Re: Plant stuff

[Steve Thomson <steve.thomson@xxxxxx>]

Thanks for the review, Nech. I'll definitely have to check it out. Your post 
touched on a couple of points I've been meaning to mention in discussions here. 

It has been said several times that you really have to see Plant live to 
appreciate 
him now. First, in a couple of cases, this has almost been a tacit admission 
that 
his recent recordings are lacking. This kind of comment also reflects the 
notion 
of "the event," the mass communal coming together of fans witnessing a 
performance 
by someone they like. There's an excitement or "buzz" in the air (over and 
above 
any other substance-related buzzes that might be happening) that causes one to 
ignore or not even hear the deficiencies. This can demolish any objectivity 
when 
assessing the quality of a performance. If someone then experiences the 
performance 
after the fact as captured by an audio or video recording, it's possible to 
appreciate it with much more objectivity, even if pleasant memories cloud 
things 
somewhat. This happened to me with the '95 Page/Plant performance here in 
Montreal. 
At that show, Percy sounded better to me than anything he did in years and Page 
was 
on fire! I went home and promptly wrote a completely over-the-top ga-ga review 
for 
Tight but Loose! A few months later, I received a cassette of the show and to 
be 
honest, it sounded very much like all the other Page/Plant shows from the time. 
It 
wasn't bad, but the actual musical performance wasn't nearly as special. There 
are 
some special PP performances, but Montreal didn't stand out at all.

If the viewer/listener was never at a performance in the first place, 
objectivity 
is much easier. For instance, I thought the RPSS VH1 Storytellers performances 
were 
generally tremendous. Granted, Plant was coming across as his typical 1990+ 
pompous-
donkey's derriere self whenever he'd babble on about the blues as if he were 
some 
aging school mistress who knew more than her errant pupils, but the band was 
smoking, and Plant was able to sing fairly well. However, the Austin City 
Limits 
performance from the same tour was painful to watch. Plant seemed like a 
disillusioned, aging has-been just going through the motions. It'll be 
interesting 
to see and hear the new stuff. Initial indications are hopeful, but who knows? 
The 
review Stephen posted this morning sounds good, but then again the reviewer's 
comment about it possibly being Plant's best showing since Physical Graffiti 
sounds 
suspect. Plant himself said that about the album recently (and as I've written 
before, he says this about every second solo album or so), so it sounds as if 
this 
reviewer simply read a press kit and let it go to his head.

The predominance of the word "trance" both in your message and in a lot of 
reviews, 
comments, etc., regarding Mighty ReArranger lead me to think Plant is doing 
once 
again what he did in the 80's: surrounding himself with musicians and sounds 
that 
make him seem hip or in. Whereas Zeppelin created trends, Plant seems content 
to 
follow them without admitting that. Even the whole world music, Arabic, North 
African rhythm thing is old school now. Zeppelin did it in the 70's; Paul 
Simon, 
Peter Gabriel and others did it in the 80's and 90's. Now here's Plant coming 
along 
as if he's discovered it only recently (as Ross Halfin has mentioned). Heck, 
Madonna did the trance-electronica thing almost a decade ago! Somewhere around 
my 
place, I have some old interviews from the 80's with Plant. I know at least one 
of 
them has him saying he didn't have much to do with the actual musical or 
recording 
content of Zeppelin--he left all that stuff up to Jimmy. Therefore, it's 
somewhat 
hard for him to claim to be continuing something he started in Zeppelin. Plus, 
the 
whole notion of him once again re-working No Quarter is offensive not only to 
JPJ 
but also to those Zeppelin fans who think Jones was unfairly treated back in 
'94-
'95. It's incredibly arrogant.

Nonetheless, I continue to hope Mighty ReArranger is a good album and does 
well. If 
he makes it up to Montreal, I might even go see him. After all, he was the 
voice of 
Led Zeppelin and as such, he and his band have the potential of being the best 
Led 
Zep cover band in town (although Zepagain would blow them right off the stage! 
;-)