JohnOsbourne Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 (edited) 23 hours ago, Brigante said: I thought it was common knowledge that Robert had actually vetoed Jimmy's plan for a chronological live album in the past. Jimmy in Guitar World, 1993: 'We also have live tapes going back to 1970, that go all the way through Knebworth in 1979. But I do not think Robert is very keen on it coming out. In fact, right after we had lost Bonzo I wanted to do a chronological live album, because I knew how good his drumming was and I thought it would be a great tribute... But Robert has never been keen on doing it. You can not very well do it if someone is vetoing the bloody thing. It is a lot of work to go through all these tapes, and I am not going to do it if he is going to stop it.' Robert obviously subsequently got on board for DVD and HTWWW, but I suspect that 'I am not going to do it if he is going to stop it' is still the key issue. Maybe, but why would Plant have been ok with the DVD and HTWWW, but then opposed to everything else? And there have been other things, like the TSRTS update in 2007 (or thereabouts) and the Paris show on the LZ I remaster. (Neither Plant nor Page seemed too concerned with releasing that, and it's pretty far from a flawless performance.) And Page's claims that he wanted to release something right after Bonham's death, when he was completely smacked out, are not really credible at all. Finally, if Plant is really that annoyed with questions from the press whenever some Zep-related thing comes up, why didn't he oppose Page's pointless (and inferior) re-leases of both HTWWW and TSRTS recently? Sorry, but a lot of this sounds like excuse-making by Page. Edited May 1 by JohnOsbourne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnOsbourne Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 I can see Plant being opposed to something like this in the 80's, when he had an active solo career to focus on and the memories of Zep were perhaps still a bit raw. But since the 90's and beyond? I'm having a hard time seeing him oppose live releases (that he wouldn't have to work on anyway) adamantly enough to block Page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigante Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 (edited) Who knows why Robert agrees to some things and not to others? It's all conjecture and speculation until he comes out and says something unequivocal about it himself. In contrast, Jimmy's given a clear explanation for why it didn't happen in the past (Robert vetoed the idea) and has said that he's not going to even try to release archive recordings if Robert's going to veto them again. Jimmy's not averse to spinning a yarn (how many times has he been doing a solo album and playing live 'next year'?), but it's notable that Robert's never contradicted Jimmy on this topic. He's snarked at him in the press over other things, but never this. That's circumstantial, though, I guess - I don't think anyone's ever asked him outright if he's blocking any more live stuff and, if so, why. You could compare their contrasting attitudes in 2018 when Jimmy seemed to be enthusiastic about finding a new multitrack live recording and releasing stuff over the next ten years - whereas Robert was quite disparaging about it and dismissed it with 'There's a lot of stuff rolling around. It's a bit like water in the bottom of a paddle boat.' When Jimmy was later asked why nothing was released in the end, he said 'the band don't all agree, so there's no point.' It may not be a smoking gun, but I think it's fairly clear from their individual responses who wants to release more live recordings and who doesn't agree. Edited May 1 by Brigante Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperDave Posted May 2 Share Posted May 2 On 5/1/2022 at 12:09 PM, Brigante said: Who knows why Robert agrees to some things and not to others? It's all conjecture and speculation until he comes out and says something unequivocal about it himself. In contrast, Jimmy's given a clear explanation for why it didn't happen in the past (Robert vetoed the idea) and has said that he's not going to even try to release archive recordings if Robert's going to veto them again. Jimmy's not averse to spinning a yarn (how many times has he been doing a solo album and playing live 'next year'?), but it's notable that Robert's never contradicted Jimmy on this topic. He's snarked at him in the press over other things, but never this. That's circumstantial, though, I guess - I don't think anyone's ever asked him outright if he's blocking any more live stuff and, if so, why. You could compare their contrasting attitudes in 2018 when Jimmy seemed to be enthusiastic about finding a new multitrack live recording and releasing stuff over the next ten years - whereas Robert was quite disparaging about it and dismissed it with 'There's a lot of stuff rolling around. It's a bit like water in the bottom of a paddle boat.' When Jimmy was later asked why nothing was released in the end, he said 'the band don't all agree, so there's no point.' It may not be a smoking gun, but I think it's fairly clear from their individual responses who wants to release more live recordings and who doesn't agree. This is probably why not much was done for the 50th anniversary of the band. Perhaps, Jimmy wanted to release stuff but since all were probably not in agreement, it didn't happen. Just a guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyekhan Posted May 4 Share Posted May 4 On 4/28/2022 at 6:11 PM, JohnOsbourne said: I don't want to sound like an ingrate, but the remasters were a mixed bag. There was great stuff there (from Presence), but also stuff we've already heard before (Physical Graffiti) and a lot of things that were hard to distinguish from the original versions (IV). And yes, that's the point: he's been talking about releasing live stuff for a very long time, and still there's not much that's been done. But ultimately it's process of elimination to me. I just can't see a real reason why Plant or Jones would be holding things back, so the only logical choice is simply Page. You’re really changing the goal posts here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyekhan Posted May 4 Share Posted May 4 On 4/30/2022 at 7:36 AM, Brigante said: I thought it was common knowledge that Robert had actually vetoed Jimmy's plan for a chronological live album in the past. Jimmy in Guitar World, 1993: 'We also have live tapes going back to 1970, that go all the way through Knebworth in 1979. But I do not think Robert is very keen on it coming out. In fact, right after we had lost Bonzo I wanted to do a chronological live album, because I knew how good his drumming was and I thought it would be a great tribute... But Robert has never been keen on doing it. You can not very well do it if someone is vetoing the bloody thing. It is a lot of work to go through all these tapes, and I am not going to do it if he is going to stop it.' Robert obviously subsequently got on board for DVD and HTWWW, but I suspect that 'I am not going to do it if he is going to stop it' is still the key issue. Yep. Ding ding ding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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