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Page/Plant Music in the 1990s


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My hypothesis may sink with many of you. However, for over 15 years, I have wondered why I was so disappointed by the original music of Jimmy & Robert in the 1990s. I didn't want to stay stuck in the past and just love their Zep tunes, and individually, both released a lot of music in the 80s and since that I love. Yet, the original songs on No Quarter, and every song on Walking Into Clarksdale, with the exception of Most High, absolutely do nothing for me. I wonder why they struggled so to recreate that creative spark.. and it also makes me wonder what new music would sound like now if they tried again. It also made me wonder just how much they really missed John Paul Jones from the recipe.. and of course I won't even try to compare any drummer ever to John Bonham. I don't think they needed to make Led Zeppelin-like songs to be good, even though Most High is Zep-esque.. yet i just can't get into those songs no matter how many times I have tried.

Thoughts?

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I got the Walking Into Clarksdale CD shortly after it came out and I pretty much felt the same way as you. It must not have impressed me too much because I recall only listening to it once or twice. I bought it because I really liked Most High. Haven't really listened to the No Quarter album; I probably need to get it for my collection. I like a lot of Robert's solo stuff and rock out to the Coverdale/Page album quite often (hopefully, not too many people will rip on me for that one :sarcastic_hand: ).

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Honeydrip, the Coverdale/Page album seems to be held in pretty high esteem around here by a lot of people. I love it, "Waiting On You" in particular comes to mind as a great song. The production is amazing, too.

As far as Page/Plant...I thought No Quarter was brilliant, and although it was mostly Zep tunes, I loved the reworkings, especially Kashmir. I thought that live Kashmir performance was one of the high points of their career. This stuff is subjective, of course, and that opinion/feeling is wrapped up in some personal stuff.

I loved Yallah, but that opinion is hard to separate from the awesome unforgettable image of them playing in that Moroccan market.

Walking Into Clarksdale...well, first, I have to say that Most High is so awesome, the rest of it could be polka music...but Shining In The Light also retains some power for me. Burning Up would have been a whole new song if Steve Albini had cranked up the fucking guitar solo, which was smokin.' He really buried it for some reason. The title track is pretty cool too, but falls a little short, imo. That leaves a lot of slower songs, and I appreciated their emotion at the time, but I don't feel inclined to go back and listen to them.

It's really hard for me to knock anything from that era, to be honest, because it was such a happy time to be a Zep fan. 94-98. Wow...I went to a lot of those shows, and they were all so great. Sometimes you can't separate your life experiences from your listening experiences!

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Absolutely cannot understand the attitude to "Walking Into Clarksdale". It completely mystifies me. IMO, it is an absolutely WONDERFUL album that I never tire of playing, which pulls at my heart strings and lifts my spirits. Beats the cliched "Coverdale Page" into a cocked hat.

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It used to annoy me when people walked out to get drinks during WIC tracks at shows. My only gripe with the album is the production should have been done by Jimmy.

I call the guitar sound in When the world was young " liquid" I love that track.

I guess it's like every post Zep album by any of the members, people wanted another Zep album and look for any tracks that are what they feel close and I know some reject any that aren't. P&P and especially Plant are criticized if they don't do Zep songs and are criticized if they do.

The album is what it is, seems to me they deliberately didn't and couldn't do a Led Zeppelin sounding album. But listen to the musical influences and references on WIC. They are still the same ones from the blues and the east but taken into a different direction. No Bonzo and Jonesy were bound to have an influence on the music cos it wasn't led Zeppelin or 2 guys trying to be Led Zeppelin..

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It used to annoy me when people walked out to get drinks during WIC tracks at shows. My only gripe with the album is the production should have been done by Jimmy.

Same here with people walking out ! They're loss though as I thought and still think that those songs were quite stunning live. Have to agree also that Jimmy should have done the production on the album

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Absolutely cannot understand the attitude to "Walking Into Clarksdale". It completely mystifies me. IMO, it is an absolutely WONDERFUL album that I never tire of playing, which pulls at my heart strings and lifts my spirits. Beats the cliched "Coverdale Page" into a cocked hat.

Couldn't agree more! Such a wonderful album, such wonderfull poetry and lyrical guitar playing! Pure art! The only song in my life I put on when I am a really sad, which is not that rarely, is Blue train and it always makes me cry!

Many Zep fans didn't like the new approach, maybe because Zep albums had more variety or were just too different from Clarksdale, or maybe they would like it as soon as Bonzo, Jonesy and Page s' production would be brought in!

And it's quite a bluesy album in terms of having a feel of the blues in it, so in a way it could still actually relate to the earliest Zep albums or Tea for one!!

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I always thought "Most High" was the most contrived and cliche tune on the album, and skip over it any time I play the disc. The sloppy looseness, the lyrics, and the Yardbirds solo of the title track gets me going to this day. It was especially tasty live. JMO.

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I always thought "Most High" was the most contrived and cliche tune on the album, and skip over it any time I play the disc. The sloppy looseness, the lyrics, and the Yardbirds solo of the title track gets me going to this day. It was especially tasty live. JMO.

I quite agrre with that too! One of my least favourite and also rather different from them all, in a way I don't like too much!

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I always thought it was a decent album. As good as just about any post heyday disc I can think of.

I do think it was missing a JPJ-like presence. Someone that could help spice up some of the arrangements, as they seem pretty cut and dry. Some of the songs kinda meander and most of them could use a little spicing up.

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If I listen to Shining In the Light, I end up listening to the whole album. Page/Plant was brilliant. My 1st concert at the age of 9 in 1995. Gotta pick up some bootlegs from 1995 to fully grip the No Quarter project I really believe.

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If I listen to Shining In the Light, I end up listening to the whole album. Page/Plant was brilliant. My 1st concert at the age of 9 in 1995. Gotta pick up some bootlegs from 1995 to fully grip the No Quarter project I really believe.

For me, and just like many of Zeppelin's songs when they were first released, it required a live performance of the WIC material to truly appreciate them. I do have one complaint about the album though ! They didn't include The Window on the original NA releases. I love that cut !!!

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For me, and just like many of Zeppelin's songs when they were first released, it required a live performance of the WIC material to truly appreciate them. I do have one complaint about the album though ! They didn't include The Window on the original NA releases. I love that cut !!!

i like the window ..first time i heard of it ............ youtube links not working even though im using google chrome

The japanese version of W.I.C also had a track called whiskey from a glass

there were some sessions that they did between no quarter and w.i.c and the tracks jimmy played plant for what he thought might have been the next album

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Thanks for the comments. I want to like it and will keep giving it a shot. And to respond to one poster, I don't want or expect it to be LedZep Redux. I just want it to be appealing music. Both have recorded solo music that sounds nothing like Led Zeppelin that I absolutely love. For some reason, the original tracks on No Quarter and WIC just haven't inspired me yet.

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I think Walking into Clarksdale is ok. I like some of the tracks and don't like others. Mostly though, I find that Page and Plant are weirdly out of sync with their styles on the album. Plant has moved into his softer, slower, country/bluegrass/ballad-type singing but Page is still mostly playing rock guitar. That's how I hear it anyway. In the category of post-Zeppelin work, I prefer Outrider. I actually haven't listened to the Coverdale/Page album and was wondering how similar/dissimilar it is to WIC or Outrider or other post-Zeppelin work.

The song I really do like on WIC is "Blue Train."

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On the '98 tour, "Heart in Your Hand" led right into "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", and my gosh did that work splendidly. I had a whole new appreciation for that song after seeing it live.

Getting some live shows from the '98 Plant/Page tour is a must. If there was any Post Zeppelin show I could see again, the '98 tour would win hands down. After the show, the hoots and hollers from the crowd as we were walking thru the parking lot put a chill up my spine. Everybody understood that we just witnessed a kick-ass rock and roll show ! (The Palace at Auburn Hills)

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For me, and just like many of Zeppelin's songs when they were first released, it required a live performance of the WIC material to truly appreciate them. I do have one complaint about the album though ! They didn't include The Window on the original NA releases. I love that cut !!!

I agree about hearing the WIC songs live, gave them a totally different perspective - kinda like Houses..did. Production could've been better, for sure! I still love 'Yallah' and 'Wonderful One' from the NQ disc. Haven't heard the tracks that you and the other poster referred to, I must check them out!
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I'm sure WIC had some initial idea(s) that sounded great "on paper" at the time, but for what ever reason it just didnt come together in the final product IMO. Thats not to say that there's not some solid music to be found in there, but as some ppl here have posted before it just lacks that certain "something" that both guys have captured on other projects before and since.

And even though its not one of my favorites I still think its cool that we got some original music from these two guys to listen to.

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Absolutely cannot understand the attitude to "Walking Into Clarksdale". It completely mystifies me. IMO, it is an absolutely WONDERFUL album that I never tire of playing, which pulls at my heart strings and lifts my spirits. Beats the cliched "Coverdale Page" into a cocked hat.

You can't even hear Jimmy on this album, seems like another Plant solo album. I'll take C/P any day of the week.

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I got the Walking Into Clarksdale CD shortly after it came out and I pretty much felt the same way as you. It must not have impressed me too much because I recall only listening to it once or twice. I bought it because I really liked Most High. Haven't really listened to the No Quarter album; I probably need to get it for my collection. I like a lot of Robert's solo stuff and rock out to the Coverdale/Page album quite often (hopefully, not too many people will rip on me for that one :sarcastic_hand: ).

oh, you must get it, it is amazing.

get the dvd also, it is my favourite, i just love it, always have.

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I think if Michael Fraser was the producer, engineer, and did the mixing on WIC, it would have sounded far better. Steve Albini, for my ears, was the wrong man for the job. WIC was a good album, all the songs that were preformed live are far better than the studio recordings......Coverdale / Page stands as Jimmy's greatest post zep moment IMHO.

Also, give me the '98 tour over the '95 tour any day. The show at the Garden in '98 was supernatural, and Jones Beach, the Meadowlands and Albany were the exemplification of greatness.

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Tried to get Walking into Clarksdale...a couple of the songs are okay, but it ended up falling flat with me. The No Quarter CD and DVD are quite good, though -- at least interesting enough to warrant future viewing. I generally like listening to concerts from the tours, although Lee's drums are far too thin for me, and he is no substitute for Bonzo.

I can only imagine what might have happened if they'd invited Jonesy into the fold...but instead we had to wait until 2007 to see some magic again.

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Both have recorded solo music that sounds nothing like Led Zeppelin that I absolutely love. For some reason, the original tracks on No Quarter and WIC just haven't inspired me yet.

I have to agree! Neither No Quarter or Walking into Clarksdale hit the spot for me - very uninspired and lacklustre. Live the rhythm section was missing some serious wallop and Jimmy was in poor shape physically. The whole project just seemed a bit half-arsed to me IMO.

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