Led Zeppelin, Aging, and Acceptance

I'm a huge Led Zeppelin fan. I discovered them in high school and was hooked. This was around 1989. The Fay's drug store near my house used to sell cassette tapes. I'm dating myself by admitting this. I also used to have to avoid getting eaten by a saber-toothed tiger on the way to school as a kid. I think the first Zeppelin album I bought was Houses of the Holy. They were the reason I talked my parents into buying me a crappy, sixty-dollar Les Paul copy from a pawn shop. I wanted to rock like Jimmy Page.

I saw Page/Plant in 1995 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. They put on a great show. Robert Plant sounded amazing. The crowd went ballistic when Jimmy Page played the unaccompanied "Heartbreaker" solo. Best concert I ever went to.

I wasn't really surprised or disappointed when Robert Plant turned down a boatload of money to reunite the band. He's balked at reuniting Zep in the past, and I don't think it's a bad thing that he turned it down. Maybe Plant is content, and he mentioned in the article above that he didn't want to go back to the past. Or maybe he realizes it just wouldn't be the same given the years that have gone by. The voice is not the same at age 66 as it was at 25, or even 45, as it was when they played Buffalo in '95. Whatever his reasoning, it took a ton of guts to turn down the money Sir Richard Branson was offering him. Some will think him crazy, while others will applaud his integrity.

We all age. Time steals abilities we had when we were young. Maybe we can't go back and it's foolish to try. Regardless, I'll remain content to remember that night in 1995 when Page/Plant lit up the Aud and be thankful I got to see them live.