“Burning Down One Side,” the first song on Plant’s first solo work (1982’s “Pictures at Eleven”) is arguably Plant’s best song, despite an unintelligible first verse. (Hey, nobody knows what the first few lines of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” are either.) Dominated by Jezz Woodroffe’s escalating synthesizer and Robbie Blunt’s jagged guitar runs, Plant bumps up the quality quotient by letting Phil Collins dominate the sound with his controlled, explosive drumming. Blunt’s serene soloing infuses “Big Log” with an exotic, Middle Eastern texture. Shades of the orient abound in the mysterious, keyboard dominated “Little by Little” from 1985’s “Shaken N’ Stirred,” while the similarly veined “Ship of Fools” (from 1988’s “Now and Zen”), bobs lazily like a lifeboat on a calm sea. Just when the boat threatens to flounder, the drums kick in, inspiring guitarist Doug Boyle to pluck a lofty sitar-like solo. The lush “29 Palms” is a folky relaxed trip through the desert: “Twenty-nine palms, I feel the heat of your desert heart, leading me down the road that leads back to you.” With that laid back approach to love, you know old lion hair is going to get the girl and live happily ever after, and so will you each time you sit back, close your eyes and follow Plant’s down the highway.

Brian Setzer has since mastered the art of combining rock with big band swing, but in 1984 Plant’s foray into 50s Chicago style jazz, “The Honeydrippers Vol. 1” was a quirky surprise. Plant’s putrid rendition of “Sea of Love” somehow became his best-selling single, proving sometimes it’s the song, not the singer. Fortunately, the sampler includes the livelier “Rockin’ at Midnight” with its finger-shaking big band arrangement. Plant is seriously out of his element here and not at all in touch with his inner hep cat. His delivery is pure karaoke and the arrangement is suited for a belter like Joe Turner – but the band knows how to cover Plant’s awkwardness and still generate enough heat to make the dance floor shake.

The title “The Dye in the Highway” doesn’t make sense until you realize Plant is a hippy at heart and he’s taking about tie dye. Clips from Woodstock, (the ultimate hippy experience) abound, beginning with a very hoarse Chip Monck declaring, “What we have in mind is breakfast for 400,000.” An offbeat, grating performance similar to Zeppelin’s “Friends,” the busy “Highway” has nothing to do with the peace and love generation. Plant’s voice no longer has the range to carry hard-edged material and phasing it doesn’t hide it or help. Throw in a plodding, way too deliberate beat, more bad acid musings from Mr. Monck, and you have an overproduced assault on your nervous system.

While the sampler is representative of much of Plant’s best know solo work, it’s not without its surprises, which come in the form of three B-sides and two previously unreleased cuts. Score it 2 to 1 for the unreleased material. Both “Turnaround” and “Rollercoaster” are funky out of the ordinary gems that should have been part of Plant’s canon long ago. A slimier version of Zep’s “Custard Pie,” “Turn Around” has the type of skillful slide guitar runs one would expect from Fleetwood Mac’s Jeremy Spencer or Wishbone Ash axeman Andy Powell. Strutting, funky and confident, “Turnaround” has a bluesy feel that’s unlike Plant’s more rock based tunes. “Rollercoaster” dips further into the blues/funk along the lines of Sly Stone or Bootsy Collins. Plant’s voice is recessed in the mix so as not to get in the way of head bopping beat and the vaporous synthesizer. Hypnotic yet hard hitting, “Rollercoaster” is one of those cuts that takes on modern technology and is the better for it. On the other hand the three B sides offered up are a trio of diminishing returns, going from passable, to pass it by, to like passing a kidney stone, only this time you’re passing it through your ear. The herky jerky “Far Post” dates back to the 80s and is notable for putting the bass and honky tonk piano upfront, a practice seldom employed by Led Zeppelin. Nearly everything in “Oompa (Watery Blint)” compounds its kitchen sink approach, from the fun house horns to the misplaced swing clarinet, to Plant’s death knell scream. When Plant babbles, “There’s something…something wrong with you…” you’ll undoubtedly say “Yes there is, Robert. It’s the stench coming from my CD player,” and you’ll hit the fast forward button. All the money in the world can’t save the hackneyed “All the money in the World.” (Sometimes these guys make it too easy to give an opinion.) This rip off of “John Henry” is delta blues at its most annoying -- talky, rushed and rambling.

“All the King’s Horses” from 2005’s “Mighty Rearranger” finishes the sampler on a strong note. The tranquil acoustic arrangement offers a rare glimpse into Plant’s spiritual side: “I give myself a brand new start, glad to be following the beauty within. All the king’s horses, all the king’s men, are on the outside looking in.” There’s a personal emotional investment in the song that’s missing in much of Plant’s solo work. He cements the tune’s melancholia with a restrained, heartrending vocal as sincere and affecting as his performances on Led Zeppelin’s “The Rain Song” and “Tangerine.”

What’s missing from the sampler? The hypnotic “In the Mood;” “Tall Cool One,” with its “Train Kept A Rollin’” beat, and “Heaven Knows,” with one of the all time “say what” rhymes that would make Steve Miller blush: “See the whites of their eyes and shoot, with all the romance of the Tonton Macoutes!”(The chorus is a gem too: “You were pumping iron, while I was pumping irony.”) Both “Heaven Knows” and “Tall Cool One” appeared on “Now and Zen” and could have replaced the pleasant but less memorable “Ship of Fools.” But a sampler is not meant to be all things to all people, and the three songs are bound to turn up somewhere on the 9 CDs.

If you can’t have Led Zeppelin – and as long as John Bonham remains dead you won’t – then give Robert Plant’s “Nine Lives” a chance. Get ready for the pun… Plant’s music will grow on you…

Posted April 10, 2007 Permalink