Walking Into Clarksdale

[ShadowOfTheWave]

Page & Plant 1998, and the closest to another LZ studio album. What's your opinion on it?

[Randy Lahey]

It's quite underrated. Shining in the Light, When the World Was Young, Blue Train and Most High are the standout tracks, to me. However, John Paul Jones bested them on his first solo album with this track:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4SiOdlCVBM

[GivenToFly]

It's excellent. I love what Robert Plant has done since 1993 - Fate of Nations, Walking Into Clarksdale, Mighty Rearranger are all amazing.

My standout tracks are - well half the album I suppose - the title track, When the world was young, Heart in your hand, House of love, Please read the letter - iirc the last one won a grammy when Plant sang it with Alison Krauss, but I prefer the version here.

[DR DOOM]

I love it, and the Unledded album.

Plant sounded so fucking good.

[RussTCB]

Solid ass album and you're right, it's completely under rated. I got to see them on that tour as well as the one prior. By way of a long story, I got to meet both before the first show. I was more in awe than anything though haha.

[WhazUp]

I am really surprised they didn't deem this song good enough for the album, IMO it is the best thing Page and Plant did during their time together in the 90's:

[GivenToFly]

I am really surprised they didn't deem this song good enough for the album, IMO it is the best thing Page and Plant did during their time together in the 90's:

Wow, this is really good!

[ShadowOfTheWave]

I recently gave this a relisten and think it's very underrated. It just has awful production. Tracks like Burnin Up, When The World Was Young, Heart In Your Hand, and the title track would work better without this muddy, incoherent production.

[merryfnchristmas]

Enjoy this one quite a lot. And I really don't mind the production. there's a certain warts and all live reality which I thought was a gutsy move for musicians of that vintage. 

[merryfnchristmas]

I also like the direction that Robert Plant has taken over the last couple of decades. He's toned down the bombast established an identity outside of Led Zep in a way that Jimmy Page has struggled to do. As much as I'd love to go see Led Zep, much respect to RP for forging ahead. A lot of those recent solo records/collabos with Alison Krauss are lovely.

[Powderfinger]

On 11/7/2013 at 3:53 AM, RussTCB said:

Solid ass album and you're right, it's completely under rated. I got to see them on that tour as well as the one prior. By way of a long story, I got to meet both before the first show. I was more in awe than anything though haha.

Please give us the long story! 

I saw them summer 98. Kinda. A girlf I was with at the time loved Zeppelin, I do not, so she dragged me to the gig. I got wasted and don’t recall much of the night. She had a great time, and thought I did too, so mission accomplished. Gallows Pole is one of the few songs I can recall from the night that I did enjoy. I’m sure there was others, but I was well gone by the time they came on. 

Why did they not choose to do a reunion at this point? Robert Plant seems to come across in interviews like Zeppelin is something he did a a a younger guy and has matured into something else. It seems he doesn’t like the weight of Zeppelin around his neck. Is that the reason?  He’s made some great music since Zeppelin. 

[RussTCB]

2 hours ago, Powderfinger said:

Please give us the long story! 

I saw them summer 98. Kinda. A girlf I was with at the time loved Zeppelin, I do not, so she dragged me to the gig. I got wasted and don’t recall much of the night. She had a great time, and thought I did too, so mission accomplished. Gallows Pole is one of the few songs I can recall from the night that I did enjoy. I’m sure there was others, but I was well gone by the time they came on. 

Why did they not choose to do a reunion at this point? Robert Plant seems to come across in interviews like Zeppelin is something he did a a a younger guy and has matured into something else. It seems he doesn’t like the weight of Zeppelin around his neck. Is that the reason?  He’s made some great music since Zeppelin. 

Now that I think about it, it's probably not that long of a story lol. 

I worked for Best Buy at the time and Best Buy sponsored some big tours at the time. So a lot of times, they'd want volunteers to work the tours when they came to town. Standing there, passing out Best Buy coupons and shit, etc. Then you'd get to go to the show for free. 

Usually only the way higher ups got any chance to meet the actual artists (if there was even a chance) but there were two instances where I got invited to come along for the meet & greet. 

Ozzfest was one of them and that Page/Plant tour was the other. In any case, we went to the arena and did our usual job. Then one of the higher ups came to get me and took me back stage to meet the guys. 

I had absolutely NO idea what to say. I mean, it's Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. What the fuck am I gonna say to them? Lol. 

It was quick. We were whisked into a small room to wait. The door on the other side of the room opens and in the two of them walk like two normal dudes. 

Everyone else in the room said really dumb things to them. "Stairway is the best song ever!" "I love Led Zeppelin!". Just generic dumb shit like that. This was 1998ish, so it was well before I knew how to handle myself around famous people, let alone legends. So I just kinda stood there taking it in. 

Page actually addresses me directly and said "you're a quiet one aren't you?" and Robert lifted my Best Buy name tag and said "he's a supervisor you see. Important people here. He's watching over everything" 

It was VERY funny. Not a dick move at all. So by just standing there I got Jimmy Page to address me directly and Robert Plant to tack on to what he said. 

We were moved out of the room soon after and down to the floor to watch the show. It was a very quick blur but something I'll obviously never forget. 

[The Dissident]

6 hours ago, RussTCB said:

Now that I think about it, it's probably not that long of a story lol. 

I worked for Best Buy at the time and Best Buy sponsored some big tours at the time. So a lot of times, they'd want volunteers to work the tours when they came to town. Standing there, passing out Best Buy coupons and shit, etc. Then you'd get to go to the show for free. 

Usually only the way higher ups got any chance to meet the actual artists (if there was even a chance) but there were two instances where I got invited to come along for the meet & greet. 

Ozzfest was one of them and that Page/Plant tour was the other. In any case, we went to the arena and did our usual job. Then one of the higher ups came to get me and took me back stage to meet the guys. 

I had absolutely NO idea what to say. I mean, it's Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. What the fuck am I gonna say to them? Lol. 

It was quick. We were whisked into a small room to wait. The door on the other side of the room opens and in the two of them walk like two normal dudes. 

Everyone else in the room said really dumb things to them. "Stairway is the best song ever!" "I love Led Zeppelin!". Just generic dumb shit like that. This was 1998ish, so it was well before I knew how to handle myself around famous people, let alone legends. So I just kinda stood there taking it in. 

Page actually addresses me directly and said "you're a quiet one aren't you?" and Robert lifted my Best Buy name tag and said "he's a supervisor you see. Important people here. He's watching over everything" 

It was VERY funny. Not a dick move at all. So by just standing there I got Jimmy Page to address me directly and Robert Plant to tack on to what he said. 

We were moved out of the room soon after and down to the floor to watch the show. It was a very quick blur but something I'll obviously never forget. 

Plant's humor is top notch, I saw him perform a couple years back at a Jazz fest. The entire night he was cracking jokes about how he had to play a more jazzy song right after he did a Zeppelin track. 

[Powderfinger]

On 11/15/2021 at 12:54 PM, RussTCB said:

Now that I think about it, it's probably not that long of a story lol. 

I worked for Best Buy at the time and Best Buy sponsored some big tours at the time. So a lot of times, they'd want volunteers to work the tours when they came to town. Standing there, passing out Best Buy coupons and shit, etc. Then you'd get to go to the show for free. 

Usually only the way higher ups got any chance to meet the actual artists (if there was even a chance) but there were two instances where I got invited to come along for the meet & greet. 

Ozzfest was one of them and that Page/Plant tour was the other. In any case, we went to the arena and did our usual job. Then one of the higher ups came to get me and took me back stage to meet the guys. 

I had absolutely NO idea what to say. I mean, it's Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. What the fuck am I gonna say to them? Lol. 

It was quick. We were whisked into a small room to wait. The door on the other side of the room opens and in the two of them walk like two normal dudes. 

Everyone else in the room said really dumb things to them. "Stairway is the best song ever!" "I love Led Zeppelin!". Just generic dumb shit like that. This was 1998ish, so it was well before I knew how to handle myself around famous people, let alone legends. So I just kinda stood there taking it in. 

Page actually addresses me directly and said "you're a quiet one aren't you?" and Robert lifted my Best Buy name tag and said "he's a supervisor you see. Important people here. He's watching over everything" 

It was VERY funny. Not a dick move at all. So by just standing there I got Jimmy Page to address me directly and Robert Plant to tack on to what he said. 

We were moved out of the room soon after and down to the floor to watch the show. It was a very quick blur but something I'll obviously never forget. 

That’s a cool story, good humour from Plant! He comes across a solid guy in interviews, he’s down to earth. 

[Ixtlan]

It’s strange the album is not on Apple Music.