Robert Plant's Solo career: classic, dud, search, destroy, etc.

OH NO! That naughty Thom Jurek is at it again! Check out that line about Lester Bangs.

OH NOES! That naughty Thom Jurek is at it again! Check out that line about Lester Bangs.

I totally loved "Tie Dye to the Highway" at the time (Grade 6/7). I really liked "Hurting Kind" too. I also remember "Liar's Dance" being good. Some of the rest too. I remember writing a review of Manic Nirvana for a Gr 7 English assignment and saying that it was pretty good but leaves the listener wanting a little more.

I think the coolest thing about his 80s solo career was how he reinvented his persona as this button-down shirt-wearing English gentleman artiste, sort of a hippie Peter Gabriel.

"Tall Cool One" was great, WTF? Or at least I thought so then. "Ship of Fools" too. I don't remember that album as well.

Yeah, "In the Mood" is good.

and yes, some of his solo stuff is pretty good ... i always liked "in the mood," "little by little," and "heaven knows" (though the lyrics are sorta c-grade bryan ferry [OF ALL PEOPLE FOR MR. DOES-ANYONE-REMEMBER-LAUGHTER TO TRY TO IMITATE COULD YOU SEE THE FAVOR BEING RECIPROCATED?!]). the honeydrippers "sea of love" remake is silly, but it lead me to the original version so it's all good in the end (plus the video was prime mid-eighties cheese and the chick therein looked like a high-school teacher i really crushed on big time).

http://www.borntoboogie.net/Images/premiere/tv_robplant_rolan.jpg

(That's Tony Visconti and Rolan Bolan, Marc's son, on either side of him at an event for the Born to Boogie DVD.)

An unmentioned song I still go back to: the beautiful synth ballad "Thru With The Two Step" from Principle of Moments. Man, I wish he'd locked into that sound/vibe and just stayed there....

I like Robert Plant's first three records (the Robbie Blunt trilogy) a lot, and appreciate the effort on Plant's part to make them NOT sound like Zeppelin. Which would've been a mistake, considering how his voice has deteriorated over the years - couldn't hit the high notes anymore. His next few weren't very good at all, although sampling the Beastie Boys was a clever move. "Calling To You" and "Tie Die On The Highway" were pretty spacey. (Incidentally, what the heck was up with those ultra-arcane song titles, anyway? Were they dope-inspired? pulled at random out of a hat? i-ching toss-results? or just inside jokes? Dunno; but one of the few that made sense: "Mystery Title"!

He has since irritatingly renounced said efforts, alas.

Actually I didn't even know there was one!

I have to say I kinda regret not getting The Principle of Moments back when I heard "Big Log" and "In the Mood" on the radio in upstate New York -- both reasonably big hits and spun quite a bit. I was 12 then and had I picked up the album and really gotten into it, it would have been interesting to see how I viewed Led Zep and much else in retrospect.

I think Zeppelin's cover art is/was unfairly derided...most of it is really good. Obv. it was Page (the former art student), who was in charge of hiring Hipgnosis.

One of the Hipgnosis guys (most likely Storm Thorgerson) proposed artwork for Houses Of The Holy with a picture of a tennis match on the cover. When asked what it meant, he said "Don't you get it? Racket!" and that was the end of that.

Funny that PIL ended up doing Kashmir live

I saw them do as their opening number on the Album tour....only the band played it before Lydon took the stage (releaving him of the burden of singing it).

I can't belive how many times I've heard the latest single in the last six weeks; it's not something that would make me search out this album, but the one acoustic track I did hear was surprisingly good. How many songs on the album are like that?

Oh, the pumping irony.

100 Best Album Covers

If these are the 100 best, rock and roll is a very boring beast.

I recieved this book as a gift a few years ago, and man, is it pretentious and dull. Here is 2% of the list:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000025NCI.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00004YS2O.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

That's right. Yer lookin' at TWO OF THE ONE-HUNDRED BEST ALBUM COVERS OF ALL TIME.

Some of the list is some of the hundred best, but there's a lot of stinkers in there, too. I would only suggest reading this at the bookstore while waiting for your mate to finish shopping.

(I would've put this on another thread, but A.) Storm Thorgerson's name has already been dropped in here like he was Candyman and B.) This is an Alex in NYC thread, so album cover talk shouldn't be discouraged.)

Take a wild guess which LZ cover they liked the best?

http://www.starland.com/sf-sc/sf01/images/Monolith/Monolith.jpg

Funny that PIL ended up doing Kashmir live
Someone, somewhere HAS to have a copy of this...?

I'll have more to write when I've absorbed it, but this proves that the man was NOT coasting (I checked this album's sales, just as a by-the-way; it's his lowest-selling '80s album, and the Zep fans didn't forgive him until he made Now & Zen.

Not sure about BAD - quite possible, given the man's eclectic tastes. One of his main inspirations around this time was Peter Gabriel.

Yep!

solid perce

anyone listening to his podcast? it's kind of nice. He's all over the place but enjoyable to listen to.

Also learned that Richie Hayward played on Shaken n Stirred, now I have to go listen to that one

Robert Plant and Phil Collins backstage at Madison Square Garden, NYC during Plant's 1983 'Principle of Moments' tour pic.twitter.com/7vrEJWZ5ta

— Barney Hurley (@barneyhurley1) May 2, 2021

boss business

“The break is in 7/8”

"Lighten up, baby, I'm in love with you!"

you were pumping iron while i was pumping irony

Heaven knows!

Destroy: "Big Love"

Time hasn't been kind to Manic Nirvana, but...search: "Nirvana" and "Your Ma Said You Cried in Your Sleep Last Night".

"Tie Dye on the Highway" holds up but would be well served by a radio edit.

Wrap Your Arms Around It Joyfully: "Big Log."

"Tie Dye on the Highway" sounds like The Mission going baggy. Big fan of that and also "S S S & Q" and "Anniversary". Just as McCartney likes to view Tomorrow Never Knows, McCs I, II and the Fireman as his on/off experimental strand, I like to imagine Plant has an equivalent art-pop one wrt HotH, ITTOD, Shaken 'n' Stirred, the hip hoppy stuff on Manic Nirvana.

yeah, "S S S & Q" sounds like they tried to write a Prince song

“The Way I Feel”: always good for driving at night to a deal gone bad.

Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant Nearly Attacked On Stage In Buenos Aires. pic.twitter.com/tCJaz4fYQa

— Rock Photography (@Photomusicrock) August 20, 2025

IMPORTANT NOTE! Event happened in 2012. The Led Zeppelin star was performing with his band The Sensational Space Shifters in Buenos Aires.

Damn Twitter.