Courtesy of rollingstone.com
Former Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant is trying to recruit former White Stripes singer Jack White to make a single with him. Specifically, he wants to record a classic old rock song from fifty-six years ago this weekend in Nashville. He specified the song, time and place in a Facebook chat on Tuesday. There’s just one small hitch: the Third Man Records owner will be on tour. He’s due to play in Columbia, Maryland on Monday, September 15th, and then in Cleveland, Ohio on Tuesday, September 16th. Plant’s Facebook post on the matter read:
“I love Jack White’s buccaneer spirit, and the way he dodges through the musical horizons.I’d be happy to make a single with him. I’d like to do a track called ‘Love Me’ which was originally recorded by The Phantom. In fact, I’m going to Nashville on Sunday and can do it Monday morning! I’ve got lunch with Alison Krauss at 2pm and cocktails with Patty Griffin at 8pm.”
The song, “Love Me” was recorded in 1958 by The Phantom, just two years after Elvis Presley recorded “Hound Dog” but unlike Elvis’s mainstream hit, “Love Me” was an underground favorite of rock ‘n’ rollers. Plant has long been a fan of the song, even considering recording a cover version for his solo album Now and Zen in 1988. He told Goldmine back in 1993 exactly what he likes about the song. “What I liked about [Love Me] was that it was so ramshackle and everything was so over-affected that you had to search to find out what the f*ck was going on inside the song. In the middle of it all there’s a radical singer huffing and puffing and swaggering and swirling and twirling his hips and grinding himself into infinity, who now drives a truck somewhere in Illinois, probably,” he said. He was referring to Jerry Lott, otherwise known as The Phantom, who actually pass away in 1983. If the two rockers manage to do a collaborative recording, however, The Phantom shall live again.
RP, the person who suggested the collaboration between the two rock guitarists, later asked Plant to marry her. Always in good form, Plant replied, “Send full details. You’ll be right after Jack White.” In addition to that happy event to look forward to, Plant and White will both be playing gigs in Leeds come November 17th. Any studios in the Yorkshire area want to offer up their services?
