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Top Five (5) Robert Plant Solo Songs.


lzzoso

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I guess I'm looking at this from a different time perspective. To me and my friends, Bobby Darin was what the Beatles (and all the bands who followed in their wake) saved us from! :D

Darin did a lot besides pop (Splish Splash) & swing (Mack the Knife). My favorite Darin cd is Songs From Big Sur (a complilation but it plays like an album). It's all songs from later in his career, all that he wrote, and they dealt with issues that were controversial at the time. But his fan base didn't want him to do that kind of material exclusively (Stairway anyone?), so in order to keep performing live, he settled for doing a mix of his hits and the later material.

P.S. Ahmet Ergetun loved Darin too.

Edited by ZeppyNetters
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Man, 5 is a bit difficult:

5 is very difficult... For some reason this thread sparked a memory from the summer of 1982... when the local rock station DJ was going off because he had the "new Robert Plant solo album in my hands and at 4:00 o'clock I'm going to play you not one, but TWO tracks from it." At four he told us the album was titled Pictures At Eleven and proceeded to play Burning Down One Side and Moonlight In Samosa...

It was during Samosa that I knew Robert would be just fine on his own. It was a bittersweet moment... you know the guy is going to do well on his own... but you also are acknowledging the fact that Zeppelin really are over...

Sorry... got a bit off on a different tangent... anyway... five songs from solo Plant that never fail to move me... no order in particular...

Big Log... just perfect

Moonlight In Samosa... ummm, just perfect... again...

Come Into My Life... 1993 and still perfect...

The Greatest Gift... do you sense a trend here?

Great Spirit... ah yes... Great Spirit come... Great Spirit come...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Darin did a lot besides pop (Splish Splash) & swing (Mack the Knife). My favorite Darin cd is Songs From Big Sur (a complilation but it plays like an album). It's all songs from later in his career, all that he wrote, and they dealt with issues that were controversial at the time. But his fan base didn't want him to do that kind of material exclusively (Stairway anyone?), so in order to keep performing live, he settled for doing a mix of his hits and the later material.

P.S. Ahmet Ergetun loved Darin too.

Yes, but that wasn't the kind of material we were hearing on the charts at the time. Later in his career he was way off our radar screen, because we had all these wonderful rock bands to interest us, which were so refreshing after the likes of Splish Splash. (I will admit to loving the song Mack the Knife, though Darin's version is way down my list.) I'm sure Ahmet loved him because he was good at what he did--however, at the time we were sick of what he did!

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know or durr:

BURNING DOWN ONE SIDE

SLOW DANCER

CALLING TO YOU

TIE DYE ON THE HIGHWAY

ENCHANTER

honorable mention: Mystery Title, Network News, Takamba, Wreckless Love, Too Loud

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Five? That's just ridiculous, and I can't in good conscious chose anything less than 10:

No Order:

-In the Mood (The Principle of Moments)

-Big Log (The Principle of Moments)

-Ship of Fool (Now and Zen)

-29 Palms (Fate of Nations)

-I Believe (Fate of Nations)

-Another Tribe (Mighty ReArranger)

-Freedom Fries (Mighty ReArranger)

-Tin Pan Valley (Mighty ReArranger)

-All the King's Horses (Mighty ReArranger)

-Please Read the Letter (Raising Sand)

I might catch some flack for saying this, but I think that the Raising Sand version of PRTL is heads ands tails above the Walking Into Clarksdale version. One of Plant's most restrained performances since The Rain Song. Just breathtaking.

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Five? That's just ridiculous, and I can't in good conscious chose anything less than 10:

No Order:

-In the Mood (The Principle of Moments)

-Big Log (The Principle of Moments)

-Ship of Fool (Now and Zen)

-29 Palms (Fate of Nations)

-I Believe (Fate of Nations)

-Another Tribe (Mighty ReArranger)

-Freedom Fries (Mighty ReArranger)

-Tin Pan Valley (Mighty ReArranger)

-All the King's Horses (Mighty ReArranger)

-Please Read the Letter (Raising Sand)

I might catch some flack for saying this, but I think that the Raising Sand version of PRTL is heads ands tails above the Walking Into Clarksdale version. One of Plant's most restrained performances since The Rain Song. Just breathtaking.

Good list :D I don't think you should catch flack for expressing your opinion - I happen to agree with you about "Please Read The Letter" ;)

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5 is very difficult... For some reason this thread sparked a memory from the summer of 1982... when the local rock station DJ was going off because he had the "new Robert Plant solo album in my hands and at 4:00 o'clock I'm going to play you not one, but TWO tracks from it." At four he told us the album was titled Pictures At Eleven and proceeded to play Burning Down One Side and Moonlight In Samosa...

It was during Samosa that I knew Robert would be just fine on his own. It was a bittersweet moment... you know the guy is going to do well on his own... but you also are acknowledging the fact that Zeppelin really are over...

Sorry... got a bit off on a different tangent... anyway... five songs from solo Plant that never fail to move me... no order in particular...

Big Log... just perfect

Moonlight In Samosa... ummm, just perfect... again...

Come Into My Life... 1993 and still perfect...

The Greatest Gift... do you sense a trend here?

Great Spirit... ah yes... Great Spirit come... Great Spirit come...

I am always torn with Big Log: part of me LOVES Robert's vocals, and another part HATES the drum machine clap. Sometimes I put it on & have to turn it off because the clap makes me want to SCREAM! Wouldn't it be great if someday music is released in a form that you could edit on your computer? They could have a default version (the arrangement the artist chooses to release) on the discs to protect copyright. I would definitely take that out of Big Log. And the little "click-click" in Ship of Fools. I could take all the screechy backing vocals and sloppy horn parts off my Bobby Darin cds. I wouldn't have given Raising Sand away, if I could have taken Al... Ok, everybody pile on-I asked for it! :P

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I am always torn with Big Log: part of me LOVES Robert's vocals, and another part HATES the drum machine clap. Sometimes I put it on & have to turn it off because the clap makes me want to SCREAM! Wouldn't it be great if someday music is released in a form that you could edit on your computer? They could have a default version (the arrangement the artist chooses to release) on the discs to protect copyright. I would definitely take that out of Big Log. And the little "click-click" in Ship of Fools. I could take all the screechy backing vocals and sloppy horn parts off my Bobby Darin cds. I wouldn't have given Raising Sand away, if I could have taken Al... Ok, everybody pile on-I asked for it! :P

But then you're wanting music to be "perfect" and it's not. What makes it interesting is the oddities IMO.

Yeah I'll say it - take Alison's vocals out of RS and you don't have the album :rolleyes:

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While it might be an interesting idea to be able to "edit" songs at your own will, it is kind of a big slap in the face of the original artist(s). Part of me loves the idea of taking out the parts that annoy you in an otherwise great song, or adding in alternate versions. I would kill for a remaster of ITTOD with a remixed Carouselambra and the extended ending of All My Love with the guitar solo, but at the end of the day, I am not the person that made the music. I'm just here to enjoy what they DO give me.

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You know a song I always liked that has remained in relative obscurity is Thru With The Two Step off of TPOM. I think Plant's vocal performance on this song was just absolutely beautiful, gentle and powerful at the same time. Sure some of the synth stuff hasn't aged all too well, but a lovely a song all the same.

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Me too.

:o

Who'd tell? <_<

:o :o :o

<_<

:D

You know a song I always liked that has remained in relative obscurity is Thru With The Two Step off of TPOM. I think Plant's vocal performance on this song was just absolutely beautiful, gentle and powerful at the same time. Sure some of the synth stuff hasn't aged all too well, but a lovely a song all the same.

One of my favorites both musically and particularly lyrically.

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YES! The lyrics really are just brilliant, and to me seem to harken back to a 50's rock and roll sentiment of high school dances with the lights turned down low, hahaha. Very similar in a sense to The Honeydrippers project at least in subject if not mood.

Hmmm - I don't see the lyrics being 50s at all although I can understand how you might find the song with that sort of feel. I've heard some great live versions too. I always thought that Strange Sensation would have done a great take on the song too.

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Strangely, I always thought Please Read the Letter was one of the weakest songs on WIC, and I didn't think it was that much improved on Raising Sand. Obviously just a question of taste, but it's not really a song that ever did anything for me--I was actually pretty surprised when Robert revived it for Raising Sand.

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  • 7 months later...

My top 5 favorite Robert Plant solo songs are: (in chronological order):

1. Big Log (Principle Of Moments)

2. Easily Lead (Shaken 'N Stirred)

3. Big Love (Manic Nirvana)

4. I Cried (Manic Nirvana)

5. Calling to You (Fate of Nations)

Of course I have more to choose from, however, if I had to choose only five, I think these would be them.

For those of you who may notice, I realize I am replying to my first original post. However, I am currently listening to "Manic Nirvana" and I have to say that I think It may be Robert Plant's Best Solo Album. Not as "commercial" and "popular" as "Now and Zen" but I think that every song on "Manic "Nirvana" are all great in their own right. As I mentioned above, I honestly think that "Big Love" and (especially) "I Cried" are two of Robert Plant's greatest Post Led Zeppelin achievements.

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I have two lists (one for commercial/singles released favorites and deeper album tracks):

1) Burning down one side

2) Calling To You

3) 29 Palms

4) Little By Little

5) In The Mood

1) Thru With The Two Step

2) Down To The Sea

3) Why

4) She Said

5) Liar's Dance

R B)

Edited by reids
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