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Page '84-'94 projects, thoughts and questions


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First time/long time. Zep fan since '85 when I saw them on MTV for Live Aid (not their best, I know, but a great "what is all the fuss about?" intro for a 13 year old). My aunt was a huge fan, turned me on to all the albums, took me to see the Outrider tour and Plant's "Now and Zen" tour (with Joan Jett opening!). Later, I saw Page/Plant at the Alamodome in San Antonio, and have seen Plant again since while he was a resident here in Austin.

Anyway, getting back into Page era stuff post-Zep, pre-Page/Plant lately. Downloaded The Firm's first album from iTunes (used to have the tape) and pulled out my old Coverdale/Page CD. Some REALLY great tracks on those. I also think Coverdale/Page was his best STUDIO guitar playing since Zeppelin. I gave another listen to "Outrider"....not as good as the other stuff from '84-'94, but a couple nice pieces on there. Really sounds like another Firm album in places, which LED :D me to wonder the timeline of the compositions post-Zep. The Outrider Wiki states it would have been a double album had it not been for the home break in that transpired.

Anybody have any more details on that break in, what kind of stuff (besides demos for Outrider, obviously) was taken, timeline of the compositions for ALL of the '84 - '94 work? I know he tends to write stuff and marinate on it for quite a bit.

Looking forward to a new Page solo album in the (hopefully very near) future. Thanks for having me.

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First time/long time. Zep fan since '85 when I saw them on MTV for Live Aid (not their best, I know, but a great "what is all the fuss about?" intro for a 13 year old). My aunt was a huge fan, turned me on to all the albums, took me to see the Outrider tour and Plant's "Now and Zen" tour (with Joan Jett opening!). Later, I saw Page/Plant at the Alamodome in San Antonio, and have seen Plant again since while he was a resident here in Austin.

Anyway, getting back into Page era stuff post-Zep, pre-Page/Plant lately. Downloaded The Firm's first album from iTunes (used to have the tape) and pulled out my old Coverdale/Page CD. Some REALLY great tracks on those. I also think Coverdale/Page was his best STUDIO guitar playing since Zeppelin. I gave another listen to "Outrider"....not as good as the other stuff from '84-'94, but a couple nice pieces on there. Really sounds like another Firm album in places, which LED :D me to wonder the timeline of the compositions post-Zep. The Outrider Wiki states it would have been a double album had it not been for the home break in that transpired.

Anybody have any more details on that break in, what kind of stuff (besides demos for Outrider, obviously) was taken, timeline of the compositions for ALL of the '84 - '94 work? I know he tends to write stuff and marinate on it for quite a bit.

Looking forward to a new Page solo album in the (hopefully very near) future. Thanks for having me.

Welcome to the forum. I've discussed the theft of those recordings many times here. Suffice to say it wasn't a break in, it was a betrayal of trust by people he knew personally.

One thing I will point out is the main riff for The Firm's 'Fortune Hunter' dates back to the Physical Graffiti sessions. It also featured prominently in the second half of the song 'Mind Drive', recorded with Chris Squire & Alan White at The Sol circa February 1981.

Everything on The Firm's debut album was recorded circa Sep/Oct 1984. It features 'Midnight Moonlight', another instrumental concept which dates back to the Physical Graffiti era. It was the first song Page & Rodgers wrote together, having done so in Sep/Oct '83 prior to them going out on the US ARMS tour that December.

The Firm's second album, 'Mean Business', recorded in 1985, features 'Live In Peace', a song originally released on Paul's brilliant 1983 solo album, 'Cut Loose'.

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...Jimmy said he recorded the solos for 'Heaven Knows' and 'Tall Cool One' in about three hours in one afternoon in 1987...

...When Jimmy met with with David Geffen and John Kalodner of Geffen Records in November 1987 they previewed what was his nearly completed debut solo album, ultimately released as 'Outrider' in June 1988...

...Jimmy said his solo in 'Prison Blues' is the first take...

...Jimmy said on his first day of collaboration with David Coverdale in 1991, they began work on two-track demos, with 'Absolution Blues' written the first day...

...Jimmy said on their second day of collaboration they wrote 'Feeling Hot' and both considered it to be a great opener for a live show...

...Jimmy said their collaborations continued, typically from 10am-3pm daily...

...Eight additional songs were written and later recorded…then Jimmy suggested they continue recording in Barbados...

...while on holiday they wrote 'Pride And Joy'...it's original working title was 'Barbados Boogie'...

...in October 1991 they booked Little Mountain Studios in Vancouver through the end of the year to record their new album with bassist Ricky Phillips and drummer Danny Carmassi...

...that same month, despite a fever of 102 degrees, Jimmy recorded the solo for 'Don't Leave Me This Way' on the first take...

...in Spring 1992 at Criteria Studios in Miami, Jimmy reattempted the solo for 'Don't Leave Me This Way' but felt it did not surpass the previously recorded effort...

...in October 1992 two days of sessions were held at Abbey Road Studios (#3) in London for final overdubbing and solos...

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"I've discussed the theft of those recordings many times here. Suffice to say it wasn't a break in, it was a betrayal of trust by people he knew personally."

Do you have a link to where you have written about this before, with more detail? Or can you elaborate? I assume this was a "Yoko Ono post-Lennon death" type deal where someone who worked for him took things?

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Do you have a link to where you have written about this before, with more detail? Or can you elaborate? I assume this was a "Yoko Ono post-Lennon death" type deal where someone who worked for him took things?

You may find posts #6, #7 & #8 of this thread to be of interest:

http://forums.ledzeppelin.com/index.php?/topic/10208-trabscription-of-entire-trial-of-mr-langley-in-glasgow/?hl=%2Bbootleg+%2Bqueen#entry339177

...and also this Outrider outtake, 'Judas Touch'...

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You may find posts #6, #7 & #8 of this thread to be of interest:

http://forums.ledzeppelin.com/index.php?/topic/10208-trabscription-of-entire-trial-of-mr-langley-in-glasgow/?hl=%2Bbootleg+%2Bqueen#entry339177

...and also this Outrider outtake, 'Judas Touch'...

Oh God :( Never heard this before.

It's truly horrible. Artistic nadir right there. Sounds like he was watching far too much Miami Vice in the 80's. Maybe he wanted to join Mr. Mister or Foreigner?

As patchy as Outrider is I'm so glad there was nothing like this on it.

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It just goes to show I suppose.

If Zep had survived until the 80's and produced... er... 'interesting gems' like this, would we still be talking about them on this forum today?

The advent of the affordable digital reverb led to so much music from that period sounding like it had been recorded in a tin shed. It seems that all the fabulous production skills that had been learned over the previous 30 years of recording were ditched, leaving so much of the music from the 80's sounding badly dated.

The 80's was definitely a transitional time for popular music. Let's not do that again!

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You may find posts #6, #7 & #8 of this thread to be of interest:

http://forums.ledzeppelin.com/index.php?/topic/10208-trabscription-of-entire-trial-of-mr-langley-in-glasgow/?hl=%2Bbootleg+%2Bqueen#entry339177

...and also this Outrider outtake, 'Judas Touch'...

Thanks. I had heard about the "break in"/stolen items before, but didn't have the much detail. I was just curious how that went down. Also, appreciate the outtakes.

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Correct. Here's 'Saccarine', an outtake from Coverdale/Page. It was hoped that it could be included on a 20th anniversary re-release here in Japan but the label never did anything with the outtake or the album at that time:

WOW. That's better than about half of what was released on the album. Shame it wasn't released officially in the U.S.

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Now, I like this a lot, too, but it sounds more like a straight up Whitesnake song (not a bad thing). I guess "Southern Comfort" is the 3rd outtake. Any more that you are aware of?

Those three are it.

I've also got a sound check recording from Yoyogi on December 18, 1993, during which Jimmy attempted For Your Life.

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'Found' a very interesting Roy Harper video on YouTube. Appears to be archival footage from the Cambridge Folk Festival in '84.

I've never seen this footage so was nice visual 'bridge' between the ARMS tour and The Firm.

http://youtu.be/CYMQl78Wtx4

They made three festival appearances together that Summer. Their woefully underrated album, 'Whatever Happened to Jugula?' was recorded Apr/May 1984 at The Boilerhouse, which was Roy's 24-track studio in the basement of the St. Ives Hotel in Lytham St. Annes (near Blackpool).

Other recording sessions in 1984-85 include:

Overdubbing for the tracks '50/50', 'Right By You' and 'Flaming Heart' on Stephen Stills new album 'Right By You' at The Sol on May 5 & 6 1984.

A one day session in early to mid-Jan 1985 at The Sol with Paul Rodgers for the Willie & The Poor Boys album…guitarist on 'These Arms Of Mine'.

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For anyone who hasn't heard Southern Comfort, the other unreleased Coverdale/Page track, here it is. Before you watch it/listen to it though, something needs to be addressed. There's a guy on You Tube who claims this song - this version - is from David's 2000 solo album titled Into The Light.

It most definitely is NOT! David is great at communicating with his fans, on his website and through Twitter. So I tweeted him - God, I hate that phrase - and he said that this IS him and Jimmy and he then said that I must have a bootleg. I reminded him that when his website was DavidCoverdale.com that he had a section titled Campfire Songs, that included the acoustic versions of Take A Look At Yourself, Take Me For A Little While and Southern Comfort.

He replied that he couldn't believe he didn't remember that, because Southern Comfort was available as a download from his own site! Anyway... enjoy...

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  • 2 weeks later...

For anyone who hasn't heard Southern Comfort, the other unreleased Coverdale/Page track, here it is. Before you watch it/listen to it though, something needs to be addressed. There's a guy on You Tube who claims this song - this version - is from David's 2000 solo album titled Into The Light.

It most definitely is NOT! David is great at communicating with his fans, on his website and through Twitter. So I tweeted him - God, I hate that phrase - and he said that this IS him and Jimmy and he then said that I must have a bootleg. I reminded him that when his website was DavidCoverdale.com that he had a section titled Campfire Songs, that included the acoustic versions of Take A Look At Yourself, Take Me For A Little While and Southern Comfort.

He replied that he couldn't believe he didn't remember that, because Southern Comfort was available as a download from his own site! Anyway... enjoy...

IMHO Coverdale/Page is Jimmy's best work post Zeppelin.

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