Heartbreaking: Led Zeppelin Super Guitarist has involved in a ghastly car accident in the early hours of today along…

It’s not uncommon for musicians to outgrow their songs. Often, great tracks reflect a very specific time in the composer’s life, and it is their attempt to capture that fleeting moment that gives the track such an indefinable quality. But things change, and people grow, as former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant knows all too well.

When Plant formed Led Zeppelin, he was a young, testosterone-filled, red-blooded male who wanted to grab the world in his hands. He dreamt of rock ‘n’ roll superstardom and all the excesses that come with the job, which he was desperate to experience.

However, by the time Led Zeppelin came to an end, Plant was already an incredibly different individual from the person who co-founded the group. While he was still a relatively young man, Plant had matured and mellowed significantly as their story turned to the final page.

As a result, it can often be a little cringe-inducing for the songwriter to look back on the artistic decisions they chose to make at that particular time. Perhaps that’s why so many artists fall out of love with their biggest hits. This was certainly the case for Plant, who, in a notable interview, opened up about a classic Led Zeppelin song that he can no longer relate to.

Describing the track, Plant said: “Lyrically, now, I can’t relate to it, because it was so long ago…I would have no intention ever to write along those abstract lines anymore. I look at it and I tip my hat to it, and I think there are parts of it that are incredible.”

While the frontman can still appreciate the song from a musical perspective, and the work of his bandmates on the piece still fills Plant with awe, the emotion is overridden with a sense of cringe at his contribution.

On the brilliance of his collaborators in Led Zeppelin, Plant added, “The way that Jimmy [Page] took the music through, and the way that the drums reached almost climaxed and then continued… It’s a very beautiful piece. But lyrically, now, and even vocally, I go, ‘I’m not sure about that’.”

Abstract lyrics? Climactic drums? If you think the song Plant described sounds suspiciously like Led Zeppelin’s sprawling 1971 epic ‘Stairway To Heaven’, then you’d be right. The band started recording the classic track in 1970 at Basing Street Studios in London, but the abstract lyrics Plant describes weren’t completed until a later studio session for Led Zeppelin IV held at Headley Grange, Hampshire, in 1971.

The historic track was initially written when Page and Plant were spending time at Bron-Yr-Aur, a remote cottage in Wales – is an ode to all things ancient and elemental. Even the writing process itself seemed to reflect the slow movement of the rural Welsh landscape. As the band’s lead guitarist once recalled, the song was penned, “Over a long period, the first part coming at Bron-Yr-Aur one night.”

Page seized on this moment of inspiration and captured the initial idea for ‘Stairway to Heaven’ on one of the cassette recorders he always kept close by. Shortly after, Page came to the vocalist and asked him to start work on some lyrics. His first attempt was similarly spontaneous, with Plant writing in a stream-of-consciousness style. Page claimed that “a huge percentage of the lyrics were written there and then”.

Although Plant finds his original lyrics a little difficult to relate to these days, the song still contains some phenomenal performances by the likes of Page, Plant, Bonham and Jones. Even Plant – as self-deprecating as he is – had to accept, “Of course, it was a good song.”

The singer continued: “The construction of the song, the actual musical construction is very, very good. It’s one of those moments that really can stand without a vocal – and, in fact, it will stand again without a vocal, I’m sure, because it’s a fine, fine piece of music.”

When an artist places their own work under the microscope, they are always more likely to be critical than if they were analysing a track created by a peer. Furthermore, in the case of ‘Stairway to Heaven‘, it’s followed him everywhere for the last 50 years, and understandably, Plant no longer relates to the version of himself who constructed the lyrics.