Led Zep: Why Is Not Enough

Last night's Led Zep triumph, I'm sure, means something - it might even demonstrate that, when it comes to Led Zep, you can indeed go through the same river twice. I never cared for them - bombastic cock rock not being my thing - but I could appreciate that they were phenomenally good at what they did. And this reunion gig was, truly, a phenomenal success - beyond anything - maybe if the Stones had given up in 1980 then come back, they'd have topped it, but I can't imagine anything else that would (Elvis back from the dead?). Led Zep deserve credit for taking the event seriously and really giving it some wellie - two hours and more at full stretch, encores and all. Compare and contrast the much vaunted Velvet Underground reunion - a contemptuous, metronomic trudge through the back catalogue, then off to count the money. Also on the credit side, Robert Plant recently teamed up with Alison Krauss to make the wonderful CD, Raising Sand. Their voices come together to create something of rare beauty - much more than the sum of its parts - it seems to me it's one of the great pairings, in the tradition of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, and Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. I suspect, too, that long after the whole Led Zep hullabaloo dies down, people will be listening to Raising Sand in wonder...