robert plant announce unexpected announcement

Robert Plant’s lyrical contribution was a little offbeat for the early incendiary moments of Led Zeppelin‘s career. Hired primarily as a swaggering singer instead of a deft songwriter, Plant struggled to reach the levels of his contemporaries for some time.

He didn’t really have a set songwriting style like stars such as John Lennon, Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen. Plant was a shimmying vocalist who commanded the stage with an unmistakable prowl. But the ideals of a band were changing, and originality now trumped everything. Long gone were the days of powering out some old hits and moving along the circuit. Global domination demanded good songs and potent lyrics.

As the clamour for leads to be lyricists grew impossible to ignore, Plant did what any good rocker would do and looked to the past. In fact, Plant borrowed words from an entire genre as he dove into the murky waters of the blues for his inspiration.

While some singers and lyricists may choose to hide their influences through altered words or suggested meanings, Robert Plant borrowed directly from the greats of the past. Using lines from Willie Dixon, Howlin’ Wolf, and Robert Johnson, the singer helped make Led Zeppelin a force to be reckoned with. However, one line used by Plant is perhaps more valued than the rest, as the rocker confirmed in an interview back in 1971.

Led Zeppelin had long been drawing inspiration from the Delta blues, and it was perhaps only a matter of time before Robert Johnson’s influence made its way into their work. That moment arrived on Led Zeppelin II with ‘The Lemon Song’, which features the lyrics: “Squeeze me, baby, till the juice runs down my leg,” Plant wails. “When you squeeze my lemon, I’m gonna fall right out of bed.”

The lines are taken from Robert Johnson, the man who famously made a deal with the devil to become such an impressive player, and his song ‘Travelling Riverside Blues’. The original track is a marauding moment in Johnson’s back catalogue but adds a sense of humourous frivolity to the Led Zeppelin track. Plant opened up about pilfering the lines when speaking with Rock magazine back in 1971.

“It’s borrowed, admittedly, but why not?” Plant told the publication with a smirk of defiance. “I really would like to think that someone who heard that and then saw some clever critic writing about Plant living off the far superior Robert Johnson — or whatever they have to say to keep their jobs — would go and listen to Robert Johnson as a result. But I wish I’d written that. I really do.”

The single reference to the fruit that Zeppelin’s singer keeps in his own song might be more subtle, but it’s enough to establish the direct link between ‘The Lemon Song’ and ‘Travelling Riverside Blues’. In this sense, perhaps the naming of the song is a deliberate acknowledgement of the debt the band owed to their great Delta forefathers.

“But ‘squeeze my lemon’ — I wish I could think of something like that myself,” the singer confessed. “But it’s not cool to do that these days; you realise that, don’t you?” It wouldn’t take long for the band to pick up the original Robert Johnson track and make it their own, as they deliver a truly rip-roaring performance of ‘Travelling Riverside Blues’ later on in their career.

Led Zeppelin were able to effortlessly weave the words of blues heroes throughout their music without being found out because the group were simply an extension of that sound. Through the years, Plant’s lyrical game would improve, and the need for borrowing would diminish. However, there will always be one line that he wishes he wrote.