The Jimmy Page guitar part Robert Plant said is one of his favorites

Alongside Jimmy Page, Robert Plant co-wrote many of the greatest songs Led Zeppelin ever recorded. Their songwriting partnership was crucial to the band’s success, complemented by the incredible musical ideas of the other members, the legendary John Paul Jones (bass and keyboards) and John Bonham (drums). They constantly surprised one another with the outstanding instrumental parts they came up with, and Page’s guitar playing was, of course, a defining element of Led Zeppelin’s sound. Although it’s difficult to choose a favorite among all the incredible parts he recorded, Plant once revealed one of his favorites.

The Jimmy Page guitar part Robert Plant said is one of his favorites

“The slide work on ‘In My Time of Dying,’ which goes on and on (laughs), but it’s great ramshackle blues slide. Straight off the top. I remember the shock I had with one of my favorite bands, Let’s Active, with Mitch Easter. There’s a track on Big Plans For Everybody (1986) with slide guitar, and it’s exactly the same as ‘In My Time of Dying’ (laughs). I couldn’t believe it! I went what! Not another one. I thought it was only Rick Rubin who did these things,” Robert Plant said in an interview with Tony Bacon in 1988.

Although the song was originally credited to the band, it was actually inspired by the Gospel song “Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed” by Blind Willie Johnson. The first well-known version of the song was recorded by Bob Dylan for his 1962 debut album under the title “In My Time of Dyin'”. Led Zeppelin‘s version was released in 1975 on their sixth album, “Physical Graffiti”. It remains the longest studio recording of their career, with a bit more than 11 minutes.

Besides the song mentioned by Plant, that album also featured tracks like “Kashmir”, “The Rover”, “Houses of the Holy” and “Ten Years Gone”. After that, Led Zeppelin released the albums “Presence” (1976) and “In Through the Out Door” (1979) while John Bonham was still alive, followed by the posthumous “Coda” in 1982.

Plant said “Physical Graffiti” is his favorite Led Zeppelin album

Interestingly, Plant already said that in his opinion, that was the last good Led Zeppelin album. The musician said that around that time, when promoting his fourth solo album “Now & Zen” (1988). “All I wanna do is make good records. I just think I’ve made the best one since ‘Physical Graffitti’ (1975) and that was the last good record I made, really. So everything in between has been ok. That’s a sweeping statement but it’s what I believe.”

He is then questioned if “Presence” (1976) was also good. It had its moments. It was a wheelchair album (Plant was recovering from an accident at the time). I was in a wheelchair all the time, tough that was, you could hear it in the voice. ‘Presence’ was a real difficult record,” Robert Plant told NCTV in 1988 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).

The record also has “Kashmir”, the song Plant said many times is the one he is most proud of his work with the band. “I wish we were remembered for Kashmir more than Stairway To Heaven,” he told Mick Wall. In Plant’s opinion the song is still strong and an incredible achievement. “It grew and grew until everything made sense. All of it, the weave of the whole thing was something.”

He continued:

“I can hear it now and keep walking, but sometimes I hear it and I just sit down and listen. ‘Kashmir’, it is what it is. It’s just such an achievement – and it is an achievement even now, all these years later. I think it was the personalities of us that made us say, ‘This is it,’ because it’s just enough, and for people, maybe later, it was too much.”

“But on the record, there were moments where it was like, ‘Let’s get on with this. Let’s make something that’s going to hit you between the ears.’ I’ve got the book at home [with the original lyrics]. It’s got the sticker, magenta on white, of the Zeppelin IV logos. It’s stuck across a notepad with all sorts of meanderings. ‘Driving through Kashmir.’”

“Oh, fancy that. For me, if I’m inspired, I can bring something forward. It’s not ‘Blood On The Tracks’ (By Bob Dylan), it doesn’t have the same intense, mature overview. This was still before the big crash. Time, joy, camaraderie were all perfectly, beautifully intact,” he told UNCUT magazine in 2025.