[Beautiful Women]

I can imagine this has probably been posted here somewhere among the 120-odd pages. Worth the post though just incase anyone is unfortunate enough not to have seen it

[What Are You Reading?]

After re-reading Hammer Of The Gods for a second time, I've finally gotten a chance to move onto 'Life' by Keef' Richards

[Coverdale/Page]

Amen to that! Jimmy tried, for years, to get Robert to do a Zeppelin reunion and Robert wouldn't, which I have all the respect in the world for. The few times Zep did reunite were special because they were so rare... even if they themselves weren't as on as they could have been... see Live Aid/Atlantic's 40th... So Jimmy wanted to write, record and tour and he was approached w/ the idea of hooking up w/ David Coverdale. I still have the Westwood One interview w/ Redbeard where Jimmy said that when approached about Coverdale he thought to himself... 'Well, he is a damn fine singer...' So they met up in NYC and found a connection, a bond and decided to see if they could actually write anything.

They write Absolution Blues on day one and that had to be very exciting for both of them. Then it just took off. The album came out and was an instant success. I remember hearing Pride & Joy everywhere. Had they toured in say, May of that year, whilst the album was still hot and fresh, who knows, they might have been together for several albums. But the tour was delayed and eventually canceled and then Robert comes along w/ his offer.

You all know this... the point though is that the C/P album is a great album. Jimmy's playing isn't stiff... how anyone can listen to Shake My Tree, Absolution Blues, Pride & Joy, Easy Does It, Waiting On You or Don't Leave Me This Way and say he's stiff is just completely full of crap. It was the best representation of Jimmy as a song writer and guitarist since the Zeppelin days and most Zeppelin fans had their heads so far up Robert's ass that they wouldn't give Coverdale a chance. And that's a shame. A tour of America would have been amazing. We would have seen Jimmy playing new music w/ an energized band... instead he goes back to Robert and we get re-worked Zeppelin tunes.

Page/Plant was good... but we'd been there/done that. Coverdale offered something new w/ just a nod to the past, and that, to me, was far more exciting than playing through the Zep catalog minus JPJ and Bonzo.

You've got it spot on mate! And definitely would have loved a US tour, maybe some more live footage would have made people appreciate it more

[Coverdale/Page]

Although I agree the album 100% is nowhere near as timeless as most of the Zeppelin catalouge. I think it's a bit unfair to describe the album as 'commercial' or 'cheesy'. I wasn't even born at the time that the album was released, but I'm pretty sure it would be very hard to try and find any out of this world rock music that was being released during that time. 93' was the height of 'Grunge' in the US. And in the UK it was all about the indie/britpop scene. And as far as the production, I think that if the album was produced in a way which Zeppelin albums where then Jimmy would have been slaughtered for it even more, and the whole 'Coverversion' thing would have had a lot more points to be backed up by.

I wouldn't say it's better than any Zeppelin album, although I see it coming quite close to ITTOD as in my opinion, that album is probably the Zepp album which hasn't stood the test as time as well as the others (for obvious reasons), although it does have some unbelievable tracks; Evening, Crawl, AOML & Carauselambra, I think some of the tracks aren't pretty throwaway, for instance FITR. Same could be said for a few tracks on C/P

[Coverdale/Page]

Coverdale/Page is actually my favorite Post-Zepp album of original music.

I dunno' why people give David a hard time too. Yeah, 'course he sounds a bit like Plant but more or less every hard rock singer out there does.

The guy was in Deep Purple and Whitesnake! Although I'm not the biggest Whitesnake fan one the planet you have to admit Coverdale has turned himself into a household name, and is not just some silly Plant impersonator. Fair play to the guy!