Classic Rock Bottom

VOTW - JIMMY PAGE Special

Jimmy Page is probably no. 3 of my personal list of musicians or whatever (a list that would have McCartney on the top spot and Pete townshend on second spot). I never saw Page live, which is one of my great regrets. But it can still happen, I guess. I don't know how much you guys knows the "Page/Zeppelin-story", so I won't really go deeply in to that. I've read several books about Zeppelin and a few about Page especially. Here's a few video's from Page's history, and off course there is one Zeppelin-video among them. They are in no order at all:

THE FIRM - RADIOACTIVE

The Firm were a British rock supergroup comprising former Free and Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers, guitarist Jimmy Page formerly of The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin, and Manfred Mann's Earth Band and Uriah Heep drummer Chris Slade and bass player Tony Franklin. Page and Rodgers originally wanted former Yes drummer Bill Bruford and fretless bassist Pino Palladino in the group; however, Bruford was contracted to another label and Palladino had tour commitments with singer Paul Young.Both Page and Rodgers refused to play any material from their former bands and instead opted for a selection of Firm songs plus tracks from both their solo albums. The new songs were heavily infused with a soulful and more commercially accessible sound, courtesy of Franklin's fretless bass guitar underpinning an understated song structure. Despite refusing to play old material, the last track from The Firm, "Midnight Moonlight", was originally an unreleased Led Zeppelin song entitled "The Swan Song". This caused some critics to believe that Page had begun to run out of ideas. In subsequent press interviews, Page had indicated that the band was never meant to last more than two albums. After the band split, Page and Rodgers returned to solo work while Chris Slade joined AC/DC and Franklin teamed up with guitarist John Sykes in Blue Murder. I bought both The Firm-albums, when they were released, and was very dissapointed in them both. At the time, in 1984, I hadn't bought any Zeppelin-albums yet, and the only Zeppelin-album I had heard at that point was "In Through The Outdoor", so off course I was thinking "WTF is the fuss about"?

JIMMY PAGE - WASTING MY TIME

Outrider is an album by Jimmy Page, released by Geffen Records on 19 June 1988. It is his first solo studio album and the first time since 1969 he has recorded with a record label other than Atlantic Records/Swan Song Records. Page recorded the music at his personal studio The Sol. Robert Plant guests on one track, "The Only One", while John Bonham's son Jason plays drums for the first time on record.This was originally intended to be a two album release. However, during the early recording stages of this album, Page's house was broken into and amongst the items stolen were the demo tapes which had been recorded up to that point. Page didn't record any demos prior to recording the album itself. Released just a few months before I bought Zep IV, so once again I thought, why is Page so populare? This album wasn't very good either.

COVERDALE/PAGE - TAKE ME FOR A LITTLE WHILE

Coverdale•Page was a musical collaboration featuring Whitesnake and former Deep Purple lead vocalist David Coverdale, and former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page.The project between the two artists commenced in 1991 at the suggestion of American A&R executive John Kalodner, as both artists were signed to Geffen Records at the time in North America.Their debut album, Coverdale/Page was released on 15 March 1993, reaching No. 4 in the UK and No. 5 on the US Billboard 200 chart. Five singles were released to promote the album: "Pride and Joy", "Shake My Tree", "Take Me for a Little While", "Take a Look at Yourself" and "Over Now".The album was certified Gold by the RIAA for sales of the LP, CD & Cassette in excess of 500,000 copies and eventually went Platinum. The album also received the official Japanese Sony Music in-house award for sales in excess of 150,000 copies in Japan as well as the EMI in-house sales award for sales in excess of 60,000 copies in the UK.It has been rumoured that Page collaborated with Coverdale in order to irk Page's former Led Zeppelin bandmate Robert Plant, who up to that point had been reluctant to reunite with Page. In interviews at the time, Plant expressed some derision at the guitarist's collaboration with Coverdale.An American arena tour was planned for the summer of 1993, but after sluggish ticket sales the tour was scrapped in favour of a series of concerts in Japan, after which the partnership was dissolved. Page subsequently teamed up with Plant for an "UnLedded" MTV project and Coverdale returned to Whitesnake. At this point, i was a Zeppelin.fan, but not that fond of coverdale, and saw this album as a mistake, and never bought it.

PAGE & PLANT - MOST HIGH

Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, both formerly of the English hard rock band Led Zeppelin, recorded and toured in the mid-1990s under the title Page and Plant. The pair re-united in 1994 and, after recording a highly successful first album, they embarked on a world tour. They then recorded a second album, followed by another world tour, before disbanding at the end of 1998. They later briefly reunited in 2001. "Most High" is a song from the studio album Walking into Clarksdale, released through Atlantic Records in 1998. In 1999, the song won Page and Plant the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance. It reached number one on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart in May 1998.

LED ZEPPELIN - SICK AGAIN

The Earls Court concerts are considered by some critics to be the best ever performed by Led Zeppelin, and the shows received generally excellent reviews from the music press, including those published in Sounds, New Musical Express and Melody Maker. Music journalist Chris Welch, who attended the performances, recalled years later:The band played with tremendous fire, possessed by an almost demonic power, amidst clouds of smoke pierced by green laser beams. Jimmy Page flailed his violin bow against the guitar strings, producing eerie, echoing gothic howls. At the time, I wrote in a review that "Robert Plant maintains an essentially human, chatty approach to audiences, almost like a guide taking us through the story of the band, a jester at the wheel of some fearsome juggernaut, offering sly asides and poetic ruminations between moments of terrible power." ... The band enjoyed the Physical Graffiti material far more than the old war horses, and the best moments from the previous albums came in the shape of ballads and acoustic songs.According to Led Zeppelin archivist Dave Lewis:When Led Zeppelin undertook the series of five shows at London's Earl's Court Arena on May of 1975 they were at the very peak of their creative powers. Spurred on by the critical and commercial success of their sixth album, the double set Physical Graffiti, each show they played took on event-like proportions. The 17,000 capacity Earl's Court afforded them the luxury to showcase in the best possible setting, the sheer enormity of their stage act. Over five nights of May '75 Zeppelin delivered perhaps the most impressive series of shows of their entire career ... Photographic images from the shows still light up the pages of countless Zep features and books, bootleg performances are eagerly snapped up,and the official video footage of the gigs projects the sheer magnitude and power of Led Zeppelin in full flight more than any other surviving film of the group.

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Thought I might get to these this morning, but I ran out of time (couldn't drag my behind out of bed).  I like Page, but I wouldn't put him on any list I don't think.  We'll see, hopefully tomorrow morning, if there's a chance I would change my mind.

Radioactive - The Firm was cool.  I have both albums, but as I remember, they are both just okay.  But with Page and Rodgers, they should have been bigger.  Don't get me wrong, they had a few pretty good hits, but that's it.  I dig this song, but my favorite by The Firm is All The Kings Horses.  I can't stand videos that are edited to the point that it's constantly switching from one clip to the next.  They are too hard to watch.

Wasting My Time - Video is blocked in my country.  I do not have this album, but I have considered picking it up.  

Take Me For A Little While - I own this album, but truthfully, I've never listened to the whole album.  But I do like this song.  That's a lot of extra strings on Page's guitar.  That's a very good looking woman in the video.  This is back when Coverdale could still sing quite well.  And I really like Page's playing here, though it sounds like a product of the times and not something he would have ever done in Zeppelin.  I don't have the slightest problem with that, I'm just mentioning it.

Most High - Is that supposed to be a mid-Eastern sound?  I just checked, and I do own this album.  I think I found it at the used CD store.  But again, I've never listened to it.  It does sound a bit like Zeppelin, for obvious reasons, but I think the drumming keeps it from sounding just like Zeppelin.  It's a bit weird, not sure if I like it or not.

Sick Again - This is cool.  This is the part of Page I like.  He's not a particularly tight player.  He plays messy, and to me that's when he's at his best.  Even his rhythm playing on this song is awesome.  Nice pick to close it out.

THE FIRM ...  I cant say this one has ever done much for me.  At first I was excited but after hearing this song I stayed away.  Always thought this pairing would bear more fruit but it faded as fast as it started.

COVERDALE PAGE ... Here's another pairing that when I heard about it I was excited.  Thought it was a natural.  And if memory serves me right (and it usually does), my brother bought this album and after "borrowing" it I couldn't get into it.  The guitar is a bit underwhelming on this one something that should've been a heavy emphasis by these two got lost.

PAGE AND PLANT ...  This is much better.  They need each other!  Maybe they should try again, you know, one more time for old times! The production feels right, the song sound like it could've come out of the ITTOD sessions.

LED ZEPPELIN ... This is predictably great.  Would love to see Page and Plant take this approach one more time (as I mentioned above), but without all that studio trickery, eastern influence, just a guitar and two guys writing some rock and roll.  Wonder how that would turn out!

Besides the one video that doesn't play here, this was fun!

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