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37 minutes ago, SteveAJones said:

It's from 32 years ago, so how do you figure?

it doesn't matter what time its from, garbage is garbage.  Bad hair, bad direction, bad production values, bad costumes, bad song with no soul and then it became a commercial.   It's a total sell out. 

 

 

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3 hours ago, hummingbird69 said:

it doesn't matter what time its from, garbage is garbage.  Bad hair, bad direction, bad production values, bad costumes, bad song with no soul and then it became a commercial.   It's a total sell out. 

 

 

What the hell is wrong with you boy, you a commie pinko? Have issue with capitalism and the old red, white, & blue?

Greed is good, if its good enough for MERICA, its good enough for old Robert. My and my RC...look mighty good to me.

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13 hours ago, hummingbird69 said:

it doesn't matter what time its from, garbage is garbage.  Bad hair, bad direction, bad production values, bad costumes, bad song with no soul and then it became a commercial.   It's a total sell out. 

It's a pop song, one of his most commercially successful ones as a solo artist. I liked it then and I still like it.

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6 hours ago, SteveAJones said:

It's a pop song, one of his most commercially successful ones as a solo artist. I liked it then and I still like it.

Agreed. Quick question though - somewhere I read his daughter is in the video but I can't spot her. Is this true and if so, do you know where in the crowd she is? Just curious. 

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2 hours ago, tenyearsgone21 said:

Agreed. Quick question though - somewhere I read his daughter is in the video but I can't spot her. Is this true and if so, do you know where in the crowd she is? Just curious. 

I don't remember, but possibly the woman with a pony tail at 1:57. It only lasts for about half a second.

1 hour ago, hummingbird69 said:

"Pop song?"  You don't say!!!  !  You also like kpop so there's absolutely no accounting for taste.  

If you say so. What else can one say when one insists others have no taste in music simply because they have music of their own that they enjoy.  

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Wtf, a remastered video? I never heard of that before. To me this song is sort of like "pink and black" from shaken n stirred. Maybe robert plant brought page in, to backup his solo career at that point, maybe even record co pressure after shaken n stirred failed commercially. Why zep riffs were used here, seems very strange....and why Plant gave the ok on the final production of now and zen amazes me also. I can understand, that he was trying to follow up a failed albums ideas by making something more accessable and commercial, to hopefully stand up the previous album. But the production here in digital is not easy to listen to. It was common for ddd digital records to get it wrong back then, but why did the grateful dead, get it right, with in the dark 1987? I listen to "in the dark" all the time and rarely listen to "now and zen" cause its such a hard listen. Ofcourse overtime shaken n stirred is a great album musically, but was a huge departure at the time. 

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imo Now And Zen and Tall Cool One mark the absolute nadir of Plant’s solo career. He managed things better on Manic Nirvana, which turned out to be a fine rock album without resorting to the cheap and cynical salesmanship on offer in Now And Zen.

That said, Now And Zen got his solo career off life-support and I love Manic Nirvana and Fate of Nations.  So perhaps the end justified the means...

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On 3/15/2020 at 9:26 AM, kirchzep27 said:

Wtf, a remastered video? I never heard of that before. To me this song is sort of like "pink and black" from shaken n stirred. Maybe robert plant brought page in, to backup his solo career at that point, maybe even record co pressure after shaken n stirred failed commercially. Why zep riffs were used here, seems very strange....and why Plant gave the ok on the final production of now and zen amazes me also. I can understand, that he was trying to follow up a failed albums ideas by making something more accessable and commercial, to hopefully stand up the previous album. But the production here in digital is not easy to listen to. It was common for ddd digital records to get it wrong back then, but why did the grateful dead, get it right, with in the dark 1987? I listen to "in the dark" all the time and rarely listen to "now and zen" cause its such a hard listen. Ofcourse overtime shaken n stirred is a great album musically, but was a huge departure at the time. 

Unsure if you were following his solo career at the time, but he was purposefully embracing his past. Bringing Page in (to solo on Heaven Knows) was a smart business move, and Robert returned the favor by contributing to one song (The Only One) on Jimmy's solo album that was released a few months later.

As for releasing the video in HD, I find it commendable! Doing so was a topic of discussion in the Zeppelin Mysteries Thread last December:

On 12/15/2019 at 6:44 AM, SteveAJones said:

Tonight I realized that the Robert Plant Official You Tube Channel uploaded his original 1980s era promotional videos in low res 240p quality. Is there anything that can be done to have them re-uploaded in higher quality, ideally HD?

About eight or so years ago, I had the videos streaming locally on his site. Back then, YouTube wasn't anything like it is is now. On the newer site, a bit afterwards, we just uploaded those old video files for the new official RP YouTube channel. 

You can get the promo videos on the bonus DVD in the Nine Lives box set. They're DVD quality, though not yet available in HD resolution.

sam_webmaster

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  • 2 weeks later...

What is the issue with the hate of Now & Zen and Tall Cool One in particular? I thought N&Z a great album of the time and TCO a catchy little tune with what I thought was a tongue in cheek nod to his past. Who cares if the production is dated, you can't get it right every time and for what its worth, the album went to #1 on the CD charts and charted at #6 in the US & #10 in the UK. Not too shabby. I also like how no two RP albums sound alike and N&Z was a huge departure from the artsy, New Wave inspired Shaken n' Stirred which is truly a great album both within and without it's time period.

Fact is, not every RP album is gonna be a Principal of Moments or Fate of Nations clone, nor should they be.

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7 hours ago, PeaceFrogYum said:

What is the issue with the hate of Now & Zen and Tall Cool One in particular? 

He took some flack at the time that it was a song specifically designed for a commercial endorsement deal but I have a hard time believing he was that calculating. It seems to me it was a new, catchy song that Coca-Cola immediately identified as a great vehicle for product placement to reach their primary demographic. According to my notes, this commercial debuted at 10:55 pm during the ABC telecast of the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary on June 26th 1988.

 

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10 hours ago, PeaceFrogYum said:

 the album went to #1 on the CD charts and charted at #6 in the US & #10 in the UK. Not too shabby. 

Yeah, but the most vapid crap like Agadoo and The Birdy Song outsold that by many millions.
That doesn't mean they're better, right?
 

 

 

 

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5 hours ago, Brigante said:

Yeah, but the most vapid crap like Agadoo and The Birdy Song outsold that by many millions.
That doesn't mean they're better, right?
 

 

 

 

Absolutely not, I was just pointing out it was a successful album, not that it was the greatest album or even Robert's best. Robert is a musician, that is his chosen craft and as a result he has full creative license to go in whatever direction he chooses. Shit or bust.

That's what makes a great artist great. Did every Miles Davis album warrant classic status? Nope, he put out some serous stinkers along with those masterpieces. Or how about Prince, one of my top five favorite musicians. Several must have classic albums plus several turds.

An artist can play it safe (Taylor Swift, Backstreet Boys, Kiss, Warrant, AC/DC) and just keep churning out the exact same album, arranged slightly differently, for each album, or, they can follow their creative muse and take chances. I prefer the latter but to each their own.

 

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5 hours ago, PeaceFrogYum said:

An artist can play it safe (Taylor Swift, Backstreet Boys, Kiss, Warrant, AC/DC) and just keep churning out the exact same album, arranged slightly differently, for each album, or, they can follow their creative muse and take chances. I prefer the latter but to each their own.

I agree totally - go for it, win or fail. Far, far better than diminishing returns on the formula treadmill.     

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On 3/28/2020 at 11:54 PM, kirchzep27 said:

I would buy a "now and zen" album of demos and outtakes of messy analog tapes, rather than listen to the cold digital recording of the album again. 

Do you enjoy listening to the O2 ‘Celebration Day’ recording?

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On April 3, 2020 at 7:47 AM, woz70 said:

Do you enjoy listening to the O2 ‘Celebration Day’ recording?

Yes, why is it an all digital recording? I never read the liner notes

Please excuse me for being an old ornery lz fan. I saw 2 robert plant shows in 88 and the shows were great, have really nice memories of hearing, in the mood and in the evening and all the zep songs. But that album was always an effort to listen to, for me. Those shows were loud and guitar and drum heavy....but those couple of albums lacked the vibe of fate of nations and mighty rearranger. I think mtv news said it best in 1988 when they interviewed rp, they said, " his own brand of electronic rock."  Also, am not a fan of the keyboard sound on those 2 records, to me rp was in a post shaken n stirred mode. Although,  if he had a few songs off now and zen on shaken n stirred, with that band,, it would have been a better record. 

Still, a remastered video of "tall cool one" .......to me, could be posted in the, " is led zeppelin in the end game" thread. 

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21 hours ago, kirchzep27 said:

Yes, why is it an all digital recording? I never read the liner notes

Please excuse me for being an old ornery lz fan. I saw 2 robert plant shows in 88 and the shows were great, have really nice memories of hearing, in the mood and in the evening and all the zep songs. But that album was always an effort to listen to, for me. Those shows were loud and guitar and drum heavy....but those couple of albums lacked the vibe of fate of nations and mighty rearranger. I think mtv news said it best in 1988 when they interviewed rp, they said, " his own brand of electronic rock."  Also, am not a fan of the keyboard sound on those 2 records, to me rp was in a post shaken n stirred mode. Although,  if he had a few songs off now and zen on shaken n stirred, with that band,, it would have been a better record. 

Still, a remastered video of "tall cool one" .......to me, could be posted in the, " is led zeppelin in the end game" thread. 

Yup. It’s a completely digital recording.

You're commenting on production values and instrumentation, not the recording medium.  There are beautiful, warm sounding digital recordings and there are clinical cold sounding analogue recordings. It’s not what you record the sound on, it’s what you do with it during the recording, mix down and mastering.

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