The voice of Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant, is one of the most influential Hard Rock singers of all time. He was described by his longtime bandmate Jimmy Page as a vocal gymnast due to his talent for performing the songs and the techniques he developed that made his singing unique.
While touring in the United States in the late 60s and early 70s, the British singer had the chance to see many incredible American bands and their legendary frontmen performing. He was lucky enough to have watched The Doors play and has already shared his opinion on the band and their late vocalist Jim Morrison.
What is Robert Plant’s opinion on Jim Morrison and The Doors
Robert Plant is a fan of The Doors music and was already even spotted by fans wearing a “Morrison Hotel” shirt, however, he didn’t like some things about their late vocalist and lyricist Jim Morrison. “Yeah (I knew Jim Morrison). He was propagating his own myth. Pretending he knew nothing about the music, and that he was in fact the Lizard King. We played with him a few times. I saw him fall off the stage. He went to seed very easily.”
“A shame, really. I still think of amazing moments that he had. But that was a much more kind of tangential time musically – said the old man with the silvering beard (strokes chin and grins). There was great music. And there was radio that supported great music. But here’s the winnowing of an old man… so I must away,” Robert Plant told Hot Press magazine in 2010.
It was in 1969, two years year before Jim Morrison’s death at the age of 27, that Robert Plant had the chance to watch them perform. However, his experience was not very good. Mainly because of the way Morrison treated the audience and his behavior on stage.
Robert Plant said it was sickening to watch Jim Morrison on stage in 1970
When asked at the time by NME in 1970 whether he thought The Doors’ vocalist took himself too seriously, Plant talked about that show. “Oh yeah (He takes). We only played with the Doors once in Seattle and it seemed like he was screwed up. He was giving the impression he was into really deep things like Skip Spence of Moby Grape. You can get into a trip of your own that you don’t really realise what’s going on in the outside world.”
“Morrison went on stage and said ‘F—you all’ which didn’t really do anything except make a few girls scream. Then he hung on the side of the stage and nearly toppled into the audience. (He) did all those things that I suppose were originally sexual things but as he got fatter and dirtier and more screwed up, they became bizarre. So it was really sickening to watch. My wife and I were there watching and we couldn’t believe it. I respected the Doors’ albums, even though they’re not brilliant musicians, and, as I said, that doesn’t matter. What Morrison was doing on record was good.”
He continued:
“The track ‘Cancel My Subscription To The Resurrection’ was great. But now he doesn’t get into any of the things from the past, and the sexual thing has gone. He was just miles above everyone’s head. It seemed that he realized the Doors were on the way down. He went on stage with that opinion and immediately started saying all those strange things which nobody could get into. There were one or two people there crying: ‘You’re God, you’re King,’ and I was thinking, ‘Why?'”
“Then the Youngbloods went on stage and wiped the audience out because they were so warm. They’d laugh and the audience would laugh. That’s how music should be. It isn’t a real serious thing. We’re not over here to have a bad time. We’re over here to have a good time and people pay money to have a good time as well,” Robert Plant told NME.
His bandmate Jimmy Page didn’t like to see The Doors that night either, as he also told NME back then. The guitarist said he was surprised to see “how static (Morrison) was live on stage. (…) I admire his writing ability and when he gets it together in a studio, he really does. But on stage, he’s not really for me,” Jimmy Page said.
The Doors’ setlist from the night Robert Plant and Jimmy Page saw them
Mentioned by Robert Plant, “Cancel My Subscription To The Resurrection” is actually a part of the 11 minute song “When the Music’s Over” from The Doors’ 1967 album “Strange Days”. Robert Plant had the chance to see The Doors at the Seattle Pop Festival in 1969, of which Zeppelin was also part of. The American band performed 13 songs, including the one mentioned by him. The setlist was formed by “When the Music’s Over”, “Light My Fire”, “Five to One”, “The End”, “Maggie M’Gill” and “Roadhouse Blues”.
On the same day Zeppelin and The Doors performed at the festival, other famous artists and bands such as The Guess Who, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Vanilla Fudge, Albert Collins, and The Flying Burrito Brothers also played.