Mercy Mr. Percy

It finally happened. I met a member of Led Zeppelin. Robert Plant came up to my workplace Tuesday afternoon, on a PR tour for his new album. Mighty Rearranger. This is hard to admit but I found myself nervous around him. I've met many famous people on the job - everyone from Bill Clinton to Sidney Poitier – and I’m usually calm and collected. But this was someone who played a HUGE part in my childhood.

I first heard “Percy” (as his fellow band-mates called him) when I was eleven years old, down in the basement of our three-bedroom brick ranch home (real wood paneling, asbestos “miracle” tiles on the floor, suspended ceiling). My brother Mario left his copy of Led Zeppelin II out, something he usually never did. But he rushed out of the house for one reason or another and left it behind. If he catches me anywhere near his records he’ll kill me so I move fast, fishing the LP out of its sleeve and plopping it onto my brother Marc’s old BSR turntable. We don’t have a stereo in the basement, just the BSR, an old Wollensak reel-to-reel tape recorder and our neighbor Lenny’s Univox guitar amp. The left and right channels of the BSR combine – via a Radio Shack adapter - into a quarter-inch phono plug, which is plugged into the input of the Wollensak. The output of the Wollensak is connected to the Univox. I switch on the BSR, the Univox and the Wollensak, in that order.

I lift the creme-colored cover off the Wollensak and set it aside. The two seven-inch reels of tape hold one hour of music, if I record on the slowest speed. No one else bothers with the Wollensak anymore. We used to set it on the kitchen table and pass the microphone around, singing songs or just saying whatever came into our heads. We haven’t done that since my father left. Half of the tape is on the take-up reel. I hit the rewind lever and back it all up onto the feed reel. I push down the PLAY and RECORD buttons, then lift up the tonearm of the BSR and set it down on track one. There’s a laugh that sounds like a cough and then this mean guitar riff kicks in. Then the bass guitar echoes the riff:

“You need coolin’...
Baby, I’m not foolin’...”

The song booms out of the twin twelve-inch speakers of the Univox. What the hell is THIS? This is the COOLEST THING I’VE EVER HEARD.... How are they MAKING those sounds? What’s with the drums, coming in on the chorus like that and dragging behind the beat? What’s that jet-plane sound? Who is this guy going to give his love to? Then there’s all that high-hat and ride cymbal and those bongos.... and then the song becomes evil. What’s that croaking noise? Is that thunder crashing? We’re on a journey somewhere. Before long, there’s a long yell, some vicious, door-slamming drums, a snotty lead guitar break and the riff kicks back in, more glorious than ever.

Through side one I sit mesmerized, staring at the little bulb on the Wollensak that flashes along with the level of the music. When side one ends, I leave the tape running and flip the album over. Then the tape breaks. Oh crap. I’m used to this. I’ve recorded on this same reel of tape at least ten times. I’ve gotten pretty good at splicing it myself. Except we have no splicing block or splicing tape. I lift the tonearm up and head to the chest beneath my brother’s body-building “posing” mirror. The drawers of the chest are crammed with, among other items, nuts and bolts, screws, paper, batteries, a pair of scissors, rulers, glue – and Scotch tape. I grab the scissors and Scotch tape and set about splicing the reel back together. When I’m done I punch RECORD and plop the needle of the BSR back onto side two.

I didn’t have a chance to tell Robert Plant this story. Or how it was Jimmy Page that made me want to learn to play guitar. Or being cheated out of a lengthy encore by some idiot with a cherry bomb (who nearly blew off one of Page's hands) at the end of their sixth night at Madison Square Garden, June 1977. I did get him to record an ID for WFMU, and afterwards he asked, “What’s the channel, you know – the frequency?”

“91.1 FM.” I answered. Then I got the shock of my life when he exclaimed, “THAT’S the station I’ve got on the hotel radio!” He went on to tell a story about pledging to KBOO, a listener-supported radio station in Portland. He was driving around and heard the DJ say, during a fund drive, “If we get one thousand dollars in the next hour we promise we’ll never play ‘Stairway To Heaven’ again!”

“I pulled over to the side of the road, called them up and pledged it myself. I never want to hear that fucking song again either!” This is clearly a man with a healthy sense of humour. And gracious as hell: he autographed my copy of Presence, which has now become the Grand-Grand Prize on Aerial View for Marathon '05. There are only two Aerial View broadcasts left - pledge during either and get in the running for the autographed CD!

UPDATE: Click here for info about the autographed guitar that Robert Plant donated to WFMU.

Thanks, Percy!

Comments

[Chris J]

Fantastic story, Chris!

[listener rob]

damn christ T is a sexy teddy bear wowzer :) lol

(at the gay bar baby).....

[matt]

awesome story. what a great opportunity. i've dreamt about having a long conversation with robert plant. i think we were walking around a playground. he was very friendly.

[listener j]

good story, interestingly, I have tape of the '77 cherry bomb incident, we snuck a little Panasonic into the Garden, I can relate to that moment, bro

[Sheldon Kay]

Great story pal! I'm glad you enjoyed the pledge I made the other night. Those were some very kind words.
Best of luck and we'll hoist some sudz soon.

[Teleri]

Thanks for posting a great story! Loving that Robert's got a new album coming out, with a tour! & some dates, with Jeff Beck!!! Yay!!!
BB
Teleri

[Nech]

Can the person who made the comment about the MSG cherry bomb tape please contact me!!!

[listener j]

Nech, the explosion of the firecracker is not that impressive, the delayed crowd reaction is, is that the e-mail address to contact you?

[pauline l.bowen]

I have loved Robert plant (led zep) since I was 16,nearly finished writing my book Zeppelin Memories,got two website reports done by BBC Wales, and been interviewed on a local radio station,met Robert plant in 2003,lovely man, I wish him all the very best defintely getting the new album.

[MIKE]

GREAT JOB

[Diana Park]

I actually like the "Rain Song" better than "Stairway to Heaven".