For a band as successful and important as Led Zep, it’s almost unthinkable that there is still some unheard material knocking about that hasn’t at least made its way on to bootlegs. But apparently Robert Plant has unearthed some unreleased tapes and wants to release them as soon as possible.
The only stumbling block to getting the new Led Zeppelin songs out into the public domain seems to be bassist/multi-instrumentalist John Paul Jones who, according to Plant, is resisting their release because they feature him singing.
Speaking on the Radcliffe and Maconie show on BBC 6 Music, Plant said:
I found some quarter-inch spools recently and there’s some very, very interesting bits and pieces that probably will turn up (soon). Hidden gems – now that should be the name of (our) band, really… I had a meeting with Jimmy (Page). We baked them up and listened to them. I’m desperately trying to (use) this one track – or the two tracks – (with) John Paul Jones singing lead. And so far (Jones is) up to giving me two cars and a greenhouse (to leave) them (off) the album.
Jones’ aversion to having his singing voice exposed to a wide audience probably dates back to the bands infamous 1977 tour in which he had to deputise for Sandy Denny for ‘The Battles Of Evermore’ – which he got a bit of flak for. It don’t sound too bad to me though, judge for yourself below:
As well as getting in the way of us hearing some new Led Zep songs, John Paul Jones also seems to be putting the brakes on the oft-rumoured Led Zeppelin reunion. It had been mooted for 2014, but is back on hold now as Jones is busy working on his opera.
