Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant Had To “Grapple” With the World After Hearing This Bob Dylan Track

Thanks to the sheer amount of articles we’ve written on this subject, it’s hard to believe that there wasn’t a musician of the 60s or 70s who wasn’t shaped by Bob Dylan‘s work. Dylan’s influence is comparable to a stream that turns into a rushing river. He started the flow, and as more and more water was added and the shore eroded, an uncontrollable and significant force was created. Again, we can’t list all the musicians who’ve utilized Dylan’s influence, as there is a myriad of them, but in this instance, we are going to name Robert Plant.

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Robert Plant of Led Zepellin differs from Bob Dylan in many surface-level ways. However, influence does not mean imitation. Nevertheless, Plant was seemingly like every other music-loving teenager of the 60s, because Dylan entirely transformed his worldview.

Again, there is no telling how many musicians Dylan had this effect on. Regardless, this effect had a significant butterfly effect, as it inadvertently led to a musical cultivation within Plant. A musical cultivation that then, in maybe even the smallest of ways, led to Led Zeppelin.

The Dylan Number That Opened the Eyes of Robert Plant

The song that seemingly shook Plant to the core was Bob Dylan’s 1963 track “Masters Of War”. This is complete speculation, but maybe, just maybe, this single had something to do with Zeppelin’s staple hit, “Immigrant Song”. Even if it didn’t, and we are completely off in our assumption, Plant still holds a deep affinity for this Dylan track and Dylan himself.

In an interview with The Guardian, Plant stated, “Something happened when Dylan arrived. I had to grapple with what he was talking about. His music referenced Woody Guthrie, Richard and Mimi Farina, Reverend Gary Davis, Dave Van Ronk, and all these great American artists I knew nothing about.”

“He was absorbing the details of America and bringing it out without any reservation at all, and ignited a social conscience that is spectacular. In these Anglo-Saxon lands we could only gawp, because we didn’t know about the conditions he was singing about. Dylan was the first one to say: Hello, reality. I knew that I had to get rid of the winkle-pickers and get the sandals on quick,” concluded Robert Plant.

Robert Plant’s anecdote is just another story attesting to Dylan’s insurmountable impact on the awakening of a generation. In the last 100 years or so, has there been an individual who has accomplished more for the youth than the early Bob Dylan? There is no definitive way to say, but thanks to stories such as this one, the subjective answer seemingly points in Dylan’s favor.

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