8. Song To The Siren (2002)

For the mainly covers led Dreamland album, Plant took on several of the songs he had as he put it, been keeping in his back pocket. This stunning arrangement of the Tim Buckley classic, tests Plant’s’ vocal control to the max. To his absolute credit, he never wavers once.

7: Calling To You (1993)

Opens with some minor key strumming before this exhilarating rocker really kicks in. Plant stamps his authority with a relentless vocal attack. At the fade Nigel Kennedy enters proceedings to add a quite manic violin solo and is that a cry of ‘’Oh Jimmy!’’ from Plant right at the close?

6. Big Log (1983)

Robbie Blunt’s precise guitar work, a lilting drum machine rhythm and an assured Plant vocal were the ingredients that took Big Log into the UK top 20 in 1993 and on to Top of The Pops. Its mellow radio friendly qualities have made it an evergreen staple of the airways ever since.

5. Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down (2010)

This compelling spiritual croon from the 2010 Band of Joy album unfolds in a sparse traditional setting. Plant builds the tension verse by verse while behind him a plaintive banjo offers a jaunty counterpoint to the dark theme of the lyrics. The final lines are delivered with daunting menace.

4. Slow Dancer (1983)

This track marks one of the few occasions in the early 80s that Plant stared right in the face of his Zeppelin past. Built on an exotic loping churning riff, Plant’s full on vocal attack measures up to the Olympian grandeur of his former band. The late great Cozy Powell adds the percussive kick that drives it along.

3. Embrace Another Fall (2014)

A truly epic work from his last album Lullaby…and the Ceaselss Roar. There’s an African undercurrent throughout the arrangement and even a touch of Celtic tradition with Welsh Julie Murphy reciting a 14th century poem. Proof that musically, Plant still has new places to go.

2. Come Into My Life (1993)

The Fate Of Nations album saw Plant drawing on a variety of influences and inspirations. Folk rock of the highest order is the agenda here. Enter Fairport legend Richard Thompson who contributes some achingly beautiful guitar lines while Marie Brennan from Clannad supplements Plant’s deft turn of phrase. An outstanding performance.

1 Ship of Fools (1988)

1988’s Now And Zen album was something of a watershed for Plant. It was the point he was able to successfully reconcile his past with the present. This dynamic ballad is a masterclass of vocal restrain. Guitarist Doug Boyle’s sublime intro paves the way for Plant to vocally twist and turn the song at will. Masterful.

Photos by Krys Jantzen  for TBL.

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Photos Krys Jantzen

Playlist 2:

Here are 78 vivid examples of his vocal supremacy accompanied by memorable key lyrics and relevant comments:

From 48 to 2026– he remains a compelling artist – make sure you play some of these and your own Plant faves this weekend in celebration:

ROBERT PLANT – 78 AT 78:

Our Song, (‘’It made us fall in looooove’’)

Laughing Crying Laughing (‘’Jack loves Jill she don’t care’’)

For What it’s Worth (Something’s happening here..’’)

Good Times Bad Times (‘’I know what it means to be alooone’’)

Babe Im Gonna Leave You (‘’I ain’t jokin’ woman you gotta ramble’’)

Whole Lotta Love (‘’Shake for me girl!’’)

What Is And What Should Never Be (‘’And if I say to you tomorrow’’ – that gorgeous opening line…)

Thank You (‘’And so today my world it smiles’’)

Ramble On (‘’Gotta find the queen of all my dreams’’)

Immigrant Song (-‘’Ahhhhhh…Ahhh!!)

Since I’ve Been Loving You (‘’Said I been crying..’’)

That’s The Way (‘’And so I say to you that nothing really matters…’’)

Black Dog (‘’I gotta roll can’t stand still’’)

Battle of Evermore (‘’Bring it back..’’)

The Song Remains The Same (‘’I had a dream’’)

The Rain Song (‘’Upon us all..’’)

Over the Hills And Far Away (Live anytime in 1975 – ‘’Acapulco gold!’’)

In My Time of Dying (‘’Doncha make it my dying…dying…’’)

Kashmir (’ Trying to find, trying to find where I’ve beeeeeeen’’.)

In The Light (‘’Eveybody needs the light’’)

Down By The Seaside (‘’ Do you still do the twist’’)

Ten Years Gone (‘’Holding on…’’ pure emotion)

Night Flight (‘’ I received a message – that opening line is vocal bliss)

Tangerine ( Earl’s Court May 24 1975 – ”To think of us again….”)

Going To California (Earls Court official DVD version ‘’Oh she sings’’)

Dazed And Confused (Earls Court May 24 1975 ‘’We’ve got to get ourselves…back to the garden’’)

Stairway To Heaven (Earls Court May 24 1975 ‘’That’s all we got’’)

Achilles Last Stand (‘’the devils in his ho-o- o-o -le’’)

For Your Life (‘’When you blow it, babe, you got to blow it right’’)

In The Evening (Knebworth August 4 1979 – ‘’It’s gotta stop it’s gotta stop!’’)

All My Love (Outtake with full ending – ‘’Sometimes…sometimes…sometimes oh oh ’’)

I’m Gonna Crawl (‘’She give me good lovin’’ and that final scream…)

Moonlight In Samosa (‘’Time and again I see you walking down the street’’)

Slow Dancer (‘’To the heights… to the heights’’ – the point he knew he could do it all again)

Far Post (‘’Sure as winter follows fall, sure as maybe I will call’’)

Pledge Pin (Live in Dallas 83 ‘’As the cavalcade begins to thin, do you stop and look around’’)

Big Log (Live Dallas 1983 ‘’Oh my love oh my love oh my love…is in league with the freeway’’)

Sea of Love (‘’Come with me’’)

Sixes And Sevens (‘’Am I at six ,am I at six, am Ieeeee!’’)

Ship of Fools (‘’Crazy crazy fool’’ – absolutely stunning vocal)

Tie Dye On The Highway (‘‘With the messengers of peace and the company of love’’)

Anniversary (‘’What is this land that I have found’’)

Calling To You (‘’Oh Jiimmmy!’’)

Come Into My Life (‘’ Oh when you get there, well you know ‘’- another of his very best…)

The Greatest Gift (‘’ Everything I do, yes I do for my love’’ Peerless delivery)

In The Mood (Live at Paradiso club Amsterdam 93 –stunning medley)

Wonderful One (MTV Unledded – ‘’The queen of love has flown again’’)

That’s The Way (MTV Unledded ’’I can’t believe what people saying’’)

Blue Train (I been waiting on a corner’’- the best recorded moment of the Page and Plant re-alliance)

Little Hands (‘’Come let us meet them’’ – birth of a new style)

Life Begins Again (‘’This is the day and the hour’’ – at his most exotic)

Flames (Brilliant Priory Of Brion psych fest )

If I Ever Get Lucky (‘’Win my train fare home’’ Live in the desert)

Skips Song (‘’If you’d seen the naked dream I had of you… would you care’’- another vocal masterclass)

Dirt In The Hole (‘’Pretty flowers in sweet array, picked to die and fade away’’ Brilliant)

Seven And Seven Is ( ’When I was a boy I thought about the times I’d be a man’’ Live anywhere – a magnificent SS tribute to Love and the late Arthur)

Tin Pan Valley (‘’Like this!’’)

Freedom Fries (‘’They were moving fast –they were raising sand’’)

Stick With Me Baby (‘’Everybody’s been talkin’ ‘’ – in perfect harmony with Alison)

Kashmir ( Live at the 02 Arena – the whole event could never have worked so well without such total vocal commitment )

Angel Dance (‘’Yeah yeah yeah – Dance!’’ –Ushering in another new dawn)

Monkey ( ‘’Tonight you will be mine…’’ Masterful Band Of Joy performance)

Embrace Another Fall (”You walked into my life, Awoke my spirit soul, You saved me from my deep….”)

Turn It Up (‘I’m lost inside America, I’m turning inside out, I’m turning into someone else”)

A Stolen Kiss (”I am drawn to the western shore, Where the light moves bright upon the tide, To the lullaby and the ceaseless roar, And the songs that never die”)

Somebody There (”The road calls to my heart, Your love will warm my blood, The sun will shine down evermore”)

Season’s Song (”Crazy love..ah ah ah seasons song”)

New World (Escape the old world…embrace the new world”)

Dance With You Tonight (”If there’s one more time I can dance with you, let me dance with you tonight”)

Carry Fire (”I’ll carry fire for you – here in my naked hands”)

Your Long Journey  -Saving Grace in perfect harmony with Suzi Dian

Charlie Patton Highway (Turn It Up Part 1)

From the Digging Deep Subterrania compilation is a delightful slow burn version of the track that featured on Robert’s Lullaby and the ceaseless roar album with the Sensational Space Shifters released in 2014.

You Lead Me To The Wrong

I love the way  Robert  opens You Lead Me To the Wrong  acapella  style not unlike I Can’t Quit You Baby. There’s something of the sinister feel of Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down about this performance – a violin accompaniment adds a touch of light against the shade.

High And Lonesome

His vocal phrasing is just exquisite with plenty of mysterious repeated lyric refrains (‘’Does she still think of me?’’) and Alison joining in on the chorus. There’s a hint of both Howlin’ Wolf and Jimmy Reed in the bluesy feel he projects and It all drifts off into a meandering coda with some atmospheric strings underpinning the hypnotic feel of the song. There’s something of an ethereal  Zep feel here.

Season of The Witch

Saving Grace live in Wexford with a surprise appearance by Donavan

The Rain Song

Saving Grace live at the London Palladium

Everybody’s Song

From the Saving Grace album

It’s a Beautiful Day Today

From the Saving Grace album

”Times come and go. I’ve had a great time as a singer getting through it, getting away with it, getting beyond it, getting in front of it, and that’s where I belong. Somewhere in the middle of all that.”

Right now Robert Plant certainly belongs in the middle of Saving Grace – surrounding himself with an array of brilliantly talented musicians…

Compiled by Dave Lewis – August 2026

Here’s my thoughts of Robert Plant Saving Grace with Suzi Dian on record… 

My thoughts on the long awaited album Robert Plant Saving Grace with Suzi Dian…

By my reckoning, discounting compilations and the two Alison Krauss collaborations, this is Robert Plant’s 13th solo /group album. I’ve been with him all the way – I’ve attended over 100 RP shows over the years and I’ve been writing about his career since 1978.

So at last, we have a Saving Grace with Suzi Dian album.

I first saw them live supporting Fairport Convention at the St. Albans Arena back in February 2019. Since then I’ve been lucky enough to see them at the Hackney Empire and in Wexford, Cardiff, Birmingham, Peterborough, Cambridge, the London Palladium and at the Royal Albert Hall.

The album arrived on Friday – fruit punch vinyl edition with signed art card that I pre ordered from his site.

I felt the same excitement and anticipation that I did some 43 years ago when I lined up his debut album Pictures at Eleven to play back in June 1982.

Knowing of their on stage prowess, I had very high hopes for this long awaited Robert Plant Saving Grace album.

Once a fan always a fan…

So after a couple of days on not stop spinning of the album it’s plainly evident that on record Saving Grace are every bit as fulfilling as they are live.

Here’s some track by track observations.

Firstly the sleeve design:

The familiar bison/boar image that has been the backdrop to their live shows.

Inner sleeve has band photos and lyrics to three songs – As I Roved Out, I Never Will Mary and Gospel Plough.

Reverse has track listing, credits and some source notes to the origin of certain songs.

12 inch LP on fruit punch coloured vinyl. Pleasing to see that the album is presented over the traditional side 1 and 2 rather than being spread over four sides which is common amongst new releases.

Side 1:

Chevrolet

Co- written by Memphis Minnie and later reworked as Hey Gyp by Donovan. It floats in on a rush of acoustic and banjo picking from Tony Kelsey and Matt Worley. Oli Jefferson’s shuffle drumming aids the mood and leads to what will be familiar close harmonies from Robert and Suzi throughout the album.

As I Roved Out

More close harmony here and a subtle blend of acoustic instruments. The line ‘The green green grass trampled under foot” is a coincidental wry throwback. There’s some dreamy semi acapella ”Ah ah aha”’vocals ala Achilles at the close. Most effective.

It’s A Beautiful Day Today

This is has been a stage favourite for a good while and on record this cover of the Moby Grape song works beautifully. Robert and Suzi bring a delicate melancholy to proceedings – a perfect foil for the optimistic lyrical theme. Suzi’s counter harmonies are just exquisite. This carries the same warm easy sway of The Only Sound That Matters from the Band Of Joy album.

Soul Of A Man

One from the Blind Willie Johnson catalogue with Matt Worley on vocals. Backing harmonies from Robert and Suzi. A vivid example of the democratic bond within the band. The load is generously shared amongst the individual players.

Ticket Taker

A cover version of a song by Nonesuch label mates The Low Anthem. Close duel vocal – this would not have been out of place on Raising Sand. Barney Morse Brown adds some soothing cello.

Side 2:

I Never Will Marry

A very atmospheric arrangement and something of an early Fairport feel in the delivery.

Higher Rock

A delightful cover of the Montana based Martha F. Scanlan. Suzi on lead vocal. The harmonica and shuffle beat reminded me of Poor Tom from Coda.

Too Far From You

Another live favourite and one of the stand out cuts.

This rendering of Sarah Siskind’s composition is just magnificent. It captures the sheer dynamics of the band as they effortlessly switch from a whisper to a scream – or in this case via some riveting ”Aha Aha’s ” during which Robert offers up the lines ‘’Every bit of my love- take me down ’’ in time honoured fashion. This would not be out of place on Fate Of Nations – yes it’s that good.

Everybody’s Song

Another brilliant cover of the Minnesota band Low with Alan Sparhawk and the late Mimi Parker. The third cover from their The Great Destroyer album following Silver Rider and Monkey. This one is strung along on an Arabic/Eastern beat that reminded me of Watching You, the last track on the Manic Nirvana album. More pin point harmonies and dramatic guitar.

Gospel Plough

A subtle and reflective tale in the pleading Satan My Kingdom Must Come Down vein. There’s a real majestic quality about the repeated ‘’Keep Your Hands on the Plough – hold on” dual vocal lines.

And there it is..

Summary:

There’s very much a band dynamic throughout the album with every player playing their part admirably.

This unique collective of musicians are able to drift with effortless ease across English folk and Americana. Suzi Dian is an absolute revelation – for me the purity of her vocal style brings a delightful Sandy Denny Englishness to the proceedings.

As for Robert Plant – he really is singing as good if not better than ever – all the nuances and vocal control that have characterised so much of his best work are all present and correct here. There’s also a maturity and sensitivity about his approach that perfectly fits the mood of these ten songs.

Ten songs that make up an album that will bring a warm glow to the darker nights to come – and as he once put it ‘’In the light your will find the road.

Saving Grace have found that light and their road ahead looks very bright indeed.

Robert Plant Saving Grace with Suzi Dian Record Store Day Release – All That Glitters… four track 12 inch EP…

Here’s my initial thoughts on for me – the standout release on Record Store Day…:

Robert Plant is a musician who has made his vision real…and he continues to keep it real.

Long may he shine it all around…

Dave Lewis –  August  2026

It was 47 years ago …The Who at Wembley:

47 years ago on Saturday August 18, 1979 I was at Wembley Stadium for The Who and Friends Roar In event.

This was my third consecutive Saturday gig coming off the back of the two Led Zeppelin Knebworth comebacks.

A bit of a strange day – some great performances including Nils Lofgren and Bon Scott with AC/DC . However, after the peace and love vibe of Knebworth this was an edgy aggressive crowd and there were a fair few scuffles breaking out where we were down the front notably during The Stranglers set.

As for The Who, this was their first major post Keith Moon gig (they had played a warm up here at The Rainbow in May) – some moments of true greatness but I couldn’t help feeling it wasn’t the same, which of course it couldn’t be. Kenney Jones was a great drummer but he wasn’t Keith.

I enjoyed Pete Townshend’s solo Rock Against Racism benefit gig at The Rainbow a month earlier far more, in fact that night is right up there in my all time fave gigs list.

It would be another 23 years when I next saw The Who again – a great gig at Watford Town Hall in 2002.

Here’s some nostalgic footage from a very memorable day all of 46 years ago…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qnRTOWcAqQ

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Who Are You, Keith Moon and me…

On the player The Who – Who Are You album as I’ve been thinking of The Who gig at Wembley Stadium in 1979.

A year before I bought this new Who album on Saturday August 19 1978 at the then HMV shop in Bedford – there had been a delay in supply and we had not had it delivered at WH Smiths where I worked.

The fact is, I could not wait a day longer for this album – I needed it in my life simple as that and as usual they delivered. Townshend’s songs speaking to me in a way they always did and still do… John Entwistle‘s pair of compositions were also top class, namely 905 and Trick Of The Light.

The Pete song that really resonated most was Love Is Coming Down….

‘’ Surrounded by people, a real heavy crowd, but inside I still feel lonely now’’ sings Roger…I knew that feeling back then and have experienced it a fair few times since certainly in the last 18 months…

Three weeks before this album’s release I’d been lucky enough to meet Keith Moon briefly at the opening of The Who exhibition at London’s ICA when my very good friend Dec and I attended the launch.

‘’Not be taken away’’ it says on the chair Keith sits on as can be seen on the Who Are You album cover…sadly that was not the case and within a month he would be gone…

This pic of me with Keith on August 1 1978 is therefore a very treasured memory –Dec is just behind me, friend of The Who Richard Barnes to the right and that’s Ian Dury in front…

48 years ago this month – amazing times  that I was so lucky to experience…and more tales for the memoirs…

Thinking of our much missed friend and record collecting comrade Alastair Chorlton on the occasion of his Birthday today – always loved and remembered…