Robert Plant Solo Singles 1981-1990

love that screen grab

"In The Mood" is the only one I've ever had enough affection for to even remember its title. was totally confused that "Big Log" was more popular in the classic rock poll.

I like a lot of these, but I can't not pick Ship of Fools.

will still argue that Robert Plant solo during these years represents the only boomer canon, Paul Simon excepted, with no embarrassments. He's got no single disc comp but this list of singles would shame any boomer.

his airy synth pop/strummy guitar love man voodoo (e.g. "Big Log," "Ship of Fools," "Little by Little") has aged quite well.

practically all of the big rock stars of the '80s were baby boomers and tons of them had better runs of singles in that decade

Big Log, but I'd happily listen to any of these at any time.

practically all of the big rock stars of the '80s were baby boomers and tons of them had better runs of singles in that decade

― some dude,

who?

Petty, Springsteen, you name it

hmm Petty and Springsteen code as post-boomer in a way that Plant doesn't, Petty especially. I'm open to persuasion.

yeah if you really mean people who started out in the '60s that definitely thins the competition

Springsteen and Petty were still riding their first waves of success. Plant and Simon and others had repositioned themselves by this point as legacy artists.

In The Mood. Plant had a fine 80s until the biggest rock star sellout move of the decade, his godawful coke commercials

xhuxk is a fan of this, and so am I: boomer listening to hip hop and Duran Duran:

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

that weird drop at 1:20 is batshit crazy

hmm Petty and Springsteen code as post-boomer in a way that Plant doesn't, Petty especially. I'm open to persuasion.

"Ship of Fools".

Ha, I prefer Plant's singles but Petty is only two years younger than him! I feel like I know what Alfred is getting at but 'boomer' seems like the wrong term for it, maybe?

Xgau would say "survivor."

Sorry but "Shaken N' Stirred" is pretty much unlistenable clueless farting about with a Fairlight. Give me Sakamoto's "Esperanto" anytime I want to hear jagged sampladelics.

Wow, no idea he had a bit of new romantic phase. I think Shaken n Stirred is pretty sick actually.

Like if Bowie had come out with it everyone would think it was great.

Oh the song's called Too Loud, guess Shaken n Stirred is the album.

Instead of boomer, maybe go with "legacy artist"?

Little by Little - great synths & flourishes, meaty drums, & Plant templating his vocal approach for all releases to come with style and panache ...

I thought "The Way I Feel" was a single -- it was in rotation on the classic-rock station in Minneapolis back then. Anyway, going "Little by Little."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ada43wbkVtA

Addendum to the guilty pleasure thread... Tall cool one is a fun jam in retrospect, but boy do I remember being pissed about the Coke commercial and Zep samples.

"The Hurting Kind" is my jam here

In the Mood

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

man I hope "Sea of Love" gets no love (my intro to Plant). Still the only embarrassing move in his musical career.

http://i.imgur.com/EER7qAB.png

man I hope "Sea of Love" gets no love (my intro to Plant). Still the only embarrassing move in his musical career.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, August 17, 2014 8:05 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I take it you've never heard his early, pre-Zep singles - Robert Plant may well have become a crooner had he and Pagey never crossed paths....

(personally, I love Plant as crooner - "Sea of Love" was the only time he revisited this style. We should poll his pre-Zep tracks sometime, there are at least 11 of them.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8-DfoiEiKQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEM8Um5-wag

my love is exceedingly vivid

his airy synth pop/strummy guitar love man voodoo (e.g. "Big Log," "Ship of Fools," "Little by Little") has aged quite well.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, August 9, 2014 7:01 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i agree. he sounds so comfortable and surprisingly vital amongst some of these 80s sounds.

The first records with Robbie Blunt are really ace and they had a cool modern band sound for the 80s. I think sonicly it works next to Plant's contemporaries like King Crimson and Yes in the 80s, both of which had either commercial or musical success with a then modern sound with synths etc. Plant had a hipper sound than The Firm to be certain.

I wonder in the end if Robert Plant not playing any Zeppelin live at all for really the first few years he went solo kind of stifled his popularity?

Yeah I really like Blunt's guitar work on those first two albums, lots of 'modal' chords and scale runs (in non-major or minor keys) that work nicely. Except for "Burning Down One Side" which is "In The Evening" redux, these songs forge a distinct new sound that's quite removed from Zep's supercharged blues but remains appealing, without the generic-'80s sound that many veteran rockers resorted to in this period. I'll vote for "Far Post", a non-album track that apparently is now included as a bonus track on Pictures at Eleven.

I just realized that Now and Zen has two songs that share a name with John Cale compositions – and neither (despite what All Music says) are a cover.

the one I really want to vote for is "29 palms" but that came a couple years too late...

29 Palms was a dirty trick, because the rest of that album was el stinko iirc (I haven't listened to it in many years).

Greil Marcus is fond of "Far Post."

i always loved this "Hey let's do a late period Zep song for old time's sake" song off of Jimmy Page's Outrider

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5jdQCyQ-8g

xxpost I think more like el snooze-o but i also haven't listened in forver

I never bought Outrider at the time because I didn't like the single very much, and have never gone back to investigate it since. If I'd known Plant sang on one of the tracks, I'd have done so long ago.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

so then The Principle of Moments is your favorite solo album, posters

hey I voted for "burning down one sidee"

that said, "big log" is a more convincing "defend the indefensible: strats" than all the SRV in texas. gorgeous, and gorgeously unpagey.

i can breathe again now

LEADING ME ON

Someone should cast Corey Feldman as 80s Robert Plant in something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gpQczORW9Y

For whatever reason, I just decided to listen to the White Nights soundtrack and am just hearing "Far Post" for the first time. WHAT A FUCKING GREAT SONG.

Side note: the Lou Reed song on this soundtrack is great too.

That hook goes round and round.

Show at the Roundhouse on Monday was the best gig I've been to all year.

Robert Plant: I bought the Big Black album when it came out. The green fluorescent one with the two people making out.
Dave Grohl: Songs About Fucking?
Robert Plant: Yeah, it was around the time of [HOsker Du's] Candy Apple Grey, I think. So I became an Albini fan.

Dave Grohl interviews Robert Plant & Jimmy Page for Raygun Magazine

I always liked that Plant seemed to really want to listen to new music. And he had Albini do one of his Page/Plant collaborations too.

Phil Collins sounds so good on Pictures at Eleven.

It's funny, I was just listening to that again recently and had exactly the same though. Say what you will about his latter-day solo career, Collins sounds like a fuckin' monster on that record.

"Little By Little" should have made a way better showing in this. That song is sublime.

*thought

I was thinking of "Pledge Pin" and "Worse Than Detroit," where he tugs at and pushes the rhythm simultaneously.

Just read the Phil Collins memoir, and it made me want to revisit both of the Plant albums he is on, as well as the two Clapton albums I have never heard.

For some reason I forgot that he did an entire tour drumming for Plant, I should seek out a bootleg.

for some reason i've woken up with 'in the mood' in my head for like the last 2 weeks. i never realized collins was the playing drums on it but i've never invested any time in plant's solo stuff beyond that track.

I don't think I want to live in a world where it's socially acceptable to read a Phil Collins memoir.

'Big Log'!

xpost It's not bad, actually, at least for a while. Dude was a hard worker, and the book made me dig out those two John Martyn albums he worked on, mostly to hear his playing. Honestly, it was kind of nice to discover that he really wrote it from the perspective of a drummer, of a musician, and up until the end that's how he identifies. Got pretty bored with all his divorces and stuff, but was surprised to learn about his late-life struggles with alcoholism and several near-death experiences.

But yeah, I mean, it's crazy to think he was a superstar with Genesis, a superstar solo artist, and he still toured as Plant's and Clapton's drummer.

I always liked that Plant seemed to really want to listen to new music.
― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Thursday, September 11, 2014 5:41 AM (two years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

A friend of mine who used to work at a pretty well-known record store had a great Robert Plant story. The employees were in the process of going through the standard 'prepping the store for opening' procedure when they were told by the store manager that they'd be opening a half hour early to accommodate a certain customer. This was pretty routine, and usually meant someone like Shia Labeouf or Jack Black wanted to shop privately / anonymously in peace. So my friend sorta rolled his eyes, wondering what Hollywood dumbass it was gonna be this time. Turned out to be RP, and my friend (a Zep fan like any reasonable person) said Plant, in addition to scooping up a bunch of cool shit, went around asking employees to recommend some stuff, and he ended up walking out with all these Numero and Dust to Digital comps and psych reissues.

My friend also said Plant was one of the nicest 'famous' people he's ever met (and he's met a few). Another friend who met him under similar circumstances (ie as a provider of services, not a fanboy) said basically the same thing. Not that that matters, but, you know, it's cool to hear.

Never got confirmation but there was a rumor going around about ten years ago that Walter Becker was seen at one of the WFMU record fairs buying LPs from the Twisted Village guys. Seems a little far-fetched to be true, but I heard that story more than once.

Oh, as for the poll: I missed it, and it's just as well because I only actually remember two of these (Tall Cool One and In The Mood, though if Sea Of Love is a cover, of course I know that song too, but don't remember Plant doing it). Dunno how I missed p much the entirety of this guy's work between In Through The Out Door and Raising Sand, but I guess I did.

Walter Becker hangs around more than people know. In his street clothes he's pretty hard to recognize. He has turned up at things I was doing and it took my drummer to say "hey Joan C., look, is that or is that not Walter B"

That's crazy! Still, I might be more likely to believe it if he was checking out, like, Brotzmann LPs or something, but Twisted Village? I dunno.

Sorry for the derail

"Walter Becker hangs around more than people know. In his street clothes he's pretty hard to recognize."

Really? It would take me about a second to recognize this dude

Sorry for the detail

I can get with the smoothness of big log and in the mood but not much else. And zep is my #1

big log is so fucking sweet

Really? It would take me about a second to recognize this dude

dude Steely Dan changed my life and he could have left the room incognito if it hadn't been for my drummer. he looked like he'd accidentally wandered in but he was actually there with rickie lee jones waiting for her to finish soundchecking.

sweatpants, sneakers, jogging hoodie, completely looked like he was there to ask if he could use the bathroom

Quite the backup band heh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2FHDW5Frwc

Love Phil’s shirt

That's from one of the Secret Policeman's Balls, isn't it? There's a Kate Bush clip of "The Wedding List" with that same band (or at least w/Phil & New Wave Pete).

Yeah same concert.

I mean: Mick Karn and Collins as your rhythm section is brilliant and also a shame no one put those two together in a studio context.

How'd Robert Plant get hooked up with Mick Karn?

Guessing it’s all dudes who also played at the gig. Kind of an all star last song jam to close it out ?

A terrific catalog. What a top twenty would look like

I just noticed that Burt Bacharach is listed as one of the “Ship of Fools” songwriters on Spotify.

I suspect that is just confusion on Spotify's part. His song "The April Fools" is listed on ASCAP's repertory as having an AKA of "Ship of Fools".

my love is exceedingly vivid

Holy cow, ever since first hearing "Big Log" I assumed it was

My love is in league with the freeway
Red-eyed and fevered with the hum of the miles
Distance and longing, my thoughts do provide
Should I rest for a while at the side?

Bob Plant

My love is in league with the freeway

YES. I did too. Our interpretation was, uh, in league with the driving down an interstate vibe.

I probably said it on another thread but I would lobby/fund a version of The Principle Of Moments where someone "re-toned" Blunt's strat to remove the bone dry nasal-ness of it, and replace it (Peter Jackson style) with something more tasteful. As is it sounds so cheap and thin and plastic-y.

I don’t mind it, it’s kind of a nice contrast to the saturated overdrive of page
For me It’s just weird hearing plant play with anyone other than LZ, I can’t get used to it

Should have retired in 80

oh shut up

^^^

Oh right , like Now and zen ranks in your top 100 of the 90s

You were pumping iron as I was pumping irony

Shaken 'n' Stirred does xpost

saw plant in greensboro in 1990 and he and his band were fantastic (the black crowes opened and were so unbelievably loud that they earned an incomplete for the assignment)

nevertheless, who can ignore the poster most notable for hating kids in bars when it comes to robert plant's career?

Filming locations of "Big Log" video, then and now.
https://www.thennowmovielocations.com/2025/02/big-log.html

Big Log 12” is the only thing I ever owned with his voice on.

tmi