9 posts tagged “led zeppelin”
My first post-PiL obsession has struck, and it's almost as unexpected as 'Metal Box' was. I gave the new Robert Plant & Alison Krauss collaboration a go late last year, mainly (well... completely) because it was Robert Plant. I wasn't too sure whether I'd like it because of Alison Krauss' country influence, but obviously I had to give it a go. It's fucking Robert Plant, so it should be the law.
Turns out it's completely fantastic. It's just a bunch of blues/american roots kind of songs I guess, but I don't actually know any of the originals (except for the Page & Plant song they cover, and 'Fortune Teller', which the Stones covered in the 60s). But they may as well be songs written specifically for this album, because they sound like they were meant to be done this way.
Their voices go together perfectly, and I find myself just following the melodies of each vocal and loving the harmonies. The overall sound of the album may be the most engaging thing, though. It's subtle, warm, mature and powerful. Krauss' fiddle fits perfectly in this context, too, and I never cringe at the 'countriness' of it all -- it's more Neil Young than Garth Brooks when it feels 'country', thankfully. Overall there's a definite blues/roots vibe and a bunch of mesmerising, addictive songs. I must've listened to the thing over 20 times in the past few weeks and it shows no sign of slowing.
I find it very hard to choose one stand-out track that instantly encapsulates everything the album is about, because it's so varied, from the upbeat rock of 'Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)', to the funeral dirge of 'Your Long Journey', to the almost gospel or religious nature of 'Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us'. So I'll go with the song that stood out initially to me, perhaps because of its catchy melodies. If you like this, then you need the whole album because it'll take you to a different place and time with every track, and make it very clear to you just why Robert Plant has no creative need to jump back on the Zeppelin bandwagon.
Videos are starting to emerge on YouTube from the Led Zep reunion show from the other night. I've only had a chance to watch one of them (Kashmir), but it is amazing (and reasonably good quality too). Most surprising is the fact that Plant's voice sounds as good as it used to -- on recent albums it seemed to me that he didn't have the range he used to, but watching this has blown me away. How young and buffed does JPJ look, and how much like a wizard does Page look? I see he's abandoned the hair dye finally...
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Robert Plant insists that Led Zeppelin's reunion show next month in London is not a dry run for an upcoming world tour. Plants told Uncut, "There'll be one show and that'll be it. We need one last great show because we've done some (reunion) shows and they've been crap." 
Kudos to Plant's integrity, he ain't one to cash in for the sake of a few bucks (as his first three bizarre/shit solo albums prove) and I guess the lyrics to Tin Pan Valley on 'Mighty Rearranger' did make his position pretty clear.
Still, woulda been awesome if they did it properly and for the right reasons, ie because it would surely be a buzz to play some of the greatest music of all time again. The Plant/Page collaboration from 1998 'Walking Into Clarksdale' proved they could still write some powerful songs together if they really wanted to. Plant walked out of that tour half way through though, because he couldn't stand the touring 'machine' any longer.
Zeppelin have always had that mystique -- they didn't do interviews, they don't let their songs get used in movies to this day (it's only happened twice and with their blessing), and they resisted the 'best of' compilation for 10 years after they split up.
This is some of why I love them I guess, so perhaps it's all best left alone. I'll be ok, just give me a moment <sniff>.
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Audio: Show us five CDs or albums that changed your life.
Submitted by redhotmomma.
'Slippery When Wet' started it all for me - it opened my eyes to music. I came from a family that never listened to music, and this blew me away. It started an obsession with Bon Jovi that lasted years. I remember thinking "how could anyone not love this?". The answer became clear in time, but not for a while...
Before 'Remasters', I never liked 'old music'. I was too into slick over-produced sounds, and hated the rough sounds of 70s production. This all changed thanks to Led Zeppelin, and began an obsession that ended up overtaking my desire to find new music. I only searched for old music for a long time.
'Kid A' allowed me to get into styles of music that weren't rock. I guess it began with 'OK Computer', but that was still a rock album really. This one wasn't, and I loved it's weirdness, its soundscapes and especially its artwork.
Believe it or not, I never ever liked any music with a female vocalist. At all. I'm serious. And I can't believe it. However, 'She Will Have Her Way' changed all that and has spawned obsessions with Martha Wainwright, Clare Bowditch and Sarah Blasko among others.
- Wedding
- Children being born
- This news
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mp3eme: Solo recording(s) by artists who are/were in famous bands.
If there was a man who you’d think could never hope to top his work in his 'famous band' then it's Robert Plant. Led Zeppelin were the biggest band in the world in the early to mid 70s and were known for the excess of their rock 'n roll lifestyle as much as they were for their music. Their music, as I’ve repeatedly stated, is the best ever (in my humble opinion).
When drummer John Bonham died in 1980 and Zeppelin called it a day, Robert Plant seemed to reject all that was Led Zep and took his solo career somewhere else altogether. Three albums of (largely) shit graced us in the early-mid 80s - bizarre synthesised songs without much to redeem them by way of substance (fittingly Phil Collins played drums), and not really utilising his amazing voice like he did in Zeppelin.
1988 and 1990 saw a couple of rays of light in the form of the acceptable (great in places) 'Now & Zen' and 'Manic Nirvana'. Most importantly, Plant acknowledged his former work on these albums - they contained short passages of Zeppelin songs.
1993s 'Fate Of Nations' was a big step forward. Tracks reminiscent of acoustic Led Zeppelin were the highlight, and the rock/riff songs weren't bad Zeppelin parodies as they were on 'Manic Nirvana'. This album even had an environmental message in the form of the title track and the cover/artwork - pretty cool for 1993.
Plant then rejoined forces with Jimmy Page from Zeppelin for an MTV Unplugged session of acoustic/orchestral Led Zep numbers, which resulted in the 'No Quarter' album/video. A couple of years later the pair released an album of original music - the excellent 'Walking Into Clarksdale' (1998). The whole massive world tour thing became too much for Plant, though, and he pulled the plug halfway through the tour.
Plant went into the wilderness for a few years and returned in 2002 with a new band (Strange Sensation) and a new album of blues/folk/rock covers called 'Dreamland'. They made the songs their own, with one of the highlights being a manic and almost unrecognisable 'Hey Joe'.
It was only a stepping stone, however, to the album we'd waited 25 years to hear from Plant. In 2005 he released his best solo album (still with Strange Sensation), and his first work that could be uttered in the same breath as his Led Zeppelin work. 'Mighty Rearranger' was better even than 'Walking Into Clarksdale', proving he didn't need Page to produce quality work.
Most importantly the album was relevant. It wasn't an imitation of current trends or his former work - it was an extension of everything he'd done before, which I guess is all an artist can hope to achieve. It received glowing reviews and was nominated for a Grammy.
It was lyrically relevant too. 'Freedom Fries' talks of US hegemony with a clever double-meaning ("freedom fries and burns and scars / a liberator goes too far") and 'Tin Pan Valley' highlights the problems faced by artists known for previous popular work:
I live on former glories
so long ago and gone
I'm turning down the talk shows
the humour and the couch
I'm moving up to higher ground
I've found a new way out
It also takes a stab at his peers who may have been less successful in ‘finding a new way out’:
My peers may flirt with cabaret
some fake the rebel yell
Me, I'm moving up to higher ground
I must escape their hell
Another standout, the beautiful ‘All The King’s Horses’, speaks eloquently of new love, but could be seen as a metaphor for Plant’s new found artistic success:
Swift and true straight to my heart,
Love has come calling and I'm back there again
I pour myself a brand new start
Glad to be falling for the beauty within
It’s a good news story that took 25 years to become so. But by avoiding cashing in on his former band, and by actively pursuing a different course, Plant may be one of the few performers from his era who can say they’ve achieved the artistic success of their famous work.
For my bonus cool points, I'm posting a more obscure track but one that really shows off Robert Plant's amazing voice. Not released until 1982 on the rarities collection 'Coda', this one was recorded in 1970 at the Royal Albert Hall. It's live apart from some later guitar overdubbing.mp3eme: bonus COOL POINTS if you post a track by the original band, too
mp3eme: B-sides - Time to share a tune that you think is one of the greatest by a band or artist but never got any real air play or recognition
If we're gonna talk b-sides, then we should talk about the band famous for not having them due to their refusal to release singles -- Led Zeppelin.
Thanks, in part, to their hostile relationship with the press from their very earliest days (especially in the UK), Led Zeppelin didn't give interviews and didn't release any singles in their 12 year career. The latter was hard to police due to the many arms of their record company around the world, and a few unauthorised singles were released without their consent in the US and elsewhere, but never in Britain.
One of the unauthorised singles released in the US contains their only ever non-album b-side. 'Immigrant Song' from 1970's 'Led Zeppelin III' was released as a single with an out-take from the album sessions on the flipside -- the joyous 'Hey, Hey, What Can I Do'.
The song is up-to-par with the album tracks from 'Led Zeppelin III' and wouldn't have been out of place sitting alongside them. Instead, the song was never released until 1990 - 20 years after the single went out of print - making it a massive collectors item and elevating it to near mythical status amongst fans.
I guess that's what Zeppelin fans love about the band -- the mystique they gathered about themselves. The only thing the public ever heard from them was when a new album hit the shelves. Maybe a few cryptic ads were printed in newspapers prior to release day to increase the whole mystique thing, but apart from that there was no hype, no marketing push, no bullshit. Just the music, which for me, remains the very best ever recorded.
Which band or artist which is no longer performing or alive would you have loved to have seen?
Submitted by Rev Stan.
Too easy, no questions in my mind. Led Zeppelin all the way.
I know that their shows would've been the best thing on the planet. If watching their career-spanning live DVD (titled 'DVD' - clever titles not needed for Zeppelin) gives even a suggestion of what they were like on a good night, then being there in the flesh would have blown my tiny mind. And in theory, I'd say that I would want to be at a show in around '75 when they were at the peak of their powers with 'Physical Graffiti', but the DVD shows that even on their last tour in 1980 they were absolutely mind-blowing. The versions of later material like 'In The Evening' and 'Achilles Last Stand' are out of this world.
I did see Page & Plant live in 1996 on their 'No Quarter' album tour, and it is still the best show I've ever seen (although The Who got close a few years ago).
Makes me want a time machine like Uncle Rico in Napolean Dynamite.
