RE: Favorite Robert CD/Album

["Steve Thomson" <Steve.Thomson@xxxxxx>]

As an overall album, I thought Pictures at Eleven was Robert' best and most
honest work. He was in good voice. He'd lost the gruff, midrange barking
tone that plagued so much of ITTOD and was developing a rich, confident
midrange. His songwriting was branching out, but he still had a sense of
melody and overall song presentation that marked Zeppelin's work. The rest
of his solo albums were either half good, half bad (Principle, Now and Zen,
Nirvana, and Fate) or generally horrible with only one or two redeeming
tracks (Shaken, Dreamland). Shaken's mambo/samba/quirky fetish was painful!
Throughout his albums, such throw away tracks as Billy's Revenge, Helen of
Troy, Why, Big Love, She Said ruined so many listening sessions. In
addition, he should be sentenced to 40 lashes for inflicting the three-pack
line-up of wretchedness that is The Greatest Gift, Great Spirit, and Network
News! Absolute ca-ca of monumental proportions! The beginning of that album
was wonderful, the middle not bad, but my God were those last three
stinkers!

As for your Page solo albums, a couple of people commented, but most of us
were caught up in dealing with that assertion about his allegedly
"tragically little" post-Zeppelin output! The Death Wish II soundtrack had
many strong riffs but needed a backing band and a reasonable singer to give
it spunk. The first Firm album was highly underrated whereas the second one
was almost as bad as Plant's Dreamland. Jugula was an interesting and
complex album that's marred by Harper's nasal voice and quirky nature.
Outrider was like Death Wish II, in need of a stable singer and a backing
band with the right oomph (face it, Jason was just a kid then, plus he just
didn't inherit his dad's sense of timing or dynamics). Coverdale/Page was a
tremendous album, probably Page's best post-Zeppelin work in terms of an
overall guitar performance on new music. Coverdale was his typical self and
the backing band was boring as heck, but the guitar work was layered and
intricate. Unledded was a nice triumph for Page but by then Plant's voice
was sounding almost senior-citizen (I don’t know what he did to himself
during the summer of 1994 because for the Alexis Korner stage debut of
Page/Plant, he was in fine voice). WIC suffered from the same bad singing
plus the rhythm section really suffered given that they didn't have Jones
and Bonham performances to copy or emulate. The Crowes performances were
excellent but I'm not a fan of Chris Robinson's singing style.


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-zeppelin@xxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-zeppelin@xxxxxxxx]On Behalf
Of Vilma
Sent: March 25, 2005 2:48 PM
To: FBO Zep List
Subject: Favorite Robert CD/Album


Just wondering what most of you consider to be your most favorite Robert
Album/CD.

My vote: Fate Of Nations followed closely by Now and Zen... I'm hoping
Mighty Rearranger comes close to that or supersedes it.

I noticed not many people wanted to say what their favorite Jimmy Page solo
album was just wanted to get an idea what most fans considered his best.

Zepgirly~

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