Robert Plant's odd pronunciation in later Zeppelin music

[pagefan]

I feel like Robert's Plant's pronunciation of lyrics became really odd in the late 70's. I have a hard time understanding what he's saying In 'in my time of dying', and 'in the evening', or any concert post '75. Does anyone know a particular reason for this?

[chillumpuffer]

2 hours ago, pagefan said:

I feel like Robert's Plant's pronunciation of lyrics became really odd in the late 70's. I have a hard time understanding what he's saying In 'in my time of dying', and 'in the evening', or any concert post '75. Does anyone know a particular reason for this?

Uncle Charley I would imagine - especially 1975

[pagefan]

2 hours ago, chillumpuffer said:

Uncle Charley I would imagine - especially 1975

Uncle Charley??

[JTM]

24 minutes ago, pagefan said:

Uncle Charley??

 

[TheStairwayRemainsTheSame]

^

[TheStairwayRemainsTheSame]

I've never noticed a difference though.

[ksgemini]

i have a feeling the lyrics were intentionally buried in Carouselambra-possibly by Plant himself- If u read as u listen it is definitely easier to understand ...but tragic ultimately.  I am surprised Page and Jones even agreed to play on this as they are not cast in a very good light but the other songs are quite clear and easy to understand on ITTOD

[Dane1968]

I watched the '07 gig with my kid. In For Your Life, my kid asked me if the song was called 'Boogie Woogie Wummer'. I think he was referring to the chorus type bit when the lyrics sound like, to me,  '... Do it when you wanna...' Obviously neither of us have any idea what the lyrics actually are.

[Mook]

46 minutes ago, Dane1968 said:

I watched the '07 gig with my kid. In For Your Life, my kid asked me if the song was called 'Boogie Woogie Wummer'. I think he was referring to the chorus type bit when the lyrics sound like, to me,  '... Do it when you wanna...' Obviously neither of us have any idea what the lyrics actually are.

You said I was the only, With my lemon in your hand
Exhibition is your habit, Emotion second hand.
Had to pull away to save me, Maybe next time around
And she said, 'don't you want it?
Don't you want cocaine-cocaine-cocaine
Hadn't planned to, could not stand to try it, fry it, na na na yeah.

Heard a cry for mercy, In the city of the damned
Oh oh babe, damned. Down in the pits you go no lower
The next stop's underground. Oh, hello underground.
Wine and roses ain't quite over, fate deals a losing hand
And I said: didn't mean to... did not mean to fail
You didn't plan it, you over-ran it

You wanna do it, you wanna
You wanna do it when you wanna
You wanna do it, do it when you wanna

When you blow it, babe, You got to blow it right
Oh baby, if you fake it, mama, Baby, fake with all your might
When you fake it, mama, Please fake it right (for yourself babe)

When you fake it baby,
You're fakin' it for your life, for your life, for your life, for your life
Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it, Do it when you wanna
Do it, do it, do it, Do it when you wanna

Oh, I can have you, baby, But I don't know what to do, yeah
Sometime, baby, nothin' I could do
On the balance of a crystal, Payin' through the nose
And when they couldn't resist you, I thought you'd go with the flow.

And now your stage is empty, bring down the curtain, baby please.
Fold up your show
Hadn't planned to, Could not stand to fry in it
Hadn't planned it, I over-ran it, (fryin)
For your life, For your life.

[Dane1968]

Thanks. I could never understand a word in that song. Had no idea it was a drug song, and that Page would allow those lyrics. I don't care either way, but it seems out of place and too... sleazy or something. Druggies try to hide it, and that seems too blatant.

[The Dark Lord]

On March 31, 2017 at 8:19 AM, Dane1968 said:

Thanks. I could never understand a word in that song. Had no idea it was a drug song, and that Page would allow those lyrics. I don't care either way, but it seems out of place and too... sleazy or something. Druggies try to hide it, and that seems too blatant.

Plant sang a lot about his experiences and observations. He was pretty frustrated with the world post '75, and I would think this song reflects his observations of someone that he and / or the band knew. He is so metaphoric in his writing that it's hard to figure out what he's on about, but there's often a moral to the story. 

[TheStairwayRemainsTheSame]

On 3/31/2017 at 4:19 PM, Dane1968 said:

Thanks. I could never understand a word in that song. Had no idea it was a drug song, and that Page would allow those lyrics. I don't care either way, but it seems out of place and too... sleazy or something. Druggies try to hide it, and that seems too blatant.

????

Think you've been following a different band.

And if Page was in the business of signing off Robert's lyrics we wouldn't of had half of Presence or ITTOD.

[Dane1968]

Yes, but I thought the lyrics were usually a bit more poetic, as it were. They were pretty open about sex and drugs, but usually in a more obscure way, rather than just flat out saying it. Myself I would not want to have lyrics like that. You can say it, but do you really have to say it so obviously.

Isn't the art of musical poetry saying what you want to say, without actually saying it. Eg Rock n Roll "Been a long time since I did that stroll..." is not about going for a walk, not with his legs anyway.

[jsj]

44 minutes ago, Dane1968 said:

Isn't the art of musical poetry saying what you want to say, without actually saying it. Eg Rock n Roll "Been a long time since I did that stroll..." is not about going for a walk, not with his legs anyway.

no its "since I did the stroll" its a dance. although of course he may have had another meaning implied

[Dane1968]

Fair enough. Thanks for the info. Yeah it's still possible that he wasn't speaking literally. Probably the only person who truly knows what a lyric means is the person who wrote it.

[IpMan]

1 hour ago, Dane1968 said:

Yes, but I thought the lyrics were usually a bit more poetic, as it were. They were pretty open about sex and drugs, but usually in a more obscure way, rather than just flat out saying it. Myself I would not want to have lyrics like that. You can say it, but do you really have to say it so obviously.

Isn't the art of musical poetry saying what you want to say, without actually saying it. Eg Rock n Roll "Been a long time since I did that stroll..." is not about going for a walk, not with his legs anyway.

Yes Sick Again is just dripping with metaphor and simile. Extremely subtle tune that one...as is the Lemon Song, WLL, HMMT, Custard Pie, etc...

[Mook]

I think someone has hidden their Carpenters records in Dane1968's Led Zeppelin sleeves.

[TheStairwayRemainsTheSame]

I bet you couldn't even name 10 Zep songs where there is not one single allusion to sex.

[Amstel]

On Wednesday, December 21, 2016 at 3:34 AM, pagefan said:

I feel like Robert's Plant's pronunciation of lyrics became really odd in the late 70's. I have a hard time understanding what he's saying In 'in my time of dying', and 'in the evening', or any concert post '75. Does anyone know a particular reason for this?

Jimmy Page put Plant's vocals low in the mix, nothing more.  

[Dane1968]

On 04/07/2017 at 8:33 PM, Mook said:

I think someone has hidden their Carpenters records in Dane1968's Led Zeppelin sleeves.

Gave me a laugh. How did you know?  Been a bit busy lately doing my duties as the president of the Carpenter's fan club.

[EaglesOfOneNest]

Hey! Karen Carpenter was no John Bonham, but she was an excellent drummer!  ;-)

[SamoKodela]

It depends how you look at singing, it's not exactly diva pop singing or opera singing and if you take it as very demanding rock and roll type singing it's alright, especially for those times and now it's so established it still gets played a lot(popular singing is now usually less demanding then old rock or eighties pop diva ballads which already mostly had all words well articulated, but now it's certainly desirable that you can understand the words, even with very cheesy lyrics), but the truth is that while it went a bit worse latter, mostly in tone of the voice, even IV which is produced the best of all and I think most will agree that this is Zeppelin's best production, even on IV you have quite a bit of words not being articulated well and most would agree it would still make it a better album if those words were articulated right and so they could be better understood, but it's certainly still good enough and even excellent.