The Eroica Connection
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| Title: | The Eroica Connection |
| Creator: | Kay Reynolds |
| Date(s): | 1993 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | From Eroica With Love, Led Zeppelin |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Eroica Connection is a 1993 essay by Kay Reynolds.
It was printed in Companions in Chaos #1.
Jean Lorrah wrote a response essay called More Eroica Connections.
Some Topics Discussed
- the origins and influences of Led Zeppelin
- a mention the band's fan newsletter, "Tight But Loose"
- similar clothes and physical appearances between From Eroica with Love and Led Zeppelin
- Plant ("a human peacock" and "the libido that walks like a man") "always seemed to be wearing something you'd think your sister should be wearing"
From the Essay
There's a story circulating that Yasuko Aoike got her inspiration for her character, The Earl, Dorian Red Gloria (a.k.a. Eroica) from Robert Plant of the rock group Led Zeppelin. I must admit that I've been the source of that rumor and now I guess it's time for me to try to back it up. The Eroica Connection goes deeper than one would think. You see, it's more than just Plant being the inspiration for Dorian/Eroica. Nope, I believe the members and antics of Led Zeppelin itself played a large part in inspiring characters and situations for Eroica Yori Ai OKomete (From
Eroica With Love).
Lately, it seems I've been talking with a lot of folks (fans and pros) about what constitutes "fanfic" and where and how we get our ideas. Fanfic translates to fan-fiction, stories written by fans based on characters from books, comics, film, etc. for the amusement of themselves and their friends. What you have here is a"fanzine" (fan-magazine), a collection of work written by fans for fans inspired by another author's creation. For authors and artists who got their start writing fanfic, they seem to feel their best stuff, the material they enjoy writing most, comes together like writing fanfic.
Could be that's because writing for a living is still work! Believe me, there's nothing worse than staring at a blank piece of paper waiting for the muse to show especially when the rent/mortgage and the cat food depends on your "inspiration" showing up before the deadline. The creation of fanfic (the story-that-comes-together) is terrific. Full of fun because it literally "works" for you making the writing/illustrating more pleasure than chore. (Case in point for moi: Writing American Vampire: The Book of Thoms, Loose Change (Prisoners of the Night #5), Road Show (The Tome #6) and Portxine's Friends: Hell Week was fun. Those books and stories have that good ol' fanfic flow. Writing the text for Robotech Art 1 and Robotech Art 2 was work — not that I didn't enjoy what I was doing but I did have to work at it, if you get what I mean. 'Time to make the donuts ...." you know?)
Well, Aoike has no qualms abut including tributes to lots of folks in her books. She's got to be the Queen of the In-Joke. It was after checking out the names of the characters in Eroica as well as some of the other bits of business that I picked up on the extent of the inspiration Led Zeppelin had on the series. It seemed that in her way, Aoike was indulging herself in a bit of fanfic. But when I talked to other manga addicts, I came to understand that I was the only one who got it. Not that many were familiar enough with the old Led Zeppelin group to pick up on the homage. Boy, this dates one, doesn't it? Anyway, I thought it might be fun to share some of what I've been detecting.
In his Zeppelin days, Robert Plant was called a "sexual beacon' and he enjoyed his work saying, "I love the way it leaves me feeling all sweaty and exhausted kind of like good sex. Some nights I just look out there and I want to make love to the whole front row." Aoike depicts Dorian as the ACE of hearts. Dorian's charisma and sexual magnetism works on just about every one — except the Major.
The story of Led Zeppelin, as a group and as individuals, makes an interesting tale in itself. There are those who think that DePalma's rock musical, Phantom of the Paradise, had its inspiration in the rumors that surrounded Zeppelin's success. There was a short-lived TV pilot about a young rock band whose members sold their souls to the devil for success and stardom, it was a situation comedy in genuinely poor taste. Then, of course, there's always George R.R. Martin's Armageddon Rag, another (quite marvelous) story that helped itself from the legends surrounding Zeppelin.
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