Mojo - The Music Magazine

What links Big Black, Moby Grape and Umm Kulthum? These wildly differing acts are all avidly admired by this month's MOJO cover star, eclectic Led Zep banshee and solo star Robert Plant. And on his voyage of musical discovery through blues, country, R&B and North African rai - even unto alt-Americana providers Low - he has covered plenty of his favourite artists' music, adding a patina of Plantness to everything he touches. Below, however, MOJO strips it back, revealing the original versions that electrified "Percy" in the first place. From the scabrous beat of The Leaves, through wistful folk and psych and even Uncle Tupelo, we present the music that succours the secret life of Plant...

The Youngbloods - Darkness Darkness

Crystalline folk-rock from Jesse Colin Young's East Coasters, leading off their 1969 album Elephant Mountain, and featuring a smashing fuzzed-out lead break by guitarist Lowell Levinger. Plant covered this on 2002's Dreamland.

The Leaves - Hey Joe

From 1966: thrilling garage-rocking in a 13th Floor Elevators vein. John Beck's over-excited vocal and Bob Arlin's fuzz guitar are twin treats. Retrodden, again, on Dreamland.

Tim Hardin - If I Were A Carpenter

Gorgeous smoky ambivalence from doomed folkie's 1967 album, Tim Hardin 2. Plant did this on his 1993 album, Fate Of Nations.

Bob Dylan - One More Cup Of Coffee (Valley Below)

Again covered on Dreamland, here's Desire's border epic through the wonky lens of Renaldo And Clara.

Phil Phillips - Sea Of Love

Lake Charles bellboy Phillips co-wrote this 1959 Billboard #2 hit with George Khoury. Covers have followed by Marty Wilde, John Fahey, Tom Waits, Del Shannon, Kevin Coyne, Cat Power, Horace Andy, Robert Plant (on The Honeydrippers: Volume One) and - from the sublime to the ridiculous - Spandau Ballet's Tony "Honker" Hadley.

Moby Grape - Skip's Song

Major Grape fan Plant reduxes bonkers trapsman Alexander "Skip" Spence's pre-flipout doozy, again on Dreamland.

Dillard & Clark - Polly (Come Home)

Ex Byrdsman Gene Clark's exquisite country-folk yearner, with harmony vocal by Doug Dillard's girlfriend Donna Washburn, from Dillard & Clark's 1969 album, Through The Morning, Through The Night. Beautifully done by Plant and Alison Krauss on Raising Sand (2007).

WATCH VIDEO

Tom Waits - Trampled Rose

Magical performance by Waits of this crepuscular crawler from his 2004 album, Real Gone. Enjoy again Marc Ribot's cigar box banjo. To their credit, Plant and Krauss kept some of the ghostliness.

Kenny Dino - Your Ma Said You Cried In Your Sleep Last Night

Skinny Queens-bred Elvisalike Dino's sole hit, from 1961. Inspired a slicker, faster and meatier turn from the inimitable Turtles in '65; Plant's version is from 1990's Manic Nirvana. Altogether now: "ba-ba-ba-baaaa-ba, baaa, ba, baaa, ba!"

Ben E King - Young Boy Blues

The astonishingly expressive voice of soul great King was possibly never bettered than on this 1961 Atco single, sang habitually by Plant's mum as a lullaby, unless he's fibbing here. Reprised on The Honeydrippers: Volume One.

Low - Monkey

Plant's soon-come Band Of Joy album features two covers of songs by indie Mormons Low. He must have been drawn by the queerly Plant/Krauss-like meld of Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker's shared vox on this typically gloomy opener from 05's Sub Pop album, The Great Destroyer.

Uncle Tupelo - Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down

Traditional folk-gospel tune with ancient history, with recorded versions by Blind Joe Taggart and Frank Proffitt plus Sister Fleeta Mitchell & Rev. Willie Mae Eberhard, tearing the Dev a new bumhole on Dust To Digital's Art Of Field Recording sampler. There's an excellent piece on the way the song found its way onto Band Of Joy on Lemon Squeezings, the brilliantly anal Led Zep news site.

Compiled and annotated by Danny Eccleston

Photo courtesy of Kevin Westenberg