You really do have to feel sorry for Jimmy Page and Robert
Plant. No matter what they do with the rest of their musical
career, it’s always going to be held up for comparison to their
former band Led Zeppelin.
Plant rose from the ashes of the former supergroup the easiest,
recording albums that were a little jazzier and less bombastic, as
if he wanted to put that portion of his life behind him. But even
he found himself re-embracing the Zeppelin ghost on
Now And Zen, which paired him up again with Page on two
tracks. Page kept a low profile, releasing only the soundtrack to
Death Wish II and his 1988 solo effort
Outrider – reuniting him with Plant on one track. (Page also
entered into a partnership with Whitesnake lead singer David
Coverdale in a project that – thankfully – lasted only one
album.)
Following the success of their re-teaming on 1994’s
No Quarter, Page & Plant released their first album of
original material together in 18 years,
Walking Into Clarksdale, in 1998. And as much as I want to
take this album on its own merits and judge it as one album, I
can’t help but compare
Walking Into Clarksdale to a myriad of Led Zeppelin music.
Compared to Zeppelin, this album is a tad weak. On its own, it’s
not that bad – at least not as bad as some people would like you to
believe it is.
Granted, this is an album that you really have to warm up to. I
think I had to listen to it three times before I really felt
comfortable with what Page and Plant were trying to accomplish on
Walking Into Clarksdale. It does seem that they want the
listener to forget about the magic that was Led Zeppelin, something
they do by not allowing Page to really cut loose on the guitar
until well into the album.
Now, Page’s acoustic work on “Shining In The Light” is what
makes this song work, and it is impressive. Likewise, the vocal and
guitar textures created on the track “Blue Rain” take this one to
levels previously unheard of. But I kept wondering to myself, “Why
isn’t Page soloing more?”
Halfway through the title track, Page finally is given the green
light to set his Les Paul on full shred, and he makes the most of
the spotlight. For a good part of the remainder of
Walking Into Clarksdale, Page keeps the guitar pyrotechnics
handy, and knows when is the right time to put them into play.
For his part, Plant is in fine voice, even if he’s not a kid
anymore. “Shining In The Light,” “Please Read The Letter” and “Sons
Of Freedom” all show that he’s still got the pipes that can deliver
the goods – something he’s been proving his entire solo career.
The difficulty with
Walking Into Clarksdale isn’t the lack of crunchy Page
solos, or the hand of punk legend Steve Albini. Instead, it’s that
many of the songs tend to drag the band into points unknown, and
they have a hard time escaping from the doldrums. “When The World
Was Young” is a track that could have had some pepper to it, but it
constantly changes mood – and it could have wrapped up sooner.
Likewise, “Most High” – while keeping a Middle Eastern flavor that
neither Page nor Plant have ever shied away from – just doesn’t cut
it for me as a single. “When I Was A Child” is another track that
just seems to drone on endlessly.
It’s not that
Walking Into Clarksdale is a bad album, but knowing the
history these two musicians have with each other – and here’s the
danger of comparing this to Led Zeppelin coming to the forefront
again – it doesn’t hold up as well. It still turns out to be a very
entertaining album, especially when given a real chance with
repeated listenings. But I question if twenty years from now people
will look on this album with the same reverence as they do with
many Led Zeppelin releases.
