Based on the band's renewed camaraderie and recent public comments by Robert Plant, that may be about to change.
Could it be that Plant -- who always eschewed repeating the past in favor of moving forward with his own solo career -- is starting to feel a bit sentimental for the days of Led Zeppelin now? At age 64, perhaps the time has finally come for one final victory lap with his old bandmates. Plant is certainly ready to talk more about it than he's been in years.
"If anybody wants to write some new songs, I'm game," Plant said after the Kennedy Center Honors. That's an intriguing change of tune for the singer, who for the past five years said he was simply too busy with other projects to work with Zeppelin again.
If Led Zeppelin returned to the recording studio and gave fans an album of new songs, would they tour?
"Who wants to be on a two-year tour?" Page exhales, rolling his eyes. "That would tire you out just thinking of it."
" The responsibility of doing that four nights a week for the rest of time is a different thing," Plant added. "The tail should never wag the dog. If we're capable of doing something in our own time, that will be what will happen. We know what we've got. Que sera."
"Expectations are horrific things," Plant said. "To actually do anything at all together is such a kind of incredible weight. Because sometimes we were f*cking awful, and sometimes were stunning."
A Zeppelin reunion with some fresh, new material undoubtedly looks more hopeful now than ever before. But unlike their 2007 reunion concert, don't expect an impassioned replay of the old Zeppelin warhorses. Rest assured if they do get back together in 2013, the song will definitely not remain the same.
LORI SPENCER is a member of ThisCantBeHappening!, the new independent Project Censored Award-winning online alternative newspaper. Her work, and that of colleagues JOHN GRANT, DAVE LINDORFF, LINN WASHINGTON, JR. and CHARLES M. YOUNG, can be found at www.thiscantbehappening.net This article is the second part of a two-part series. Go here to check out Pt. I of Lori Spencer's report from the nation"s capitol.)
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