Whether or not it’s the greatest rock and roll photograph ever taken, Bob Gruen’s famous 1973 portrait of Led Zeppelin in front of their plane is pretty great. It’s richly composed, with the lilting horizontals of the fuselage and wings in the background, the Cyclops-eye of the engine in the foreground, the four band members in the middle, and the mirrored clippings of the band’s logo at the top and their legs below. The scene gets so many 70’s rock cliches right: the private plane, the shaggy hair, the open shirts, the super-tight flares. While the goings-on inside the plane, an old United Airlines Boeing 720 fitted out with sectional furniture and rechristened the Starship, were not innocent, this photograph is. It’s lovely.
A large part of the loveliness is Robert Plant. Cover him up and what we have are three sour-faced lads huddled under a plane. Led Zeppelin did a massive amount of posturing, both musically and theatrically, but Plant’s gesture here (hair tossed, hips cocked, arms outstretched) feels genuine. With his left hand he tames the plane like a circus elephant, and with his right hand, raised behind him, he reaches for the sky. The thick gold chain over his bare chest is macho, but softened by his repose. There’s nothing apologetic and nothing ironic about his position. He’s a rock star, and happy to be one.
