Robert Plant has been refreshingly candid about the Led Zeppelin catalog, even calling some of the band’s most celebrated tracks “embarrassing.” The one that stands out is **“The Battle of Evermore”** — the fantasy-tinged folk epic from *Led Zeppelin IV*.
Plant has since admitted that the lyrics, soaked in C.S. Lewis and Tolkien imagery, feel cringe-worthy in hindsight. As he explained to Alison Krauss during the *Raising Sand* era:
> “I said to Alison, ‘I’m embarrassed by this.’ She said, ‘But you can’t be embarrassed, because it’s a young person’s moments…’ ” ([faroutmagazine.co.uk][1])
He was open about feeling self-conscious, yet also recognized that “The Battle of Evermore” captured the headspace of a 22-year-old enamored with mythic landscapes:
> “I was living in a dream then, talking about C.S. Lewis and Tolkien… I said ‘I’m embarrassed by this.’” ([faroutmagazine.co.uk][2])
Though still performed live (including onstage reunions with Krauss), Plant’s primary issue lies with the lyrics—not the performance or the music. He emphasized that, while talented, his youthful literary romanticism invited ridicule by the 1980s. He’s proud of the composition, but unimpressed with his naive poetic choices .
Another Zeppelin track Plant has identified as awkward in retrospect is “Stairway to Heaven.” He once described it as “pompous” and confessed he can no longer relate to its abstract, early-20s lyrical verse ([faroutmagazine.co.uk][1]). That said, “Stairway” is more a victim of bloated production and overexposure—not pure embarrassment.
Yet “The Battle of Evermore” remains the track Plant most openly disassociates from. It symbolizes a creative phase he’s both nostalgic for and ready to critique—an earnest, myth-driven moment that later seemed overripe. In his own words, he’s wincing—but he’s also honest. And that, ultimately, makes his admission even more human.
