georgio Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 I've always been very curious about Robert Plant's voice post 1973 into 1974. We all know he lost a lot of his high notes between the end of '73 into early '75, but listening to the Physical Graffiti rehearsal recordings (which are brilliant), I've always wondered what happened. The early versions of Graffiti's tracks have Robert wailing away with wild abandon in the prototype versions of Sick Again, or In the Light, or Trampled Underfoot, yet by the time the band lays down the actual tracks - Robert's keys have been stepped down and his voice is much gruffer. He struggles with Sick Again on the actual recording - it's probably the roughest vocal he's laid down, which adds to the rock feel, but still... So, between the rehearsals to the recording - I always wonder what the length of time was, and what exactly happened in terms of Robert's voice. Was the voice operation that Robert reportedly had - after the Houses of the Holy tour? That would be the only thing that might explain it, as the timbre in his voice changes so drastically. PS - we know he got the flu in early 1975 which didn't help either...but I'm looking more at the rehearsal / recording period of Graffiti. Any observations appreciated... Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeppelincheetah Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 I'd like to learn more about this myself. I made a topic similar but received useless responses... Anyways after the voice change there seems to be a few times where he can still sound close to how he did pre 73. Achilles Last Stand, for instance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glicine Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 If you listen to the Plant interview with Bob Harris on the Led Zeppelin DVD, there is a part they talked about Physical Graffiti, and about "how old" the stuff was. The recording of those materials stretched probably from 1970 to 1974. A lot of touring, hard singing, drinking and smoking, and the time all had their impact on Plant's voice. And as I've heard, the throat operation was about end 73/early 74, so this, as the original poster said, explains a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgio Posted November 8, 2009 Author Share Posted November 8, 2009 We all know that half of the album's tracks including the Rover, Houses of the Holy, Boogie w/ Stu, Black Country Woman were from the Stargroves or Headley Grange sessions. That's easy to tell and "id" Plant's voice - but listening to the rehearsals is the telling thing. I've read the operation from David Lewis's book was in early 1973 - but even before / during the US tour but that seems unlikely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigstickbonzo Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Plant had surgery to remove nodules from his vocal chords sometime in the fall of 1973, as far as I know. By his own admition, he rarely warmed his voice up before shows. This, added with the endless touring and smoking from the first 4 years is most likely the reason why his voice was shot by 1973. He said himself, he wasn't able to speak for weeks after they returned from the New York shows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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