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Baltimore Morning Sun (US)
Sunday, March 19, 1995

Robert Plant interview

By J.D. Considine, Sun Pop Music Critic

[ Tori-related excerpt ]

...it doesn't look as if Page and Plant will ever entirely escape the Led Zeppelin legacy. In fact, a Led Zep tribute album, called Encomium, will arrive in stores Tuesday.

"I was asked if I would do a song," says Plant of the project, "and I said, 'Yeah, I'd like to do a duet. I'd like to do "Down by the Seaside." I'd like to do it in E minor, and I'd like to do it as slow as humanly possible.'"

So he called Tori Amos. "I'd met Tori a few times, and I really, really love her," he says. "She flew into London, and we just busked it for about half an hour. I played guitar, and she played piano, Michael and Charlie played brushes and upright bass. It was cool. And I'm really proud of my guitar playing, because it's really fractured, somewhere between the solo of, maybe, 'Down by the River,' by Neil Young.

"But it goes on a bit. It's like seven or eight minutes long. We got a call from New York, saying, 'We love the tune, but do you mind editing it?' Ha! Where would you begin to start putting the knife to it? It's amazing. 'Well, it's a bit long,' they said, 'We've got to fit it in with Rollins and Poor Non Blondes,' or whatever it is."

So who won? Plant isn't one to tell tales out of school, but suffice it to say that the version of "Down by the Seaside" on Encomium runs a full seven minutes and 49 seconds. Apparently, Page and Plant didn't dub their album No Quarter for nothing.

[ end of excerpt ]

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