2013 NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES - ROBERT PLANT PRESENTS THE SENSATIONAL SPACE SHIFTERS

[Cookie0024]

1. Corrected, so sorry, Guess I had Jimmy on my mind

No worries, we all have Jimmy on our mind

[Deborah J]

I have searched You Tube to try and find any live recording from Friday night opening for Robert. After hearing them live I bought their Nomad CD I will be buying more of their music! IMHO, one tight band musically. Like I said, I wished they could have played longer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=8DNVuQd48Xk

[luvlz2]

Thanks for the review and all the great pics Deborah J!

[SuperDave]

Dave,I am assuming that is you in your profile pic,where did you meet Robert,you lucky man!!!

That's actually John Paul Jones with Robert in NYC during the period of the Celebration Day premier last October. Haven't been that lucky yet, with the exceptions of a couple shout outs back to me at a club show in NYC a few years ago by Robert.

[SuperDave]

Really enjoyed all the photos and have watched some of the vids too. Sounded like a great show and glad you had such a great time.

[Deborah J]

^^ Most welcome :-)

[clw]

That's actually John Paul Jones with Robert in NYC during the period of the Celebration Day premier last October. Haven't been that lucky yet, with the exceptions of a couple shout outs back to me at a club show in NYC a few years ago by Robert.

[clw]

Oh wow. Guess i better get my glasses on. To meet him would be a gift. I am glad you have gotten to see him. Looking like i never will and the us summer tour looks so much better than the spring one he did in aussie

[Cookie0024]

I have searched You Tube to try and find any live recording from Friday night opening for Robert. After hearing them live I bought their Nomad CD I will be buying more of their music! IMHO, one tight band musically. Like I said, I wished they could have played longer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=8DNVuQd48Xk

Wow! Really cool track

[Cookie0024]

In today's Sunday Globe we have an interview with Robert Plant, who comes to the Bank of America Pavilion on Thursday with his new group, the Sensational Space Shifters.

After exploring Americana and roots music in the last few years with a superb group of musicians, including Buddy Miller and Plant's close friend Patty Griffin in the Band of Joy, the former Led Zeppelin frontman is delving into what he's calling the "urban psychedelia of Bristol, England and West Africa." And he's doing it with some old friends with whom he’s worked on earlier albums like "Mighty Rearranger" --including Massive Attack's John Baggott—and new ones like riti player Juldeh Camera.

As is often the case, I was able to ask more questions than we could fit into the newspaper, so here are a few of the others that Plant fielded.

When the singer came to the phone, he apologized for being a bit late, saying "Hello Sarah, I was just doing a bit of ironing."

Q. What are you ironing? Your hair?

A. Ironing my hair, yeah. You know I did actually once have my hair ironed for a birthday present. John Paul Jones decided that curly hair was not hip. So for my 21st birthday, which was 1969, he took me to a very hip haute-couture hair dresser's in London called Sweeney Todd, and they straightened my hair.

Q. You should be glad they didn't off you and bake you into a pie with a name like that.

A. Yeah, it was a pretty interesting time. Sweeney Todd was right next to Granny Takes a Trip so you know what kind of world we were living in. (Laughs.)

Q. Well at least you remember it. Thanks for taking time to do this.

A. Oh no, let’s get it right. We’re entertainers, you can’t get miserable about talking it up because I love what I do… I'm just out there exploring musically and having a wild time. I mean yesterday was one of the craziest reactions I've experienced ever!

Q. Where was this?
A. It was a riverside festival here in Portland, Oregon to bring in and raise funds for the food bank.

Q. Oh I read about this, this was the show with Taj Mahal and Mavis Staples, right?
A. Yes, that's right. And I don't know, it just reminded me of those festivals back in god knows when, when I can't remember! It was really good. It was a very interesting and very varied, wild, young audience. It was fantastic. I do talk it up because it's different and it's really exciting.

Q. You've described the Sensational Space Shifters sound as part Massive Attack, part Led Zeppelin, and part Jefferson Airplane. Much of the music you've made could be discussed in similar hybrid terms. It seems like you've always been interested in layers and textures and the collisions of things. Are you ever surprised that you're able to find a new frontier for yourself?

A. Not really. I've got another one lined up which will incorporate these guys because now we've got a signature, and the next thing to do is to have original material. I've got about 30 new pieces and I had some good conversations recently with a very renowned soundsmith who’s worked with Dylan and U2.

Q. Is this Mr. [Daniel] Lanois?
A. Yeah, I think what we can do is, if we do it right and we can work out our energies to bring them together successfully, we can blast the work that we've done in the past into a brand new place.

Q. You rework a lot of your older songs live. Is there a key to rearranging them to your liking?
A. I think we just play around with them and we bring different time signatures in and out, so we visit them and then we enlarge it and then we mutate it and then we go back to it, so the crowd goes with us on the journey.

Q. At the Kennedy Center Honors it was touching to watch you tear up during the performance of "Stairway to Heaven" by Heart and the choir.

A. It's a weird thing to feel that songs that you've kind of walked away from and said "That was another time"-- I believed in that song, I believe in it now -- but when it becomes a sort of opus you have to look for something else. And so watching the girls from Heart, I was touched by it. But as it developed as a song and an arrangement it was just mind-blowingly beautiful, and I fell in love with the song again.

But also there's something ironic about it, because to be recognized and to be part of a combination of spirits that we were—once upon a time when we were young and uncluttered—when you get to the point where people are giving you gongs, you know that you've done something. But that's not what it's about. It's like "What am I going to do today or tomorrow?" That's all very well and all that pomp is fine, and I must say Americans generally make much more of pomp in a humorous and sensitive way than we do in Britain where you've got the Prince pinning something to your shirt and he doesn't know who the hell you are. (Laughs.) It's very funny.

Being alongside Patty through that was great because I was very emotional. I didn't like a lot of it. I liked the paraphernalia and I loved the people who I met. But I also found it so over the top to have musicians who have been aping Led Zeppelin for a long time continuing to do that, but taking the spotlight and almost taking the songs into some sort of pub rock thing. There's one or two musicians who always kind of keep popping up who generally massacre the songs that they touch.

And, of course, it was kind of funny in a way because the eulogy, or whatever it was, of our career ended up with a conversation from the podium directed at us and the room and the president, talking about Vikings [expletive] Hobbits. And I thought that's all very well but we did travel through India and Thailand. I took [Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy] Page through the mountains of Morocco and we wrote "Kashmir" and things like that, which we wouldn't have written if we were just meandering through the misty mountains.

I mean there's so much to Led Zeppelin that is folklore, and on that night it was slightly derisory and I did feel like I could've actually lobbed a television set at the guy who was making comments.

Q. Hopefully by the time Ann and Nancy began singing you were feeling better?
A. I still want to lob a television at that guy.

Q. You've had to sit through covers over the years. Have you heard from any of the artists that you have covered like Richard Thompson or Low?

A. I've known Richard over the years and he's a very interesting and charming and very humorous soul, and he thought we did a good job of it, I think, in his own sort of British way. And we went to see Low in London about six weeks ago and had a good time with them, and they loved what we did to their "Silver Rider" and "Monkey." I never heard from Dylan when I did "One More Cup of Coffee," but maybe he will speak.

Q. Tell me about the Love Hope Strength charity that you have out on tour with you. They work to help those with cancer and leukemia. Is there a personal connection to the charity or was it a recommendation?

A. They came to us and asked us if we would help them extend the idea and get volunteers, and it's working out really well. It's a big thing to ask people who randomly come to a concert for a DNA swab to match [as potential bone marrow donors], but they've already created matches for people who are in trouble. It’s been amazing.

Robert Plant Presents the Sensational Space Shifters at Bank of America Pavilion Thursday at 7:30 p.m. with Phosphorescent. Tickets are $39-$84.50. 800-745-3000. www.livenation.com.

Source: http://www.boston.com/ae/music/blog/2013/07/extended_plant.html

[SuperDave]

Good interview. Thanks Cookie!

[Cookie0024]

The comments about the Kennedy Center Honors really took me by surprise.

[Cookie0024]

Here's the version that went out in the paper, and is behind a paywall on the Boston Globe site:

Of the more than a dozen albums Robert Plant has released post-Led Zeppelin, 2005’s “Mighty Rearranger” might sport the most apt description for what he has done with his career.

From the glorious stomp of Led Zeppelin to the poppier passages of some of his solo work to his more recent deep dives into American roots music with Alison Krauss and Band of Joy (featuring close friend Patty Griffin) and his current exploration of what he’s calling “urban psychedelia” with the Sensational Space Shifters, Plant likes to keep reorganizing his musical molecules into new configurations. He also likes to rework his classic songs in concert to keep things fresh, as he will when the Shifters come to the Bank of America Pavilion on Thursday.

It is part of a constant forward motion that Plant, 64, prefers to looking back. “I’m with the Space Shifters, and at the drop of a hat I can play alongside Patty when she needs me. I think this is the virility of music. If you can do that, you’re not just expected to just churn out the torch songs.”

In a recent phone conversation, Plant was gracious and funny. At one point when he was interrupted he returned to the phone and quipped, “Sorry to do that, but there was a beautiful maid knocking at the door and I told her it was the wrong decade.”

Q. Are all of the songs in the set list getting reworked?

A. No, sometimes things are a little bit normal [laughs]. But we usually turn around and watch [Massive Attack multi-instrumentalist John] Baggott’s face as he turns all the levers and the knobs of his sound machines, and sometimes I think he’s having a sexual experience [laughs]. And of course there’s that much dope in the air as well that we all end up stoned about halfway through the show and all really need a tuna melt.

Q. So it’s been satisfying?

A. Well you know, the thing is, it’s not a particularly studied or dignified performance, it’s wild.

Q. Why did your antenna point you in your current direction?

A. A lot of the songs that I’ve been singing since I began my working relationship with Alison Krauss have been structured to such a degree that the kind of free-form vocal work that I’ve made my reputation on was kind of gone. I was singing around pieces that began and ended with beautiful harmonies . . . but now I can let it rip. Because of that my voice is getting stronger and stronger and opening up more and more and more. . . . I’m just sort of celebrating within my own imagination of a what a singer does when he’s playing against a guy [Juldeh Camera] from West Africa who’s playing a one-string fiddle.

Q. Which is a new experience for you, so it must be refreshing.

A. I don’t know anybody in the world who’s singing with a riti player. I don’t know anybody who came out of a band in the ’60s and ’70s who’s playing this kind of trance, urban, heavy psychedelic [expletive], and he’s allowed to have a career!

Q. You’ve been fortunate to have a loyal audience.

A. But let’s not forget that I’ve been doing this [solo career] for 33 years. So I’ve had people grudgingly [complain about the set list]. I’m not going to be doing any Honeydrippers songs or “Raising Sand” stuff or Band of Joy stuff. Well, maybe one, because I’m back to a real far-out crescendo of music and delivery and all that. I do dodge around and I have to dodge around, and I know that I’ve got the right audience and I don’t care how big or small it is. I can get out on the road, everybody has a great time. We laugh lots and lots and I don’t have the pressure that would come with any other [project] of mine.

Q. Other artists haven’t always been embraced for their musical detours the way you have critically and with Grammy awards and such since “Raising Sand.”

A. The thing is I’m relentless and I love what I do. . . . Anybody who thinks that singing is a career is already in trouble. It’s just an absolute lifetime vacation of cause and effect, and really I’m genuine about what I do. I don’t do it for the bucks and I don’t do it for kudos, I just do it for me, really. So I don’t go off and have some arty-farty experience somewhere, I make the West African sound work around my energy. [it’s] a crunching sound that is part Massive Attack, part Led Zeppelin, and part Jefferson Airplane.

Q. You made some lovely contributions to Patty Griffin’s record.

A. It’s a bit of a cliché in a way for me to be singing with her, as we are such close friends, but the thing is it was the right voice and the right place to embellish her songs. And then we wrote that song “Highway Song” together. And I think she’s such an impassioned writer and singer and participating member of a world community. She’s brought a lot to my being and my presence. I’ve dumbfounded her with British insanity, which has made her laugh a lot more than she has been according to her friends [laughs].

Q. When you hear one of your songs on the radio, do you turn it up or turn it off?

A. It depends on whether or not I’ve had enough of the song [laughs].

Q. Which one would you turn up?

A. Hmmm, I think “Network News” from “Fate of Nations” and also “Takamba” from “Mighty Rearranger.” It was an important song for me because I was able to express myself. In fact, I’ve gotten much more eloquent as time has gone on. When I was singing about Hobbits and stuff, I didn’t actually really mean Hobbits. I just meant the spirit of where I came from, which is where Tolkien got his idea. But I was 20 when I was writing those things [laughs].

[DropDown]

Gotta love Robert for not mincing words! Great article!

[SuperDave]

Gotta love Robert for not mincing words! Great article!

Probably the ones made by Led Zeppelin inductor Jack Black?

[DropDown]

Probably the ones made by Led Zeppelin inductor Jack Black?

I love this passage - I have to admit some of the things JB said, like the bit about selling their souls to the devil for example, grated on my nerves, but that's just me. Any attempt to be funny fell flat, IMHO.

"And, of course, it was kind of funny in a way because the eulogy, or whatever it was, of our career ended up with a conversation from the podium directed at us and the room and the president, talking about Vikings [expletive] Hobbits. And I thought that's all very well but we did travel through India and Thailand. I took [Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy] Page through the mountains of Morocco and we wrote "Kashmir" and things like that, which we wouldn't have written if we were just meandering through the misty mountains.

I mean there's so much to Led Zeppelin that is folklore, and on that night it was slightly derisory and I did feel like I could've actually lobbed a television set at the guy who was making comments."

[clw]

In today's Sunday Globe we have an interview with Robert Plant, who comes to the Bank of America Pavilion on Thursday with his new group, the Sensational Space Shifters.

After exploring Americana and roots music in the last few years with a superb group of musicians, including Buddy Miller and Plant's close friend Patty Griffin in the Band of Joy, the former Led Zeppelin frontman is delving into what he's calling the "urban psychedelia of Bristol, England and West Africa." And he's doing it with some old friends with whom he’s worked on earlier albums like "Mighty Rearranger" --including Massive Attack's John Baggott—and new ones like riti player Juldeh Camera.

As is often the case, I was able to ask more questions than we could fit into the newspaper, so here are a few of the others that Plant fielded.

When the singer came to the phone, he apologized for being a bit late, saying "Hello Sarah, I was just doing a bit of ironing."

Q. What are you ironing? Your hair?

A. Ironing my hair, yeah. You know I did actually once have my hair ironed for a birthday present. John Paul Jones decided that curly hair was not hip. So for my 21st birthday, which was 1969, he took me to a very hip haute-couture hair dresser's in London called Sweeney Todd, and they straightened my hair.

Q. You should be glad they didn't off you and bake you into a pie with a name like that.

A. Yeah, it was a pretty interesting time. Sweeney Todd was right next to Granny Takes a Trip so you know what kind of world we were living in. (Laughs.)

Q. Well at least you remember it. Thanks for taking time to do this.

A. Oh no, let’s get it right. We’re entertainers, you can’t get miserable about talking it up because I love what I do… I'm just out there exploring musically and having a wild time. I mean yesterday was one of the craziest reactions I've experienced ever!

Q. Where was this?

A. It was a riverside festival here in Portland, Oregon to bring in and raise funds for the food bank.

Q. Oh I read about this, this was the show with Taj Mahal and Mavis Staples, right?

A. Yes, that's right. And I don't know, it just reminded me of those festivals back in god knows when, when I can't remember! It was really good. It was a very interesting and very varied, wild, young audience. It was fantastic. I do talk it up because it's different and it's really exciting.

Q. You've described the Sensational Space Shifters sound as part Massive Attack, part Led Zeppelin, and part Jefferson Airplane. Much of the music you've made could be discussed in similar hybrid terms. It seems like you've always been interested in layers and textures and the collisions of things. Are you ever surprised that you're able to find a new frontier for yourself?

A. Not really. I've got another one lined up which will incorporate these guys because now we've got a signature, and the next thing to do is to have original material. I've got about 30 new pieces and I had some good conversations recently with a very renowned soundsmith who’s worked with Dylan and U2.

Q. Is this Mr. [Daniel] Lanois?

A. Yeah, I think what we can do is, if we do it right and we can work out our energies to bring them together successfully, we can blast the work that we've done in the past into a brand new place.

Q. You rework a lot of your older songs live. Is there a key to rearranging them to your liking?

A. I think we just play around with them and we bring different time signatures in and out, so we visit them and then we enlarge it and then we mutate it and then we go back to it, so the crowd goes with us on the journey.

Q. At the Kennedy Center Honors it was touching to watch you tear up during the performance of "Stairway to Heaven" by Heart and the choir.

A. It's a weird thing to feel that songs that you've kind of walked away from and said "That was another time"-- I believed in that song, I believe in it now -- but when it becomes a sort of opus you have to look for something else. And so watching the girls from Heart, I was touched by it. But as it developed as a song and an arrangement it was just mind-blowingly beautiful, and I fell in love with the song again.

But also there's something ironic about it, because to be recognized and to be part of a combination of spirits that we were—once upon a time when we were young and uncluttered—when you get to the point where people are giving you gongs, you know that you've done something. But that's not what it's about. It's like "What am I going to do today or tomorrow?" That's all very well and all that pomp is fine, and I must say Americans generally make much more of pomp in a humorous and sensitive way than we do in Britain where you've got the Prince pinning something to your shirt and he doesn't know who the hell you are. (Laughs.) It's very funny.

Being alongside Patty through that was great because I was very emotional. I didn't like a lot of it. I liked the paraphernalia and I loved the people who I met. But I also found it so over the top to have musicians who have been aping Led Zeppelin for a long time continuing to do that, but taking the spotlight and almost taking the songs into some sort of pub rock thing. There's one or two musicians who always kind of keep popping up who generally massacre the songs that they touch.

And, of course, it was kind of funny in a way because the eulogy, or whatever it was, of our career ended up with a conversation from the podium directed at us and the room and the president, talking about Vikings [expletive] Hobbits. And I thought that's all very well but we did travel through India and Thailand. I took [Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy] Page through the mountains of Morocco and we wrote "Kashmir" and things like that, which we wouldn't have written if we were just meandering through the misty mountains.

I mean there's so much to Led Zeppelin that is folklore, and on that night it was slightly derisory and I did feel like I could've actually lobbed a television set at the guy who was making comments.

Q. Hopefully by the time Ann and Nancy began singing you were feeling better?

A. I still want to lob a television at that guy.

Q. You've had to sit through covers over the years. Have you heard from any of the artists that you have covered like Richard Thompson or Low?

A. I've known Richard over the years and he's a very interesting and charming and very humorous soul, and he thought we did a good job of it, I think, in his own sort of British way. And we went to see Low in London about six weeks ago and had a good time with them, and they loved what we did to their "Silver Rider" and "Monkey." I never heard from Dylan when I did "One More Cup of Coffee," but maybe he will speak.

Q. Tell me about the Love Hope Strength charity that you have out on tour with you. They work to help those with cancer and leukemia. Is there a personal connection to the charity or was it a recommendation?

A. They came to us and asked us if we would help them extend the idea and get volunteers, and it's working out really well. It's a big thing to ask people who randomly come to a concert for a DNA swab to match [as potential bone marrow donors], but they've already created matches for people who are in trouble. It’s been amazing.

Robert Plant Presents the Sensational Space Shifters at Bank of America Pavilion Thursday at 7:30 p.m. with Phosphorescent. Tickets are $39-$84.50. 800-745-3000. www.livenation.com.

Source: http://www.boston.com/ae/music/blog/2013/07/extended_plant.html

In today's Sunday Globe we have an interview with Robert Plant, who comes to the Bank of America Pavilion on Thursday with his new group, the Sensational Space Shifters.

After exploring Americana and roots music in the last few years with a superb group of musicians, including Buddy Miller and Plant's close friend Patty Griffin in the Band of Joy, the former Led Zeppelin frontman is delving into what he's calling the "urban psychedelia of Bristol, England and West Africa." And he's doing it with some old friends with whom he’s worked on earlier albums like "Mighty Rearranger" --including Massive Attack's John Baggott—and new ones like riti player Juldeh Camera.

As is often the case, I was able to ask more questions than we could fit into the newspaper, so here are a few of the others that Plant fielded.

When the singer came to the phone, he apologized for being a bit late, saying "Hello Sarah, I was just doing a bit of ironing."

Q. What are you ironing? Your hair?

A. Ironing my hair, yeah. You know I did actually once have my hair ironed for a birthday present. John Paul Jones decided that curly hair was not hip. So for my 21st birthday, which was 1969, he took me to a very hip haute-couture hair dresser's in London called Sweeney Todd, and they straightened my hair.

Q. You should be glad they didn't off you and bake you into a pie with a name like that.

A. Yeah, it was a pretty interesting time. Sweeney Todd was right next to Granny Takes a Trip so you know what kind of world we were living in. (Laughs.)

Q. Well at least you remember it. Thanks for taking time to do this.

A. Oh no, let’s get it right. We’re entertainers, you can’t get miserable about talking it up because I love what I do… I'm just out there exploring musically and having a wild time. I mean yesterday was one of the craziest reactions I've experienced ever!

Q. Where was this?

A. It was a riverside festival here in Portland, Oregon to bring in and raise funds for the food bank.

Q. Oh I read about this, this was the show with Taj Mahal and Mavis Staples, right?

A. Yes, that's right. And I don't know, it just reminded me of those festivals back in god knows when, when I can't remember! It was really good. It was a very interesting and very varied, wild, young audience. It was fantastic. I do talk it up because it's different and it's really exciting.

Q. You've described the Sensational Space Shifters sound as part Massive Attack, part Led Zeppelin, and part Jefferson Airplane. Much of the music you've made could be discussed in similar hybrid terms. It seems like you've always been interested in layers and textures and the collisions of things. Are you ever surprised that you're able to find a new frontier for yourself?

A. Not really. I've got another one lined up which will incorporate these guys because now we've got a signature, and the next thing to do is to have original material. I've got about 30 new pieces and I had some good conversations recently with a very renowned soundsmith who’s worked with Dylan and U2.

Q. Is this Mr. [Daniel] Lanois?

A. Yeah, I think what we can do is, if we do it right and we can work out our energies to bring them together successfully, we can blast the work that we've done in the past into a brand new place.

Q. You rework a lot of your older songs live. Is there a key to rearranging them to your liking?

A. I think we just play around with them and we bring different time signatures in and out, so we visit them and then we enlarge it and then we mutate it and then we go back to it, so the crowd goes with us on the journey.

Q. At the Kennedy Center Honors it was touching to watch you tear up during the performance of "Stairway to Heaven" by Heart and the choir.

A. It's a weird thing to feel that songs that you've kind of walked away from and said "That was another time"-- I believed in that song, I believe in it now -- but when it becomes a sort of opus you have to look for something else. And so watching the girls from Heart, I was touched by it. But as it developed as a song and an arrangement it was just mind-blowingly beautiful, and I fell in love with the song again.

But also there's something ironic about it, because to be recognized and to be part of a combination of spirits that we were—once upon a time when we were young and uncluttered—when you get to the point where people are giving you gongs, you know that you've done something. But that's not what it's about. It's like "What am I going to do today or tomorrow?" That's all very well and all that pomp is fine, and I must say Americans generally make much more of pomp in a humorous and sensitive way than we do in Britain where you've got the Prince pinning something to your shirt and he doesn't know who the hell you are. (Laughs.) It's very funny.

Being alongside Patty through that was great because I was very emotional. I didn't like a lot of it. I liked the paraphernalia and I loved the people who I met. But I also found it so over the top to have musicians who have been aping Led Zeppelin for a long time continuing to do that, but taking the spotlight and almost taking the songs into some sort of pub rock thing. There's one or two musicians who always kind of keep popping up who generally massacre the songs that they touch.

And, of course, it was kind of funny in a way because the eulogy, or whatever it was, of our career ended up with a conversation from the podium directed at us and the room and the president, talking about Vikings [expletive] Hobbits. And I thought that's all very well but we did travel through India and Thailand. I took [Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy] Page through the mountains of Morocco and we wrote "Kashmir" and things like that, which we wouldn't have written if we were just meandering through the misty mountains.

I mean there's so much to Led Zeppelin that is folklore, and on that night it was slightly derisory and I did feel like I could've actually lobbed a television set at the guy who was making comments.

Q. Hopefully by the time Ann and Nancy began singing you were feeling better?

A. I still want to lob a television at that guy.

Q. You've had to sit through covers over the years. Have you heard from any of the artists that you have covered like Richard Thompson or Low?

A. I've known Richard over the years and he's a very interesting and charming and very humorous soul, and he thought we did a good job of it, I think, in his own sort of British way. And we went to see Low in London about six weeks ago and had a good time with them, and they loved what we did to their "Silver Rider" and "Monkey." I never heard from Dylan when I did "One More Cup of Coffee," but maybe he will speak.

Q. Tell me about the Love Hope Strength charity that you have out on tour with you. They work to help those with cancer and leukemia. Is there a personal connection to the charity or was it a recommendation?

A. They came to us and asked us if we would help them extend the idea and get volunteers, and it's working out really well. It's a big thing to ask people who randomly come to a concert for a DNA swab to match [as potential bone marrow donors], but they've already created matches for people who are in trouble. It’s been amazing.

Robert Plant Presents the Sensational Space Shifters at Bank of America Pavilion Thursday at 7:30 p.m. with Phosphorescent. Tickets are $39-$84.50. 800-745-3000. www.livenation.com.

Source: http://www.boston.com/ae/music/blog/2013/07/extended_plant.html

Great interview and a great guy!!

[luvlz2]

Probably.

Probably the ones made by Led Zeppelin inductor Jack Black?

[luvlz2]

Thanks for posting the interview Cookie0024.

[Bayougal65]

Probably the ones made by Led Zeppelin inductor Jack Black?

Yep, it probably is a bit disconcerting that after creating a legacy that is still going so strong AND being honored after 40 years, that the POTUS is cracking jokes about TV sets flying out of windows and the person inducting you mentions things that you were sick of being asked about way back then (deals with the devil, et al).

[Cookie0024]

This made me laugh

“Sorry to do that, but there was a beautiful maid knocking at the door and I told her it was the wrong decade.”

[clw]

Probably.

Probably.

When I was watcing it I felt embarressed he was saying those things

[clw]

Here's the version that went out in the paper, and is behind a paywall on the Boston Globe site:

Of the more than a dozen albums Robert Plant has released post-Led Zeppelin, 2005’s “Mighty Rearranger” might sport the most apt description for what he has done with his career.

From the glorious stomp of Led Zeppelin to the poppier passages of some of his solo work to his more recent deep dives into American roots music with Alison Krauss and Band of Joy (featuring close friend Patty Griffin) and his current exploration of what he’s calling “urban psychedelia” with the Sensational Space Shifters, Plant likes to keep reorganizing his musical molecules into new configurations. He also likes to rework his classic songs in concert to keep things fresh, as he will when the Shifters come to the Bank of America Pavilion on Thursday.

It is part of a constant forward motion that Plant, 64, prefers to looking back. “I’m with the Space Shifters, and at the drop of a hat I can play alongside Patty when she needs me. I think this is the virility of music. If you can do that, you’re not just expected to just churn out the torch songs.”

In a recent phone conversation, Plant was gracious and funny. At one point when he was interrupted he returned to the phone and quipped, “Sorry to do that, but there was a beautiful maid knocking at the door and I told her it was the wrong decade.”

Q. Are all of the songs in the set list getting reworked?

A. No, sometimes things are a little bit normal [laughs]. But we usually turn around and watch [Massive Attack multi-instrumentalist John] Baggott’s face as he turns all the levers and the knobs of his sound machines, and sometimes I think he’s having a sexual experience [laughs]. And of course there’s that much dope in the air as well that we all end up stoned about halfway through the show and all really need a tuna melt.

Q. So it’s been satisfying?

A. Well you know, the thing is, it’s not a particularly studied or dignified performance, it’s wild.

Q. Why did your antenna point you in your current direction?

A. A lot of the songs that I’ve been singing since I began my working relationship with Alison Krauss have been structured to such a degree that the kind of free-form vocal work that I’ve made my reputation on was kind of gone. I was singing around pieces that began and ended with beautiful harmonies . . . but now I can let it rip. Because of that my voice is getting stronger and stronger and opening up more and more and more. . . . I’m just sort of celebrating within my own imagination of a what a singer does when he’s playing against a guy [Juldeh Camera] from West Africa who’s playing a one-string fiddle.

Q. Which is a new experience for you, so it must be refreshing.

A. I don’t know anybody in the world who’s singing with a riti player. I don’t know anybody who came out of a band in the ’60s and ’70s who’s playing this kind of trance, urban, heavy psychedelic [expletive], and he’s allowed to have a career!

Q. You’ve been fortunate to have a loyal audience.

A. But let’s not forget that I’ve been doing this [solo career] for 33 years. So I’ve had people grudgingly [complain about the set list]. I’m not going to be doing any Honeydrippers songs or “Raising Sand” stuff or Band of Joy stuff. Well, maybe one, because I’m back to a real far-out crescendo of music and delivery and all that. I do dodge around and I have to dodge around, and I know that I’ve got the right audience and I don’t care how big or small it is. I can get out on the road, everybody has a great time. We laugh lots and lots and I don’t have the pressure that would come with any other [project] of mine.

Q. Other artists haven’t always been embraced for their musical detours the way you have critically and with Grammy awards and such since “Raising Sand.”

A. The thing is I’m relentless and I love what I do. . . . Anybody who thinks that singing is a career is already in trouble. It’s just an absolute lifetime vacation of cause and effect, and really I’m genuine about what I do. I don’t do it for the bucks and I don’t do it for kudos, I just do it for me, really. So I don’t go off and have some arty-farty experience somewhere, I make the West African sound work around my energy. [it’s] a crunching sound that is part Massive Attack, part Led Zeppelin, and part Jefferson Airplane.

Q. You made some lovely contributions to Patty Griffin’s record.

A. It’s a bit of a cliché in a way for me to be singing with her, as we are such close friends, but the thing is it was the right voice and the right place to embellish her songs. And then we wrote that song “Highway Song” together. And I think she’s such an impassioned writer and singer and participating member of a world community. She’s brought a lot to my being and my presence. I’ve dumbfounded her with British insanity, which has made her laugh a lot more than she has been according to her friends [laughs].

Q. When you hear one of your songs on the radio, do you turn it up or turn it off?

A. It depends on whether or not I’ve had enough of the song [laughs].

Q. Which one would you turn up?

A. Hmmm, I think “Network News” from “Fate of Nations” and also “Takamba” from “Mighty Rearranger.” It was an important song for me because I was able to express myself. In fact, I’ve gotten much more eloquent as time has gone on. When I was singing about Hobbits and stuff, I didn’t actually really mean Hobbits. I just meant the spirit of where I came from, which is where Tolkien got his idea. But I was 20 when I was writing those things [laughs].

Here's the version that went out in the paper, and is behind a paywall on the Boston Globe site:

Of the more than a dozen albums Robert Plant has released post-Led Zeppelin, 2005’s “Mighty Rearranger” might sport the most apt description for what he has done with his career.

From the glorious stomp of Led Zeppelin to the poppier passages of some of his solo work to his more recent deep dives into American roots music with Alison Krauss and Band of Joy (featuring close friend Patty Griffin) and his current exploration of what he’s calling “urban psychedelia” with the Sensational Space Shifters, Plant likes to keep reorganizing his musical molecules into new configurations. He also likes to rework his classic songs in concert to keep things fresh, as he will when the Shifters come to the Bank of America Pavilion on Thursday.

It is part of a constant forward motion that Plant, 64, prefers to looking back. “I’m with the Space Shifters, and at the drop of a hat I can play alongside Patty when she needs me. I think this is the virility of music. If you can do that, you’re not just expected to just churn out the torch songs.”

In a recent phone conversation, Plant was gracious and funny. At one point when he was interrupted he returned to the phone and quipped, “Sorry to do that, but there was a beautiful maid knocking at the door and I told her it was the wrong decade.”

Q. Are all of the songs in the set list getting reworked?

A. No, sometimes things are a little bit normal [laughs]. But we usually turn around and watch [Massive Attack multi-instrumentalist John] Baggott’s face as he turns all the levers and the knobs of his sound machines, and sometimes I think he’s having a sexual experience [laughs]. And of course there’s that much dope in the air as well that we all end up stoned about halfway through the show and all really need a tuna melt.

Q. So it’s been satisfying?

A. Well you know, the thing is, it’s not a particularly studied or dignified performance, it’s wild.

Q. Why did your antenna point you in your current direction?

A. A lot of the songs that I’ve been singing since I began my working relationship with Alison Krauss have been structured to such a degree that the kind of free-form vocal work that I’ve made my reputation on was kind of gone. I was singing around pieces that began and ended with beautiful harmonies . . . but now I can let it rip. Because of that my voice is getting stronger and stronger and opening up more and more and more. . . . I’m just sort of celebrating within my own imagination of a what a singer does when he’s playing against a guy [Juldeh Camera] from West Africa who’s playing a one-string fiddle.

Q. Which is a new experience for you, so it must be refreshing.

A. I don’t know anybody in the world who’s singing with a riti player. I don’t know anybody who came out of a band in the ’60s and ’70s who’s playing this kind of trance, urban, heavy psychedelic [expletive], and he’s allowed to have a career!

Q. You’ve been fortunate to have a loyal audience.

A. But let’s not forget that I’ve been doing this [solo career] for 33 years. So I’ve had people grudgingly [complain about the set list]. I’m not going to be doing any Honeydrippers songs or “Raising Sand” stuff or Band of Joy stuff. Well, maybe one, because I’m back to a real far-out crescendo of music and delivery and all that. I do dodge around and I have to dodge around, and I know that I’ve got the right audience and I don’t care how big or small it is. I can get out on the road, everybody has a great time. We laugh lots and lots and I don’t have the pressure that would come with any other [project] of mine.

Q. Other artists haven’t always been embraced for their musical detours the way you have critically and with Grammy awards and such since “Raising Sand.”

A. The thing is I’m relentless and I love what I do. . . . Anybody who thinks that singing is a career is already in trouble. It’s just an absolute lifetime vacation of cause and effect, and really I’m genuine about what I do. I don’t do it for the bucks and I don’t do it for kudos, I just do it for me, really. So I don’t go off and have some arty-farty experience somewhere, I make the West African sound work around my energy. [it’s] a crunching sound that is part Massive Attack, part Led Zeppelin, and part Jefferson Airplane.

Q. You made some lovely contributions to Patty Griffin’s record.

A. It’s a bit of a cliché in a way for me to be singing with her, as we are such close friends, but the thing is it was the right voice and the right place to embellish her songs. And then we wrote that song “Highway Song” together. And I think she’s such an impassioned writer and singer and participating member of a world community. She’s brought a lot to my being and my presence. I’ve dumbfounded her with British insanity, which has made her laugh a lot more than she has been according to her friends [laughs].

Q. When you hear one of your songs on the radio, do you turn it up or turn it off?

A. It depends on whether or not I’ve had enough of the song [laughs].

Q. Which one would you turn up?

A. Hmmm, I think “Network News” from “Fate of Nations” and also “Takamba” from “Mighty Rearranger.” It was an important song for me because I was able to express myself. In fact, I’ve gotten much more eloquent as time has gone on. When I was singing about Hobbits and stuff, I didn’t actually really mean Hobbits. I just meant the spirit of where I came from, which is where Tolkien got his idea. But I was 20 when I was writing those things [laughs].

beautiful maid at the door,do you think it was a fan that found his room,,he also calls Patty a real good friend?

[luvlz2]

Network News & Takamba, those are a couple of great songs!

Q. When you hear one of your songs on the radio, do you turn it up or turn it off?

A. It depends on whether or not I’ve had enough of the song [laughs].

Q. Which one would you turn up?

A. Hmmm, I think “Network News” from “Fate of Nations” and also “Takamba” from “Mighty Rearranger.” It was an important song for me because I was able to express myself. In fact, I’ve gotten much more eloquent as time has gone on. When I was singing about Hobbits and stuff, I didn’t actually really mean Hobbits. I just meant the spirit of where I came from, which is where Tolkien got his idea. But I was 20 when I was writing those things [laughs].

[ProPlant]

beautiful maid at the door,do you think it was a fan that found his room,,he also calls Patty a real good friend?

They've always referred to each other as friends. Look at Patty's liner notes on her album. If it helps you to believe that they're "just friends" you go with it girl lol