"The music of the Sahara desert is about the hips and the head. It takes music back to its primeval function, which was a way to an altered state. I find contemporary rock mortifyingly dull most of

September 15, 2005

Plant in love with music again

By DENIS ARMSTRONG -- Ottawa Sun

I live on former glory, so long ago and gone

I'm turning down the talk shows, the humour and the couch

I'm moving up to higher ground, I've found a new way out.

>- Robert Plant, Tin Pan Valley

If Robert Plant thinks his new album Mighty Rearranger is as good as anything he did with Led Zeppelin, it's because it made him love music again.

Surrounded by his Strange Sensation bandmates Justin Adams, Billy Fuller and former Portishead members Clive Deamer and John Baggott, Plant looks toned, tanned and in good spirits. While he gives no indication we shouldn't be talking about Led Zeppelin at a press conference yesterday, it's obvious the 57-year-old is happy to be making music again.

"You get into a rut where you think that you've gone as far as you can possibly go," he said. "If you're as fortunate as I am, you find a new road. A new road that gives you the optimism and revitalizes the gift."

Plant's new musical road led him to southern Morocco, which is home to the same haunting music he initially flirted with near the end of Zeppelin with Kashmir on Physical Graffiti and In Through the Out Door, when he and Page fused hypnotic African and Muslim sounds and rhythms to the rawest, raunchiest rock going. The pair renewed their longtime partnership in 1994 to create the No Quarter project, a melange of North African, Egyptian and folk roots music.

"The music of the Sahara desert is about the hips and the head," he explains. "It takes music back to its primeval function, which was a way to an altered state. I find contemporary rock mortifyingly dull most of the time. So, in the autumn of my creativity, I want to do this because I want to learn how to swivel my hips and go to faraway places.

"Besides," he adds, "The new music suits my vocals better. I can sing in a more sultry way and can reinterpret songs I wrote long ago."

Describing Mighty Rearranger as "songs that give me power," Plant admits that in addition to reviving his creative juices, the album has helped him find a more sober life.

Before Rearranger, life was little more than "drinking gin until I couldn't drink any more and being promiscuous as a ridiculous rock icon. I had to be kicked into gear."

Otherwise, he might have given up on music completely.

"I was 56, wealthy and promiscuous and realized that I didn't want to sing about being 56, wealthy and promiscuous anymore," he said.

"Robert still wants to break new musical ground," explained Deamer, who then added "Zeppelin was about new ideas for its time. We're keeping that spirit alive."

But for fans, keeping the spirit of Led Zeppelin alive isn't enough. While Plant doesn't dismiss the occasional fundraiser with Page, and continues to perform Zeppelin tunes on his solo tour -- which stops at MTS Centre on Saturday -- he shows no signs of resigning his career to reliving the past, visibly scoffing at rumours that he and Page aren't talking after Plant failed to show up at the Grammys for Led Zeppelin's Lifetime Achievement Award.

"Why would I fly from England to L.A. just to pick up a gong, which relates to something so long ago, however wonderful it was at the time?" he begs. "It's all bull-- anyway, isn't it? We know what we did and what we're doing now. There's no point in getting too romantic about these things. It meant something when we were kicking ass in 1971."

Finally, when asked how it feels to be a living legend and rock icon, Plant bristles.

"It's crap," he spits. "I know. I've met Sting a couple times."