Robert Plant is one of the great "mediatricians" of the Sixties, and is likely to remain so into the Eighties and Nineties and beyond the year 2,000….

In my estimation Robert's forte is twofold: one, I think, is his ability to be able to understand the forces at work in what we could loosely call the youth culture, and two, not only to understand them but to continue to assimilate them into the nucleus of his art, so that at no time in the last few years has his finger been anywhere other than on the pulse, the pulse of human youth on this planet.

To be that vital is no mean feat….

In one sense, it is hard to talk about Robert's contribution to British art without a reference to Jimmy Page, his great co-pilot, because the vast majority of the musical forms and structures in which their work is contained can be traced, in my view, to solidly British foundations.

Although a great many of us are blues-influenced in this generation, our own original work manifests many of the great traditions of our own indigenous art. This is especially true of Robert, whose fantasies of the British past and future lend themselves admirably to Jimmy's flowing intricacy of design.

If you hold the great plate from Lindisfarne or Iona or the Book of Kells in your hand and you listen to "Battle Of Evermore," "Four Sticks" or even the global-village-influenced "Kashmir," the family resemblance is striking.

Robert's ability as a rock lyricist is second to none because of his awareness of the medium/people/world. In my view, he is at his best when he is not being portentous. "Stairway To Heaven" suffers in this way, perhaps, although it has brought many a tear to my eye, whereas lyrics like on "The Song Remains The Same," "The Rain Song," and "In The Light" are pure joy.

If Robert has a failing, it is his almost deification of all things Celtic, to the detriment of all things English, where, at one time, there was much Celtic basking to be had in mucho-reflected English glory….

In a land where towers of strength are not a common phenomenon and great all-rounders are sadly a dying breed, if only temporaneously, I am proud to be contemporary with Robert, whose light and inspiration will shine, I am sure, for many long years. He will continue to produce, meanwhile, and I only hope that I'm around in another ten years because I've got a feeling that he's just coming into his own. The song, although remaining the same, is once-upon-an-age improved upon, and those of us around to see it do so are illuminated beyond time, by it.