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On ‎5‎/‎20‎/‎2017 at 6:50 AM, 76229 said:

Zooma is brilliant. If you want to see JPJ stretching out & throwing every musical idea into the mix, that album has it. Great drumming from Pete Thomas as well

Agreed, Zooma is a tour de force. It show cases JPJ's criminally underrated musicianship in spades. What I meant by Coverdale/Page being the "best over all" solo album by any of the guys is its AOR nature in comparison to Zeppelin's albums and not necessarily its musicianship (which was pretty stellar in itself imo).   

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I love the guitar playing on the Coverdale / Page album, but Coverdale's lyrics ruin it for me really. Cliched rock BS. And the shiny / too trebly early '90s production. By contrast Zooma had a lot of bottom end whump.

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12 hours ago, 76229 said:

I love the guitar playing on the Coverdale / Page album, but Coverdale's lyrics ruin it for me really. Cliched rock BS. And the shiny / too trebly early '90s production. By contrast Zooma had a lot of bottom end whump.

I have to agree the lyrics (and "singing" ) spoil it for me, except for Whisper a Prayer for the Dying.  That is compelling stuff.   And so many great riffs in one track.  

One track Coverdale really ruins is Absolution Blues - one of Page's greatest intros and main riffs.   That intro is Achilles meets In the Evening and goes over the top top top top top.  

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  • 1 month later...
On 5/23/2017 at 7:03 AM, SuperStatic said:

Agreed, Zooma is a tour de force. It show cases JPJ's criminally underrated musicianship in spades. What I meant by Coverdale/Page being the "best over all" solo album by any of the guys is its AOR nature in comparison to Zeppelin's albums and not necessarily its musicianship (which was pretty stellar in itself imo).   

Coverdale/Page went Platinum in the U.S. without a supporting tour, something neither Manic Nirvana or Fate of Nations achieved with tours. Coverdale/Page is a great rock record criminally underrated on this board yet oddly enough, was quite a bit more popular in its time than any album released by a solo Led Zeppelin member since Now and Zen in 1988 to present. The steady sales happened despite all of the negatives that surrounded its release -- the utter contempt Page fans had for the idea of our hero working with Coverdale; Plant being first and foremost among us, slagging C/P at every opportunity; no U.S. tour; Coverdale's really so bad so sad feeling stronger/can't wait any longer lyrics; and totally disdainful reviews by an increasingly hip American press suddenly filled with latent punk pretensions out to bury anything that sounded remotely metal. The Coverdale-Page record should have flopped in the grunge era. But it didn't. People who heard the radio release tracks, those who still listened to AOR radio (apparently, they were out there somewhere, and both "Pride and Joy" and "Shake My Tree" were top 5 hot rock hits), dug 'em and went out and bought the record.  Apparently, they played it for others who hadn't bought it initially and, by mid-1995, the album was certified Platinum.

How and why did C-P become the best selling post-Zep solo effort of the last 25+ years? That's easy. From Page's opening reel on "Shake My Tree", Coverdale-Page is filled with killer rock riffs that put the bands of the day -- Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, G n R (Use Your Illusion era), the Black Crowes, et al. to shame. Tracks like "Over Now" could easily be centerpiece tracks on any Soundgarden album and might be considered classics if they had been. No it's not as hip as Transient Random Noise Bursts (stereolab, 1993) or the great Porno for Pyros record or Independent Worm Saloon, the Butthole Surfers record JPJ produced that year, but hardly anybody bought that stuff and "Feeling Hot" rips like Reverend Horton Heat. If you can ignore the lame-o metal ballad banalities of Coverdale on "Take Me For a Little While" -- track 3 - skip it!!! -- by track six you begin to get the idea that you're listening to one of the best albums of 1993. Track 7 -- "Easy Does It" is classic psychedelic Page w/ noise guitar and another riff that shames the grunge era, and it seals the deal. Musicians are quite probably the reason this album got around. Skip track 8 -- is that Night Ranger or that song from St Elmo's Fire you want to forget? The next track, "Don't Leave Me This Way" is fantastic, a soaring progressive blues tour de force -- I wish the Firm had been this good, and I wish this had been track 3 instead of the metal ballad. Alright, I'm sold. Holy crap - "Absolution Blues" -- Jimmy is on FIRE. No wonder Plant picked up the phone. (EDIT - And they save the best for last: "Whisper A Prayer for the Dying" will haunt you for days and may feature an idea or two from the XYZ sessions swirling around in its mix - another brilliant statement on an album that didn't get its due yet found an audience anyway, on its own merits.)

There really should be a new thread, a dedicated re-evaluation of the Coverdale-Page album on its own terms now that Jimmy is effectively retired (age 73) and we can try to look back on it with a clearer, depoliticized lens. This thread is old and nobody seems to have wanted to deal with the OP in years. 

Edited by Mercurious
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On ‎7‎/‎8‎/‎2017 at 9:55 AM, Mercurious said:

Coverdale/Page went Platinum in the U.S. without a supporting tour, something neither Manic Nirvana or Fate of Nations achieved with tours. Coverdale/Page is a great rock record criminally underrated on this board yet oddly enough, was quite a bit more popular in its time than any album released by a solo Led Zeppelin member since Now and Zen in 1988 to present. The steady sales happened despite all of the negatives that surrounded its release -- the utter contempt Page fans had for the idea of our hero working with Coverdale; Plant being first and foremost among us, slagging C/P at every opportunity; no U.S. tour; Coverdale's really so bad so sad feeling stronger/can't wait any longer lyrics; and totally disdainful reviews by an increasingly hip American press suddenly filled with latent punk pretensions out to bury anything that sounded remotely metal. The Coverdale-Page record should have flopped in the grunge era. But it didn't. People who heard the radio release tracks, those who still listened to AOR radio (apparently, they were out there somewhere, and both "Pride and Joy" and "Shake My Tree" were top 5 hot rock hits), dug 'em and went out and bought the record.  Apparently, they played it for others who hadn't bought it initially and, by mid-1995, the album was certified Platinum.

How and why did C-P become the best selling post-Zep solo effort of the last 25+ years? That's easy. From Page's opening reel on "Shake My Tree", Coverdale-Page is filled with killer rock riffs that put the bands of the day -- Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, G n R (Use Your Illusion era), the Black Crowes, et al. to shame. Tracks like "Over Now" could easily be centerpiece tracks on any Soundgarden album and might be considered classics if they had been. No it's not as hip as Transient Random Noise Bursts (stereolab, 1993) or the great Porno for Pyros record or Independent Worm Saloon, the Butthole Surfers record JPJ produced that year, but hardly anybody bought that stuff and "Feeling Hot" rips like Reverend Horton Heat. If you can ignore the lame-o metal ballad banalities of Coverdale on "Take Me For a Little While" -- track 3 - skip it!!! -- by track six you begin to get the idea that you're listening to one of the best albums of 1993. Track 7 -- "Easy Does It" is classic psychedelic Page w/ noise guitar and another riff that shames the grunge era, and it seals the deal. Musicians are quite probably the reason this album got around. Skip track 8 -- is that Night Ranger or that song from St Elmo's Fire you want to forget? The next track, "Don't Leave Me This Way" is fantastic, a soaring progressive blues tour de force -- I wish the Firm had been this good, and I wish this had been track 3 instead of the metal ballad. Alright, I'm sold. Holy crap - "Absolution Blues" -- Jimmy is on FIRE. No wonder Plant picked up the phone. (EDIT - And they save the best for last: "Whisper A Prayer for the Dying" will haunt you for days and may feature an idea or two from the XYZ sessions swirling around in its mix - another brilliant statement on an album that didn't get its due yet found an audience anyway, on its own merits.)

There really should be a new thread, a dedicated re-evaluation of the Coverdale-Page album on its own terms now that Jimmy is effectively retired (age 73) and we can try to look back on it with a clearer, depoliticized lens. This thread is old and nobody seems to have wanted to deal with the OP in years. 

You raise really great points here imo, and I pretty much agree with all of them. I remember when I first heard that Jimmy and David where teaming up. I was both excited and hesitant at the same time because I'd watched Jimmy unite with an exceptional front man in Paul Rogers, yet to my ears The Firm albums where mediocre compared to I expected from such a musically talented pairing. But when the day came and the local rock station dropped Pride and Joy it just blew my mind. The riff was slamming, vintage Page, yet it sounded fresh to my ears. I was like "Damn that rocks!! It was really exciting to be a Zeppelin fan again because we finally had new GOOD Zeppelin-like music, and from Jimmy Page himself. And it seemed like it was about damn time too. Pride and Joy quickly became the most requested song, day after day, week after week. People kept calling into the station asking to hear Jimmy's new music. I couldn't help but feel good for him because up till that time it kind of felt like he'd become a little irrelevant in the 'modern' musical landscape, even being viewed by some as an old washed up rocker whos better days where far behind.

But despite the fact that the album did indeed sell really well and generated a lot of excitement at the time, in general I still think its a woefully underrated piece of work. It has Jimmy's best studio guitar playing/recording since Zeppelin. And the great thing is overall  it still holds up fantastic even decades later.

I agree with you, I hope that this album gets more attention from the fans and music critics than it has in the past and people really judge it on its merits and context without the tired clichés and pre-conceived judgements . 

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I think Coverdale/Page is Jimmy's best Post-Zeppelin work.  He's in full rockstar mode and sounds like he is having tons of fun.  Coverdale's voice is great, the lyrics are what they are (nothing special), and I don't let the fact that Coverdale seems full of himself in interviews ruin the album.  A two-CD re-release with demo's and the three unrealeased songs is long overdue.  David Coverdale has mentioned it in interviews and I hope that it happens.  If they got back together and put out another album or toured the US I'd be there in a heartbeat.  Sadly, I think that Jimmy Page is unofficially semi-retired. 

Coverdale/Page kills The Firm which sounds flat, uninspired, and uninteresting.  It's Jimmy Page taking a back seat to a far less talented musician and playing in 2nd gear the whole time.  Outrider is good, but not great.  There's a spark of inspiration there but it never blossoms into a full flame.  If I'm being honest I think Coverdale/Page even beats out "Walking into Clarksdale."  Did someone banned Jimmy Page from playing guitar solos on that album?

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Plant in the 1980s.

Page in the 1990s-2000 with Coverdale, Plant, Puff-Daddy (Platinum single) and the Black Crowes, plus all the work on the remasters.

Jones in the 'aughts thru 2010 and beyond. 

Interesting how this has played out.

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I can totally relate to cheering on jimmy page in 1993 with the coverdale page record, i listened to it nonstop along with all the new grunge rock...,which was different and the biggest breath of fresh air for hard rock music, since mtv and the whole 80s. But as the years went on, i lost interest with long term listening, after the page plant era. Yet i still listen to coverdale page every once in awhile and enjoy it. Obviously, it kicks ass sonically....but i listen to the firm, much much more than coverdale page. 

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On 7/14/2017 at 8:02 PM, middlezep said:

I can totally relate to cheering on jimmy page in 1993 with the coverdale page record, i listened to it nonstop along with all the new grunge rock...,which was different and the biggest breath of fresh air for hard rock music, since mtv and the whole 80s. But as the years went on, i lost interest with long term listening, after the page plant era. Yet i still listen to coverdale page every once in awhile and enjoy it. Obviously, it kicks ass sonically....but i listen to the firm, much much more than coverdale page. 

Over Now, Pride and Joy, and Easy Does It, Shake My Tree are by far the 4 best songs I have heard from any Zeppelin member since they broke up - LOVE Coverdake Page

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On 5/23/2017 at 9:20 PM, zooma said:

Page has always needed Jones to give him that something extra that didn't always show up in the songwriting credits. I would love to hear what they came up with in 2008. 

You and me booth - I have spent years sending out emails to people, phone people and places asking if anyone has it and who might have it - I would love to hear those bits - can't find them anywhere

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2 hours ago, Charles J. White said:

You and me booth - I have spent years sending out emails to people, phone people and places asking if anyone has it and who might have it - I would love to hear those bits - can't find them anywhere

Any recordings would certainly be under lock and key but they could slip out.  Never give up hope, just look at what happened to the 02 final rehearsal. 

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On July 20, 2017 at 11:09 AM, Charles J. White said:

Over Now, Pride and Joy, and Easy Does It, Shake My Tree are by far the 4 best songs I have heard from any Zeppelin member since they broke up - LOVE Coverdake Page

I agree, but there is zooma, them crooked vultures and even the master at being unheavy....mighty rearranger, PLANT. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 7/8/2017 at 7:55 AM, Mercurious said:

Coverdale/Page ...

There really should be a new thread, a dedicated re-evaluation of the Coverdale-Page album on its own terms now that Jimmy is effectively retired (age 73) and we can try to look back on it with a clearer, depoliticized lens. This thread is old and nobody seems to have wanted to deal with the OP in years. 

I so agree!  Coverdale/Page is one of my absolute favorites of all JP's work.  If another thread is opened I hope I find it!

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Would love if someone could specifically identify when/where these photos were taken.  I'm  leaning towards 17 or 18 December 1993, Tokyo, Japan at Yoyogi Olympic Arena, but there aren't a lot of photos available of those shows that I could find.  That is his Les Paul No. 3, correct?

Thanks in advance.

 

UNK JimmyPage_LesPaulGibsonNo3.jpg

1993_Japan_coverdalepagelive_possiblyYoyogi.jpg

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2 hours ago, lif said:

I so agree!  Coverdale/Page is one of my absolute favorites of all JP's work.  If another thread is opened I hope I find it!

I agree with what Mecurious said too, except there is so much material on this thread now...

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On 5/23/2017 at 11:14 AM, 76229 said:

I love the guitar playing on the Coverdale / Page album, but Coverdale's lyrics ruin it for me really. Cliched rock BS. 

My opinion as well. His voice doesn't bother me, what he's singing does. His lyrics are the worst.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 8/12/2017 at 8:00 PM, luvlz2 said:

I agree with what Mecurious said too, except there is so much material on this thread now...

Yes, I wish there was a way to move the more recent stuff, which is really good, especially the remembrances of 1993, and hearing "Pride and Joy" and "Shake my Tree" on the radio for the first time. I guess just leave it be, despite the trashing the album receives at the start of a thread, which, as unpleasantly hip and wrongheaded as the initial reviews were, they have historical value too.  

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On 2/10/2008 at 5:03 AM, mos6507 said:

Rolling Stone's review is much fairer, and matches my opinions on it.

 

http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/davidc...6/coverdalepage

"Ooops - We can't find what you're looking for", Rolling Stone says when you click that link from the first part of the thread. "Page not Found" says my browser, pun intended, summing up my feeling on those early pages of the topic. How could anybody dislike this album? much less despise it so much as to start a troll topic on the Led Zep forum of all places?  Maybe it was Robert? 

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I went to see JBLZE recently and before leaving for the concert was deciding whether to wear one of my Zeppelin t-shirts or Robert Plant or maybe my C./P. t-shirt. I figured a lot of people would be wearing Zeppelin shirts, and at the last minute I decided on the C./P. shirt.

On the way to the concert I was having second thoughts, thinking why am I wearing this to Jason's Led Zeppelin tribute? I should be wearing a Zeppelin shirt! It even occurred to me that I might even get into a fight over it. I said oh well, just stand my ground in case anyone decides to give me any kind of slack over it. I love this album and will stand my ground about my love for it, my love for Page's work! I certainly don't go around looking for any kind of fights in general, but you never know what could transpire at a concert.

But when I arrived I immediately got a warm compliment over it from the first group of people who saw me, and I continued getting compliments all night long until I left the concert! Turned out it was a smart move! There were a lot of people wearing Zeppelin shirts...

Edited by luvlz2
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Yeah, I didn't like the Firm's material much, but as mentioned he played NO Zep licks with them, and some shows Jimmy's

B-Bender antics sounded like nothing else heard before. Yes Jimmy changed his style all thru Zep, but nothing as drastic

a change as the total style change with the Firm. About choosing other band members who clearly have little Zep

influence, hmmmmm......... Tony Franklin is very talented, but IMO he stuck up as many songs as he enhanced. Chris

Squire would have been great, just listen to the XYZ version of Fortune Hunter. Chris Slade was good, but Jimmy( or Paul)

had quite a few songs that had sparse guitar patterns or riffs. That would be fine with Bonzo, but live the Firm definetly

sounded thin at times.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/4/2017 at 11:45 PM, luvlz2 said:

I went to see JBLZE recently and before leaving for the concert was deciding whether to wear one of my Zeppelin t-shirts or Robert Plant or maybe my C./P. t-shirt. I figured a lot of people would be wearing Zeppelin shirts, and at the last minute I decided on the C./P. shirt.

 

I too would have chosen the Coverdale Page T-shirt for 3 reasons:

(1) I love that fuckign album to bits

(2) I would have worn it to get a reaction out of people (which makes me grin)

(3) I would hope that others would love the shirt!

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This t-shirt stuff is really funny, as I don't ever remember a C/P shirt, was this available much later ?? Also as far as I remember all the bootleg t-shirt activity, at least in NY, was pretty much gone by 2000 or so. Just mentioning that because

at concerts from then on, most shirts(official) were 35$-40$ ++. I remember buying a Plant Principle of Moments 83'

tour shirt for $6.00. Bootleg, and started to unravel after 10-12 washings.

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I am amazed at Zeppelin fans and their total disregard for this album. There have been a few in this thread who have complimented it, but too few and too far between. Why? I'll tell you why... because of Robert Plant and his comments in 1988. If Plant had come out and said he liked Whitesnake and was a friend of David, you would all love the album. But Plant, being co classless to say the things he did, really made it difficult for Coverdale/Page to get any appreciation with his continual attacks in 1993.

A lot you say you don't like David's lyrics... okay, fine. David has always said he's a meat and potatoes, nuts and bolts lyricist. One thing he's never done though is rip off blues musicians and claim to have written something that he didn't. Plant didn't just do it on the first two albums either, he did it on IV... When The Levee Breaks. Physical Graffiti on In My Time Of Dying and on Presence on Nobody's Fault But Mine.

So if he's such a good songwriter, why the need to rip people off???

Another question... two of Plant's best songs lyrically in my opinion, are Achilles Last Stand and Carouselambra... and most of you don't even know what Carouselambra is even about... but why write such great lyrics and then sing them so they can't be understood on the album? It took me years to finally figure what he's singing in those two songs, but I just don't get the reason behind his studio performance and how he could sing them in such a way that nobody knew what the heck he was singing.

I'm sure there are videos on You Tube now that have the lyrics to these songs on the screen, but back in the 70's, there was no You Tube.

One last thing, a lot of you have been wondering about the three recorded Coverdale/Page songs that didn't make it on the album. I have two of them, and made a video for Southern Comfort. It will be below.

Jimmy made friends with David quickly and to this day, they remain friends. It's such a shame that most Zeppelin fans are so closed minded on the C/P album.

 

 

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