Years after their untimely breakup, it’s not surprising that
some people would do anything to try and recapture the feeling of
the magic that was Led Zeppelin. Following John Bonham’s death in
1980 and the dissolution of the band, diehard fans grabbed at any
straw they could which was Zeppelin-related in the hopes of feeling
that same excitement.
But guitarist Jimmy Page had not had a terrible amount of
post-Zeppelin success. He had scored the movie
Death Wish II, and did a nice set at the A.R.M.S. Concert
for Ronnie Lane. But when it came time for Page to take the
driver’s seat again in terms of a band, the end result hit the wall
like a NASCAR racer out of control.
The Firm was another attempt at a supergroup which was unable to
live up to its own hype. Pairing Page with former Bad Company
vocalist (at least at the time) Paul Rodgers seemed like a good
idea on paper — after all, their two former bands were label-mates
on Zeppelin’s Swan Song imprint. Add in the rhythm section of
bassist Tony Franklin and drummer Chris Slade (who was better known
for his work with Manfred Mann at the time), and you had a group
which seemed to hold promise.
Alas,
The Firm, the group’s debut release, fails on many levels.
The songwriting is poor, the overall sound is surprisingly muddy,
the energy level is almost non-existent, and — the cardinal sin
for many people — the group sounded neither like Zeppelin nor Bad
Company.
On that last note, it really is unfair to have expected Page or
Rodgers to have tried a carbon-copy of their past successes. After
all, those two bands were now in their collective past, and they
wanted a chance to create a fresh sound for themselves. Fine, I can
understand that… if only the sound they created was worth
the effort.
The biggest problem with
The Firm is the sound of the album. Unlike other works Page
has been on, the instrumentation sounds like it’s had layers of
sonic grit caked onto the tapes, creating an end result that is
damned hard to listen to for an extended length of time. In terms
of Page’s supposed perfectionist manners, this hardly would qualify
as acceptable.
Then there is the music itself. In terms of songwriting,
The Firm just doesn’t have any real magic in any of the
songs. Yes, “Radioactive” and “Satisfaction Guaranteed” were minor
hits back in the day, and they remain the stand-out tracks on this
disc. But two songs hardly qualify as a legacy – especially when
the remaining seven tracks are so weak. Songs like “Someone To
Love,” “Closer,” “Make Or Break” and a lugubrious cover of “You’ve
Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” come dangerously close to being painful
to listen to.
Part of the problem, as well, is the instrumentation itself.
There is no denying that each musician is a master of their own
craft, but there was just not enough sound coming from these four
men to fill the void. At times, it’s almost like the emptiness is
begging for a second guitar line or a keyboard to burst forth as
the missing puzzle pieces. Alas, they’re not coming.
The Firm would record one more album together before all
involved would move on to other projects. The Firm is a disc which
dares to suggest that this grouping was doomed from the very
beginning.
