If you’ve ever listened to Led Zeppelin, and let’s face it a lot of us have, you might think that a lot of their songs are all about sex and you’d be right. You might even think that All of My Love was a bit soft for them and didn’t quite mesh with everything else they’d done. Then you’d be completely right but for the wrong reasons. There is a very sad and touching reason why this song was created and why it’s a lot more meaningful than a lot of their tracks, at least to Robert Plant. It was written as a tribute to Plant’s son Karac. When he was just five years of age Karac passed away from a stomach infection, and Plant, obviously stricken as any parent would be, managed to pull this song together and record his vocals in one take. I don’t think any of us with kids would want to know how this feels, or how hard it would be to say goodbye one last time to the light that kids give to our lives.
Rock stars are often seen as icons, legends, and in some cases gods that are living legends in the eyes of their fans. They’re just as mortal as anyone and people know this, but a lot of times people idolize rock legends in a way that doesn’t allow for the fact that a lot of them are family people that have a spouse, kids, and a life away from the stage. It’s also not always understood that when tragedy strikes off stage that these folks are just as devastated as anyone by the loss. Those of you reading that have kids can attest to the thought of what might happen to your child at any point and time in a world that is largely unkind to those that can’t defend themselves, and can possibly think of what it might be like to be unable to defend your child from everything.
Losing a child is something that a lot of us wouldn’t ever want to contemplate, especially if your child is still young and has a great deal of life left ahead of them. Karac was only five, he should have had a long and prosperous life coming, but due to some complication that couldn’t be foreseen he was taken far too early. His father was no doubt broken for a while after his passing, but managed to bring himself back to the stage and perform a song to honor the life of his son in a way that won’t soon be forgotten. A lot of people likely didn’t know this about the song All of My Love, but now that you do you can understand just why it seems so out of the norm for Led Zeppelin. It was a touching way for Plant to speak to his son and ease himself through the unending pain that losing a child can bring.
Sometimes the best way to ease the pain of anything is to face it head on.
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