Remember When Robert Plant Sampled Himself From the Led Zeppelin Days for a Big Solo Hit in 1988?

When you’re in a highly successful band and try to move on to something different after that band closes up shop, it’s natural to want to break away to a new sound and different styles. Robert Plant, as former lead singer of Led Zeppelin, understood this concept as well as anyone in the 80s.

Nonetheless, Plant eventually did wake up the echoes of Zeppelin on a 1988 hit single. In fact, he went right back to the source to really bring the comparison home.

Leaving the Past Behind

Led Zeppelin called it quits in 1980 following the death of drummer John Bonham. For Robert Plant, the decision wasn’t particularly difficult. He had lost the taste for the hedonistic rock star life following the sudden death in 1977 of his 5-year-old son Karac while Led Zeppelin was on an American tour.

His musical interests were always a bit too varied to be pinned down to just hard rock anyway. When he began his solo career in 1982 with the album Pictures At Eleven, he tried to steer things in a more atmospheric, evocative musical direction.

His next two solo albums seemed to push even further away from the heaviness that exemplified so much of Zeppelin’s work. There was also the brief diversion of The Honeydrippers, which featured Plant and an all-star cast (including Jimmy Page) tackling an EP of vintage rock songs.

Beating the Samplers to the Punch

In 1985, an attempted Led Zeppelin reunion at Live Aid, with Phil Collins taking John Bonham’s spot on drums, came off poorly. Maybe it proved that Plant was right for avoiding any Zeppelin influence on his work. But he found a way to make that influence work for him three years later.

By 1988, perhaps enough time had passed that Plant felt that some kind of nod to his past with Led Zeppelin was overdue. “Tall Cool One”, the song that made this happen, actually came about when Plant happened to tune in to the debut album by the irreverent rap pioneers Beastie Boys.

On their 1986 debut album, Licensed To Ill, the trio made extensive use of samples. That was a time when such usage was available to artists without having to give credit away. There are several Zeppelin samples to be found on that record, most notably on the song “Rhymin & Stealin”. That song makes extensive use of the classic Zep song “When The Levee Breaks”, particularly John Bonham’s cavernous drum beat.

A “Tall” Task

When Plant heard Beastie Boys’ work, he didn’t get litigious. He just thought that he might be able to do the same kind of thing, only a little better. The hard-rocking song “Tall Cool One”, which he co-wrote with Phil Johnstone, seemed the perfect vehicle for his plan.

On “Tall Cool One”, Plant sprinkles in little snippets of all kinds of Led Zeppelin tracks. There’s some “Black Dog” here, a little “Whole Lotta Love” there. Sometimes, he pulls his own vocals from the back in the day, while he also heavily utilizes bits and pieces of Jimmy Page’s guitar riffs.

Speaking of Page, Plant enlisted him to play a guitar solo on “Tall Cool One”. Allegedly, Page was taken aback when he heard what Plant was doing with the samples. Nonetheless, Page rose to the occasion with a sparkling solo that adds the cherry on top of this tasty musical sundae.

Fans certainly lapped it up. “Tall Cool One” was all over rock radio in 1988, even crossing over to hit No. 25 on the pop charts. It wasn’t long before he and Page were finding different ways to revisit the Led Zeppelin catalog. This clever track helped open those doors.

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