429 Hello Robert Plant - Burning Down One Side

Chart  entered  : 9  October  1982

Chart  peak  : 73

Number  of  hits  : 10

In  amongst  all  this  New  Pop  was  a  representative  of  Old  Rock  making  his  belated  debut  in  the  singles  chart.  This  is  probably  the  last  time  we'll  be  discussing  any  sixties  music  in  a  Hello  post.

Robert  was  born  in  West  Bromwich  in  1948. He  was  a  young  Elvis  fan  but  in  his  teens  became  a  blues  obsessive.  He  went  through  quite  a  few  bands  in  the  Midlands  but  made  his  recording  debut  in  1966  with  a   group  called  Listen  who  were  signed  to  CBS. Their  sole  single  was  a  brass-heavy  cover  of  The  Young  Rascals  "You'd  Better  Run". Robert  turns  in  a  strong  bluesy  vocal  performance  but  the  single's  chances  were  stymied  by  Slade  predecessors  The  N-Betweens  also  covering  the  song  at  the  same  time. Nevertheless  CBS  kept  Robert  on  as  a  solo  artist  and  released  his  first  single "Our  Song"  in  March  the  following  year. The  song  was  originally  the  Italian  entry  in  the  San  Remo  Song  Festival  and  Robert  sings  an  English  translation  half  way  between  Percy  Sledge  and  Tom  Jones  with  woozy  Hammond  and  upfront  brass.  His  second  single  "Long  Time  Coming" is  another  slow  burner  that  sounds  like  Long  John  Baldry, He  then  reformed  an  earlier  group  Band  of  Joy  before  he  and  drummer  John  Bonham  were   invited  to  join  Led  Zeppelin.

I'm  not  going  to  slog  my  way  through  the  eight  Led  Zeppelin  albums  that  bridge  the  gap  between  Robert's  CBS  singles  and  this  one.  They  didn't  want  to  be  bothered  with  the  singles  chart  and  I  know  I  don't  like  them  much,  either  musically  or  as  people, More  to  the  point,  seven  out  of  those  eight  LPs  went  to  number  one  so  you  can  read  about  them  in  great  detail  on  Then  Play  Long  if   you're  interested.

Led  Zeppelin  ended  abruptly  in  October  1980  when  Bonham, the  rock  pig  par  exemplar, choked  on  his  own  vomit. Robert  first  formed  an  outfit  called  The  Honeydrippers  in  1981  mainly  to  play  R &  B  covers  live. He  then  went  into  Rockfield  Studios  to  record  his  solo  album  "Pictures  at  Eleven"  which  came  out  in  June  1982. This  was  the  opening  track  and  somewhat  belated  first  single.

The  title  is  somewhat  cryptic  as  the  phrase  doesn't  appear  in  the  lyrics  at  all  but  does  tie  back  to  a  detail  of  the  album  cover  which  shows  a  portrait  of  our  man  flaming  down  one  side  of  the  frame. What  it  means  I've  no  idea  and  the  rest  of  the  lyric  offers  just  random  musings  on  the  life  of  an  amorous  adventurer  like  old  Percy. He  sings  it  in  an  indecipherable  squawk   while  the  music  ponderously  rumbles  rather  than  rocks  behind  him. If  you  didn't  know  who  the  drummer  was  already,  the  In  The  Air  Tonight  drum  fills  that  kick  in  after  a  couple  of  minutes  would  give  it  away. It's  an  empty  tuneless  din  with  the  only  hint  of  a  melody  coming  in  the  closing  guitar  solo.

The  single  came  with  a  flashy  video  showing  Robert  flitting  between  a  number  of  glamorous  dolls  ( including  Linda  Lusardi )  which  helped  it  become  a  slightly  bigger  hit  in  the  US.