Agreed on The Window and Whiskey. They should both have been on the album - they could have left off two of the weaker tracks and had a real groundbreaking record there.

Funny you should mention that gig. On Jimmy Page.com today is a clip of that gig showing part of Clarksdale and No Quarter. JImmy is in fine form.

I have been rediscovering this album lately. I remember loving it when I first heard it, and it gets better as the years go by. It has Zep elements but it is obviously different, more mature (because they are more mature). I love most of the vocals. Great guitar throughout. Some very creative things by Page here. shining in the light - great acoustic work, Friends type strings, good groove, Plant excellent on lyrics and vocals When the World Was Young - fantastic lyrics and vocals. Plant is wistful, reflective, and ultimately positive. Very moving, especially when the band and guitars kick in. Upon a Golden Horse - great guitar riffing and countering string arrangement. Plant gets into it. blue Train - an absolute gem - a knockout track for the ages. Grown up Zeppelin! Haunting. Please Read the Letter - I don't like this much - just strikes me a contrived and a bit pop Most High - I get the criticism in this thread, but it moves and the guitar and rhythm groove are fantastic. Plant is over the top and in fine form. Heart in Your Hand - the real showstopper and my favorite track because it is so completely different from anything else they ever did. Plant is so heartwrenching, and Page plays dream like lines, harking back to things like Santo and Johnny's Sleepwalk from the 50s that Page used to talk about. Great lyrics and what a delivery from Plant. It was horrible how fans on the 98 tour would ignore this song and go for a break or talk. There were Jimmy Page and Robert Plant playing and singing their hearts out on wonderful new, creative music and the "fans" only wanted to hear Heartbreaker or WLL. It must have been so depressing for them. I wonder sometimes if they might have carried on if the new music had gotten a better reception on that tour. Clarksdale- killer from start to finish, both Page and Plant. Burning Up - boring. i don't like this one at all. Contrived, a parody of a parody, like a bad version of a John Myles Outrider song or a bad Coverdale page song. When I was a Child - a much less effective version of When the World Was young. Not very good in my opinion except for a few good bits. House of Love - very strong modern rock with all kinds of elements. Strong riffing from Page. sons of Freedom - a fantastic blast of a track. Page is all over the place in Wearing and Tearing mode. this is one of the powerful yet off beat Zep type rhythms. they really kick up a storm here for a very strong closer. Plant goes out of his mind in a dizzying delivery of dizzying oblique Plant lyrics. Something like Presence meets Wearing and Tearing. So by my count that is two or three weak tracks- the rest is great, and the best tracks stand the test of time with any other post Zep output. Yes the production could be better but I like Michael Lee's playing and I can hear plenty of bass. Crank it up and enjoy. It is a full album of original music by Page and Plant and it is worthy of both of them.

Very cool. Thanks for posting this. I had never heard of it.

Where do you get this definition? The Zoso symbol is a magic symbol for the planet Saturn, dating from the 16th Century

My favorite Chuck Berry song. The title in YouTube is wrong. It is Promised Land.

I know it is only half the band (you can barely see Bonham) but this picture captures a good deal about what made the 1977 tour. So atmospheric.

Agreed on all counts. Walsh was amazing in his prime. I like their rock stuff in addition to the prog rock tracks you listed. On the first album you have Can I Tell You, Bringing it Back, and Belexes (which sounds alot like classic Deep Purple), and another prog rock epic Apercu. On Masque there is the amazing Icarus and also Mysteries and Mayhem - fantastic stuff. Song for America has Down the Road, a great boogie rocker. Then there is The Wall on Leftoverture. Such a wonderful track. Those vocals. If you don't have the reissue of the live album "Two for the Show" it is well worth it. The original one CD version was great but the expanded and remastered 30th anniversary edition has alot of other great tracks including Down the Road and Bringing it back. Kansas could really rock out, the fiddle was an amazing edition (Robbie is so talented on fiddle) and they had great vocals with Steve and Robbie.

One of my favorite live albums ever. Such a great recording. Check out the piano and bass on this track. And of course Annie on vocals.

Classic Tull from 1969 - recorded in April, released August 1 and this gem from the first Tull album with Mick Abrahams on guitar - he left after one album to form Bloodwyn Pig. I wonder it Tull ever played this when they were on the bill with Zeppelin? Released Oct 25, 1968

Some Fairport Convention with Sandy Denny This next one builds slowly and rocks out at the end. Listening to stuff like this makes it clear how Plant chose Sandy to sing with him on Battle of Evermore

I have been listening to alot of the Crowes lately. Every time I go back to them I realize how great they were. Not many bands can come back after a lull and knock it out of the park with back to back albums in two consecutive years after 20 years together. Warpaint and Before the Frost are great albums and they include some of my favorite Crowes tracks. A great deal of the Crowes rebirth was due to the addition of the amazing Luther Dickinson. (side note - if you never heard the album "The Word" by Medeski, Wood and the North Mississippi All Stars it is a treat. Luther is on fire. Check out the long intro to "Without God" and the hidden track at the end "Joyful Sounds- Reprise" for starters. Luther is joined by Robert Randolph on pedal steel throughout the album. ) Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution - the ultimate distillation of everything that made the Crowes rock Movin on Down the Line - fantastic, spacey No Quarter type opening, and then a rock solid groove. This song blew me away when I saw them in a small club on the Warpaint tour - the opening was much extended and Luther did a slow burn along with the keys. Wounded Bird - a very Zeppelin type song - and in a good way - not the stuff like Whitesnake and Kingdom Come which never sounded anything like Zeppelin. Good Morning Captain - another classic Crowes romping rocker A Train Still Makes a Lonely Sound - perfection Of course my favorite Crowes album is Southern Harmony. When it was released I thought many of the tracks were in a Zeppelin vein, but not in the caricature nonsense way that bands like Whitesnake and Kingdom Come were "said" to "sound like Zeppelin" which they did not at all . To my ears the following tracks were very Zeppelin like in spirit, in lyrics, and in overall power and intensity. Sometimes Salvation - son of "For Your Life" but it is a Crowes original through and through. Heavy, great lyrics and that Robinson vocal especially at the end!! Wow. Lyrics are akin to both For Your Life and Hots on for Nowhere. Hotel Illness. Could be a cross between elements of LZ III and PG, but it is not an imitation. It is pure Crowes. No Speak No Slave - This is in the spirit of Presence. Those guitars. So much power and wall to wall intensity. My Morning Song - When the Levee Breaks meets In My Time of Dying meets In the Evening . Fantastic oblique Plant type lyrics. Great structure and arrangement. Blistering guitar in a rock/blues tradition . This may be the best Crowes track ever. This album was a breath of fresh air after the insipid hair metal of the 80s. I liked Pearl Jam back then in 1992, but this Crowes album was rooted in rock and the blues, it was a connection to a byegone era but with a new attitude and energy. One more great Zep like Crowes track from later - Horsehead. Again with For Your Life type lyrics and heavy guitar/bass/drums. When they played this with Page in 2000, it was a revelation. To hear Jimmy jamming on this track was amazing. My brother turned to me and said "What the hell is this?? It kicks ass !!". He was there for Page and knew very little about the Crowes outside rock radio.

I have been thinking about the origins of "heavy" music. Many people think of Wagner but he is not my cup of tea. I think about these pieces as the origins of heavy music. 18th Century Bach Toccata and Fugue in d minor 19th Century Beethoven Moonlight Sonata, 3rd movement Chopin Etude 12 in c minor, the "Revolutionary", Polonaise op 53 in A flat - the "Heroic" Mussorgsky - Night on Bald Mountain - original piano solo version and later orchestral versions Franz Liszt - Mazzepa - piano solo and orchestral versions, his piano solo version of Franz Schubert's song "Erlkonig", and Transcendental Etude No. 8 the "Wilde Jagt"

To me Outrider was a let down due to the vocals and lyrics. The only truly great track on Outrider is The Only One. Plant is so great on that track. His phrasing and delivery are unique. And those typical Plant oblique lyrics. Yes Jimmy is a powerhouse on the album and the tour was great, but frankly John Miles was horrible and Chris Farlowe was almost worse. So generic and so boring. When I listen to Outrider today I am thinking The Only One is what Zeppelin could have been in the 80s. It is fresh, different and not just 70s Zeppelin. I also think Crackback from Scream for Help is another example of what Zeppelin could have been in the 80s. It has the magic and spark. Now if Jones had been involved in Outrider it could have been special, at least instrumental tracks.

One of my favorite Deep Purple releases is the reissue of Concerto for Group and Orchestra. Great music and fantastic recording. The band is spot on. You can really hear Glover and Blackmore's sound is clean and crisp. Much less heavy and muddy than Made in Japan. The bonus disc with Hush, Wring that Neck, and Child in Time is amazing. The recording is so good. Blackmore's guitar solo on Child in Time is to my ears much better and more creative than the one on Made in Japan. The highlights though are the Blackmore jams in Movement One and Movement Three of the Concerto. Inspired genius. For a few moments he is casting about for ideas but when he hits his stride watch out. The playing is so clean. Amazing stuff. Does anyone here have the Gemini Suite? Is it as good as the original Concerto?

Last few days Deep Purple Concerto for Group and Orchestra - including the bonus disc with just the band Yes - Progeny - The Best of '72

Two of my favorite covers are both of JJ Cale songs Call Me the Breeze by Skynyrd They made this song their own. Incredible piano break by Billy Powell, great horns, and that blistering solo by Gary Rossington. Everything is perfect, including all the coolo countrified electric guitar fills. Bringing it Back by Kansas. A wonderful story song, played powerfully. The fiddle really makes this track but everyone plays very well. Honorable mention goes to Tulsa Time at the ARMS show. I love it when Page blows Beck and Clapton off the stage with his over the top distorted solo. Jimmy is so into it. I love the look that Clapton gives to Beck after Jimmy's visceral assault. Clapton and Beck were trying to play like respectable grown ups and Page played like a young kid with something to prove. It is an incredible moment.

Earlier I listed Annie Haslam of Renaissance. Lately I have been listening to alot of Sandy Denny with Fairport Convention and I would say she should be in the discussion as well. So many amazing performances, in particular "Who Knows Where the Time Goes", but really all of the first album, Unhalfbricking, and Lief and Liege. And Battle of Evermore. I do have to agree that Ann Wilson is excellent, and I guess if we are focusing on "rock" I would have to agree that she is at the top of that list. I just do not like any of their material after 1978. Those early Heart albums are a tour de force. Annie Haslam cannot really be considered "rock", but what a voice.

Page had so many peaks in 1969-73. It is hard to say which is the peak. The Danish TV HMMT solo is a marvel of raw biting tone and unbelievable dexterity, fluidity and emotion. It to me is one of his finest moments ever. But he also continued to grow stylistically beyond his blues roots. He really got creative and threw out the rule book in songs like Immigrant Song and Celebration Day in 1971. He was really stretching the boundries there. In some ways 1973 was the final consolidation, where he added even more creativity in solos like No Quarter, and he reached the peak of rock/rockabilly/blues/swing playing in WLL. I know they are doctored up a bit but it does not get much better than TSRTS WLL, unless of course we look at TSRTS Dazed, which has so many approaches and styles it is difficult to keep up. Special mention must be given to TSRTS Stairway solo, a monument to creativity and skill if there ever was one. From 1975 on he was better suited to the newer material like Kashmir, IMTOD, Trampled, etc. His rhythm playing and riffs were still unmatched but his lead playing suffered a great deal, except on perhaps IMTOD and Trampled. On some nights the Kashmir ended crazed chromatic jams were also special. The great thing about Jimmy is that there is so much variety to keep exploring and discovering.

10 Ribs and All

Minstrel in the Gallery is a fantastic album. The title track alone is worth the price of admission. Add in Cold Wind to Valhalla and the amazing Black Satin Dancer and there you have it !

I wish Badfinger had done more all out rockers like "Rock of all Ages". Killer guitar in that song.