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

Prompted by having listened to freakin' Manic Nirvana, off all things. It hasn't aged too well. I didn't even realize this new best-of thingy was coming out until I went to look up some info on him.

His first band (Pictures, Principle, Shaken) was great. Robbie Blunt is a real accomplished guitarist. Loved his tone on those records. Then Plant sacked them and the next three records were populated by a bunch of hacks. Horrible move on his part.

Well, considering it was stillborn to begin with, that's not really a surprise.

the video for big log was hypnotic, i'd love to see it again. also the beginning/end of the video for "in the mood" was pretty nu-psych in a proto-loveless videos sorta way.

Pictures of Eleven is really a pretty good album; I can't believe they didn't include anything from it on the best-of. "Burning Down One Side" and "Pledge Pin" are both worthy (and I'm pretty sure they both got regular radio play back in the day).

yeah, Blount, I loved Now and Zen as well but probably haven't heard in about as long as you. "Ship of Fools" was good too! I totally hadn't listened to that Manic Nirvana thing in like a dozen years. Some unknown impulse compelled me to play it last weekend.

While "FofN" does have a dreadful cover (and the last track "Network News" is an appallingly bad song), the rest of the album probably represents the best collection of songs amongst his solo albums. "Down to the Sea", "Come into my life", "Calling to you" - all good.

"Tie Dye on the Highway" from "Manic Nirvana" would rock like a behemoth if it wasn't for that godawful 80s drum sound... Elsewhere, I'd go for "I cried" and "Nirvana". "Hurting Kind" though goes straight in the bin alongside "Tall cool one".

"Now and Zen" I've never been over the moon about... I mean "Dance on my own" for heaven's sake! Oh dear. It does have "Ship of Fools" though, a solid track, and a few other decent tunes, but Phil Johnstone's influence is a little too pervasive in places. "White clean and neat" is one song I have always had a soft spot for.

"Shaken 'n Stirred"... hmmm, never really been able to get my head around this one. Plant goes new wave synth pop? The video for "Little by Little" is a bit of a trip.

"The Principle of Moments" - some good tracks, eg. "Big Log", "In the mood". Great videos for both of them also.

"Pictures at Eleven" - what? No "Slow dancer" on the new comp? They must be kidding! I have a bootleg somewhere with a cracking live version.

Recently? It's more than ten years old now!

I never heard that Coverdale/Page record. I bet I'll probably hear it before I die, though. Then again you never know. I've gotta believe there are at least one or two well-constructed riffs on there somewhere; it's Page, after all. About half of Outrider was actually really good.

Man, this track-listing for the Plant best-of is pretty wack. How the heck can you leave off "In the Mood"? And they should have put "Far Post" on there ("Big Log" B-side, and a good tune in its own right), instead of like 5 (?!) tracks from Fate of Nations.

Still I'm pretty curious to hear that early track recorded with Alexis Korner.

Completely correct, Steve. For some reason, I inexplicably deleted "iron". I'm losing my mind. In any event, it's still an abjectly crap lyric. That particular track is littered with similarly cringe-worthy couplets.

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.

a shame that there was no Youtube when i originally posted in this thread, about how 80s cheesy the video for "sea of love" is. here it is, in all of its Zorba-the-Greek/Frank-Zappa-lookalike-standing-around-a-xylophone-and-wearing-a-speedo glory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9-026ZCKR8

hey so fate of nations is actually an outstanding fucking record just fyi

I liked "29 Palms" at the time. There aren't many Plant solo moments I haven't enjoyed, actually.

yeah it's like even the ones that don't seem good at the time come to sound pretty awesome if you just set 'em aside to ripen

Back in '06, Rhino boxed all his solo stuff; I reviewed it for the Voice. (Please ignore the clumsy placement of the parenthetical about Phil Collins; yes, I know he didn't drum for Led Zeppelin.)

http://www.villagevoice.com/2006-11-28/music/whole-lotta-universal-love/

a "colonalist Paul Simon way"?!

Sorry – I know this ain't the Vampire Weekend thread.

need moar talking about how amazing his videos were --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImpSyGTzot0

I am so in love with that 'In the Mood' vid

Did he ever say exactly why he dislikes those early solo records?

*does* he dislike them? where did you ever get that impression?

I may be under the spell of xhuxk's interview/review of Now & Zen, but so what: the album sounds great now.

I remember being a kid and hearing "In the Mood" and just feeling like it was so wonderfully from outer space. Classic for all time.

Sorry, "Tall Cool One" is entirely awkward and embarassing.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, November 4, 2003

as usual so wrong

I love the spooky robert plant song with the finger snapping and liquid guitar solo

lil by lil

Pictures At Eleven and Principle Of Moments are awesome! I particularly like Robbie Blunts watery Strat playing on POM. Big Log and In The Mood are gorgeous songs.

Gonna be smoking a phat one alfresco to this tune during those long summer evenings.

That I guarantee ;D
CnutRexAnglorum 2 months ago 42

I actually still adore "Heaven Knows." But, again, "Tall Cool One" is just lame, lame, lame.

he's had an admirable career i think, definitely followed his own path without really seeming to be weighed down by the legacy of zeppelin

after Peter Gabriel no lead singer has Done His Own Thing to more rewarding effect.

Pictures At Eleven and Principle Of Moments are awesome! I particularly like Robbie Blunts watery Strat playing on POM. Big Log and In The Mood are gorgeous songs.

― Brooker T Buckingham, Wednesday, August 3, 2011 11:46 AM (1 hour ago)

Eeek, the tone is way too nasally and dry for my tastes.

Big Log is the biggest WTf moment of the past few weeks. Guitarist tone is so awful, his pull-offs amateur. Whole song sounds like some lounge effort. Drums and pads are almost modern sounding. "...and the coming of night time" ok

http://consequenceofsound.net/2015/03/robert-plant-teams-with-pixies-for-north-american-tour/

I think "Lullaby and... the Ceaseless Roar" is as good of an album I would expect or want from Robert Plant on the 21st Century.

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.