The death of John Bonham and subsequent disbanding of Led Zeppelin in 1980 were a shock to the rock world. While fans mourned the loss of one of the greatest rock drummers, many also hoped for a reunion of Led Zeppelin’s three surviving members. When they got what they wished for at the Philadelphia Live Aid concert in 1985—with Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones joined by Phil Collins and Tony Thompson on drums—the resulting performance was widely viewed as a major disappointment.
The notoriously botched performance did not keep Led Zeppelin’s fans from wanting more reunions. Plant and Page have worked together at various points over the years, and their collaboration on Plant’s 1988 hit “Tall Cool One” is arguably their most memorable one from the post-Zeppelin era. It was not only notable for the pairing of Plant and Page, but also for the track’s wholesale embracing of their time together in one of the most celebrated bands in rock history. As such, “Tall Cool One” represents an important turning point in Plant’s career.
Establishing His Own Sound
Once Plant went solo with his 1982 album Pictures at Eleven, he made a point of distancing himself from his persona as Led Zeppelin’s frontman. The album had a guitar-driven sound and some heavy drumming by Collins and Cozy Powell, but it also featured synths and even a sax solo by Raphael Ravenscroft (of Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street” fame). Plant almost completely avoided covering his former band in his live shows.
This is not to say that Plant was averse to working with Page in the studio. In 1984, Page played guitar on two tracks from the lone album by Plant’s side project The Honeydrippers, including the Top-10 hit “Sea of Love.” Three years later, Plant co-wrote and sang “The Only One” for Page’s solo effort Outrider, though the album would not be released until June 1988.
Lightening Up About Led Zeppelin
Perhaps playing on Page’s album got Plant thinking about his Led Zeppelin legacy as he started recording his fourth solo album Now and Zen in November 1987. What we know more certainly is Plant’s co-producer and songwriting partner Phil Johnstone played a role in the singer’s new willingness to acknowledge his history with Led Zeppelin. Plant told Rolling Stone in 1988 Johnstone—and other musicians who grew up listening to Led Zeppelin—helped him to better appreciate his earlier work.
“Tall Cool One” features several samples of Led Zeppelin classics, as well as a guitar solo by Page. (Page also contributed a solo to the album’s first single “Heaven Knows.”) Plant’s initial plan did not involve a barrage of snippets from the Zeppelin catalog. Instead, he was going to use samples of the Beastie Boys. It was his form of payback for using unauthorized Led Zeppelin samples on Licensed to Ill. However, Plant and Johnstone didn’t find any Beastie Boys samples they thought would work, so they borrowed from Led Zeppelin instead. They augmented the tracks they recorded for “Tall Cool One” with Page’s riffs from “Black Dog,” “Custard Pie,” “The Ocean,” and “Dazed and Confused.” One of Page’s classic riffs from “Whole Lotta Love” is repeated throughout the song. “Tall Cool One” also includes lyrical allusions to “Black Dog” (hey hey mama) and “When the Levee Breaks” (going down).
Plant decided not to tell Page about his generous sampling of his work until after they were done recording “Tall Cool One.” Plant told Rolling Stone that upon hearing the samples, Page had an expression of “tiresome wonder” and possibly thought Plant was “taking the piss out of” his guitar work. Plant clarified his intention was to show “that his riffs are the mightiest the world has ever heard.”
The Impact of “Tall Cool One”
Those mighty riffs helped to make “Tall Cool One” one of Plant’s most popular solo tracks. It reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it his second-highest peak position on the singles chart as a solo artist after “Big Log” (No. 20). The song’s 18-week stay on the Hot 100 is the longest for any of his solo singles. “Tall Cool One” also spent four weeks atop Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart.
As Now and Zen’s biggest single, it helped the album to get to No. 6 on the Billboard 200. Now and Zen is Plant’s biggest-selling solo album, receiving Triple Platinum certification in 2001.
“Tall Cool One” was Plant’s first obvious acknowledgement of his years with Led Zeppelin as a solo artist, and beginning with the Now and Zen Tour, he started incorporating more of their songs into his setlists. Four songs recorded by Led Zeppelin—”Going to California,” “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You,” “Black Dog,” and “Whole Lotta Love”—now rank among his five most-played songs in concert. Plant would go on to reunite with Page and Jones on a few occasions, but “Tall Cool One” stands out as the moment when he first got comfortable with merging his musical past into his present.
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Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc
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