When Robert Plant Recruited New And Old Friends For 'Pledge Pin'

[luvlz2]

When Robert Plant Recruited New And Old Friends For 'Pledge Pin'

Allison Rapp - Published: November 9, 2022

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Gary Gershoff, Getty Images

Robert Plant was busy plugging away at a Welsh studio in the early '80s, while the rest of the world all but considered his career over. Pessimism pushed him on, even while creating what would become his debut solo album, Pictures at Eleven.

 

"I could tell people were saying behind my back: 'That's it, he's finished. He's not going to come up with the goods at all,"' Plant said in his first interview following Led Zeppelin's split in 1980. "All the time I was working down at Rockfield, no outsiders heard the record, but I knew what was happening. It was just getting better and better."

 

Plant was expecting his new work to be harshly criticized. "There's been so much slating in the past when I've tried really hard," he said, "and I thought there wasn't much chance of the album being well received."

 

He turned out to be mistaken. Despite being a significant sonic departure from what most people had come to associate the hard rock singer with, Pictures at Eleven reached No. 2 in the U.K. and No. 5 in the U.S. One song, "Pledge Pin," was particularly well-liked, reaching No. 11 on Billboards Top Tracks chart after arriving as the album's second single, following "Burning Down One Side."

 

Released in November 1982, "Pledge Pin" was written with one of Plant's oldest friends, guitarist Robbie Blunt. "I met Robert, actually, when I was probably 15 years old," Blunt recalled in 1985. "He came and dragged me out of the house to go and play in this band he had called the Crawling King Snakes, which was an R&B band. I mean, it goes back that far. We used to just be buddies, go drinking together."

 

                                                                                                                 Listen to Robert Plant's 'Pledge Pin'

Blunt and Plant reconvened as part of the Honeydrippers after Zeppelin ended, then decided to try their hand at composing. They would sit down together and write as one unit, a process that Plant said was "quite comfortable," despite never having happened before. "But I'd known him for a long time anyway, so I mean, it was just a little weird enveloping him into what I wanted to do -- and he to me, too."

 

Then, Plant added, "it started pouring out." "Pledge Pin" was one result of that collaboration, but after the album was released, Plant was careful to clarify that his work with a new guitarist shouldn't be compared to what he had done with the previous one. "Let me put the record straight once and for all," he said. "Robbie Blunt is a person in his own right, and he is not Jimmy Page."

 

There were also new faces added to the mix like Phil Collins, who had reached out to Plant directly. "I'd really like to help you," Plant later remembered Collins saying, "because this must be one of the toughest things you've ever had to do, musically."

 

Collins played drums on all but two of the songs on Pictures at Eleven, and in the studio, he did very little holding back. "If he didn't like something," Plant remembered, "he'd stop halfway through, stand up and tell people why it wasn't quite right."

 

It was just the approach that Plant needed. Well aware of the challenges of launching a solo career, Collins encouraged Plant to be open and to push outside his comfort zone. "He gave me a lot of confidence because I was so used to working in a very close-knit team," Plant said in 1982. "I really needed that kind of help, too. ... I was in that [Led Zeppelin] camp for so long, suddenly I was standing alone going 'Oh! There's so much I can do.' And he was a great help, apart from being an incredible drummer."

 

                                                                                               Listen to Robert Plant Perform 'Pledge Pin' in 1983

The saxophone solo on "Pledge Pin" came from another new collaborator, Raphael Ravenscroft, who was best known for his playing on Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street." He also appeared on albums by Marvin Gaye and Roger Waters.

 

One thing that stood out on the single -- and Pictures at Eleven as a whole -- was how Plant's vocal was mixed a bit farther back, with the drums and bass brought forward. It was a vaguely Led Zeppelin-like technique that made sense given that Plant had produced the album himself.

 

"My ears have gone," Plant joked as the reasoning for it, before explaining that "Pledge Pin" naturally started like that. "It was really rocking without anything else on it at all," he said. "Phil and the bass player Paul [Martinez] were going crazy and there wasn't a great deal of room for anything else anyway. ... The vocal on that track, it's so removed from ... the dynamics of the track intentionally. It's like, melodic, while the rest of the track is flailing away, pounding away, that it just required that mix to me."

 

In the long run, moments like "Pledge Pin" helped prove to Plant and his listeners that making the transition to a solo artist was mostly a matter of embracing whatever felt right and being willing to dig in when necessary. "I'm prepared to work," he said. "I'm prepared to go out and I'm prepared to stand up and be counted. To me, everything is easy unless you make it difficult."

 

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/robert-plant-pledge-pin/

Edited November 10, 2022 by luvlz2

[SteveAJones]

Robbie Blunt is so underrated as a guitarist. Raphael Ravenscroft's sax solo on Pledge Pin steals the show. 

[The Only Way To Fly]

Love Pledge Pin and am really keen on Plant's first two solo records over all the others (apart from those with Alison).  

[SuperDave]

On 11/10/2022 at 7:24 AM, SteveAJones said:

Robbie Blunt is so underrated as a guitarist. Raphael Ravenscroft's sax solo on Pledge Pin steals the show. 

I agree Steve regarding Robbie Blunt. Many years ago, but Robbie was amazing on Robert's first two solo tours in 1983 and 1985. I'm glad, I was so privileged to see both of these tours live in Hartford in 1983 and New Haven in 1985. The first was special as it was the first time I ever saw Robert Plant perform live. So many times since then and last being in June with Alison in Philly at the Mann. What a show and Robert still has an amazing voice at 74. Not many in his age group can still sing like this.

Anyway, back in 1985 at the former New Haven Coliseum, I remember how incredible Robbie Blunt was on guitar. He blew me away. Much more so than in 1983. It was "Little By Little" that did me in. WOW!!! Here's a performance of the song ten days after my show in Toronto at the CNE and just two weeks after Zep's horrendous performance at Live Aid. Robbie is incredible and Robert is in fine voice as well.  

 

[kirchzep27]

This one song is interesting as a representative song for Plants solo music. In regards to, it is interesting but does not really work. On his first solo record he was relying on Robbie Blunt, who was a great technical guitarist, clearly by the live version of this song. Yes this song can musically compete with the 80s bands like The Police and Rush....but does it work as a song? Idk, Plants quest for new music sometimes worked against him. After this first record, he doubled down on “being different” from zep and his whole keyboard oriented/guitar secondary rock,  lasted for many years........