RE: Instrumentals

["Joe Armendariz" <joe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Only One from Outrider is some of the crunchiest and fuzziest guitar
Jimmy has done since led zeppelin. Makes me wonder if it was in the
vault and was intended for zeppelin at some point.  

-----Original Message-----
From: admins-zeppelin@xxxxxxxx [mailto:admins-zeppelin@xxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Steve Thomson
Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2008 7:47 PM
To: zeppelin@xxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Instrumentals

Some good points, Glenn. I don't necessarily agree about JPJ's 
instrumentals. I still think Zooma is by far the best post-Zeppelin 
effort in terms of capturing the most of the Led Zeppelin "magic" or 
sound. Sure, Plant was able to sound a lot like Zeppelin because he was 
the singer, but none of his solo bands ever got it right). Ironically, 
Jimmy was the least successful in sounding like Zeppelin. I think this 
is partially because he not only needed a singer but a rhythm section.

I do think there's some merit to the notion of Page just wanting to get 
out there and do some "hooky" stuff. It'd have to be good stuff, and to 
be honest, he probably felt strange doing Still of the Night after 
having slagged it in interviews when it came out. Still, I think the man

basically just wants to get out there and, as he put it in one interview

I read years ago, just "have a dance." So why aren't we seeing him out 
there? For a variety of reasons. As I wrote the other day, watching the 
O2 footage on the 10th really hit home just how much that whole 
experience must have affected him. There's a point near the end of Black

Dog where you can see a visible change in all fourm where the real 
"tight but loose" effect kicks in and you can see Jimmy losing himself 
in the music (all of them really). It's tremendous to watch on video so 
it must have been incredible in person. I think that actually it's a key

to why we won't see Jimmy out there playing unless he can get the band 
together. to go from that to anything else would be like giving up a 
gourmet feast for a stale Spam sandwich!

Glenn Saunders wrote:
> Jimmy is better at instrumentals than JPJ because most of JPJ's stuff
has no lead work on it (except for slide guitar, atonal stick or kyma
stuff).  The two combined could make great instrumentals.  Look at
something like Dazed and Confused.  It was, by 1975, almost progressive
rock with its various movements and Robert's contribution was minimal.
That's what I'd like to see them do more than the typical 3 minute rock
song with the typical hook/verse/chorus/solo.
>
> But left to his own devices I think Jimmy still wants to write
no-nonsense hooky radio-friendly AOR rock with vocals.  There is a
consistent songwriting approach in something like Communication
Breakdown, Who's to Blame, Wasting My Time, Shake My Tree, and Shining
in the Light.  You know, those rhythmic power chording in sync with the
drums.  That's his trademark.  I think that's what he sees as the bread
and butter of a heavy band, the hard rock single.
>
> JPJ goes out there and appeals to kind of more of a musically literate
audience (like the Sonic Youth thing coming up).  Jimmy, on the other
hand, has no problem going out there and playing hair-band crowd
pleasers like Still of the Night in Japan with David Coverdale with a
cigarette hanging out of his mouth.
>
> So I think maybe Jimmy has more of a 'sprit of rock and roll' approach
to music and he's kind of underappreciated his skills as a composer of
serious music that could stand on its own without a singer to complete
the cock-rock formula.
>
> I've always wished he'd get back into soundtracks because he'd be
really good at it.
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