Presence is an album a lot of Led Zeppelin fans don’t own, and even a lot of those that do don’t listen to it very often. Which is not to say it's unworthy: it’s simply that the after the remarkable run of classic, groundbreaking albums that the Mighty Zep blessed us with, Presence feels like somewhat of a retreat.
At this point, the band were a three legged dog. Chemistry is a vital component of any great rock band, and was absolutely crucial to Led Zeppelin. With Plant seriously injured from his accident, the driving power that his vocals lent the band’s sound was at an ebb, and his creative contributions were lacking as well.
As if to compensate for his partner’s diminished powers, Jimmy Page stepped up to the plate and unleashed a nearly infinite arsenal of then-unheard tones, syncoptations, phrases, and riffs. Page also soaked both his guitar and the general mix in near-psychedelic blend of echo, reverb and as-yet unidentifed special effects.
Yet, even with all the over-dubbing, Page was conscious about the space between the notes, and respected the musical territory of his fellow instrumentalists. Unlike later hard rockers, the drums and bass were integral to Led Zeppelin’s sound, and Page took care not to smother them. Only problem is that it all comes off a bit half-hearted and the new sounds mostly lacked the old fire.
The end result was neither retro nor futuristic. On Presence, Led Zeppelin constructed their own sonic universe, one that none of their legion of imitators ever attempted to replicate. It’s just a shame that the material didn’t always measure up to the Page’s herculean and under-appreciated guitar heroics. Nor, frankly, did his chops. Heroin wreaks havoc on your coordination, alas.
Here’s the track-by-track, with separate grades for Page and Plant’s contributions.
Achilles Last Stand
This track seems like a lost cousin of the “Immigrant Song”, but it's padded and sprawling where its predecessor is lean, clean and sharp. More a patchwork of riffs than a real song, Plant’s subdued, aimless vocals fail to provide the glue this track needs.
This song’s true value would be in the classic cuts it would inspire: both “Run to the Hills” by Iron Maiden and “Barracuda” by Heart would borrow its distinctive galloping rhthym and The Clash nicked its militaristic tat-a-tat passages for “Tommy Gun.”
Page: B Plant: C
For Your Life
This track comes on like “Dancing Days” on mandrax. Plant is buried beneath the rhythm guitars, but he doesn’t seem to have much to say anyway. Page picks up the pace a bit in the bridge, but then goes into a refrain that borrows heavily from “Travelling Riverside Blues.” Luckily, the song is saved by one of Page’s slinkiest solos before its last verse.
Page: B Plant: B-
Royal Orleans
This sassy cut revists the angular funk of “The Crunge,” complete with very similar drum work from Bonzo. Page layers the guitars in a call-and-response syncopation and then slips in a sensuous solo under the radar. Plant’s lyrics pay tribute to Sin City, but he neglected to bring a tune to the sessions.
Page: B+ Plant: C
Nobody's Fault But Mine
A song or a confession? This hijacked Blues number (originally written by Blind Willie Johnson) acts as a sort of a sequel to “Whole Lotta Love.” Only this powerhouse puts the effects-laden guitar freakout at the beginning rather than in the middle of the song. This has become the most-played track from Presence and deservedly so. This is Led Zeppelin at the height of their powers.
Page: A Plant: A
Candy Store Rock
The concept here seems to be Zep striving to invent rockabilly funk, as Page’s reverb-soaked riffs and runs arm-wrestle with a funky syncopation. But the end result simply sounds like Led Zeppelin. Plant seems to be trying to channel Elvis, only Elvis wasn’t dead yet.
Page: B- Plant: C+
Hots On For Nowhere
This track serves up more funky syncopations, and Plant’s vocals finally do the backing track justice. This sly and sexy track is capped by Page’s furious riffing, which draws inspiration more from funky horn charts than run-of-the-mill blues guitar. Van Halen liked this one so much they cut it up, pasted it back together and called it “Beautiful Girls.”
Page: A Plant: B+
Tea for One
Not suprisingly, the convalescent Plant saved his best work for this mournful blues lament. This is one of Zep’s most impressive dirges, since it avoids the tiresome 1/4/5 chord progresssion of earliest cuts like “You Shook Me.” Page also shines here, allowing his guitar to weep and whine in metallic chordal bursts and clipped, glissando runs, where lesser artists might clog up the track with fat-toned blues-rock shrieking.
Page: A Plant: A
Note: this is an updated version of a piece that originally ran in Classic Rock magazine in 2006.
Still go back regularly to Achilles Last Stand to see Page dehydrate.He must have worked up a powerful thirst.Back in school I recreated the Presence statue for ceramics art class,I would leave all my projects there.Next year when called to the principals office it was on his desk.
ReplyDeleteAye, ALS is the standout track for me too, thinking about the above review perhaps it works for my ears precisely because it's not quite all there - like Plant & Zeppelin as a fractured whole circa '76.
DeletePerhaps a reason why Presence lacks the presence of the preceding albums has something to do with the gatefold multiply gracing sculpture, a weird beguiling object drawing focus from the music?
(Also Physical Graffiti was the last Zep album in my parent's record collection...)
I think you gotta give ratings for Jonesy and Bonzo too... they're really the impressive part of ALS... no other band could pull off a 10 min chugger and have it be engaging for every single second... at least to my ears.
DeleteAye & "chugger" is an appropriate term for their contributions without which Page & Plant's disjointed & cacophanous efforts would be untethered. The tension of the composition is borne from this contrast - the solid grounded rhythm section & the rent asunder random ramblings of the head in the clouds frontmen.
DeleteThis album brings back memories from high school. One of my best friends was a big Zeppelin fan and he urged me to get this album, this was in 1982. I bought it on cassette. At the time I was reading a book about the the Viking age and the burial site at Sutton Hoo. When I first heard ALS I was floored, it was such a perfect sync with what I was reading, like the perfect soundtrack for that book. I as finished reading that book ALS played through my head over and over. It seemed more epic, more Norse to me than Immigrant Song, that impression stayed with me my entire life.
ReplyDeleteWe used to talk about the Black Object on occasion back then, none of us had any idea what it was about but we enjoyed speculating on it, we never came to a satisfactory conclusion on the meaning though. Zeppelin, especially Page, was very enigmatic to us back then and that was their charm. No one could match them in that regard.
Also Tea for One is a masterpiece, but I find it hard to listen to now a days. If I sit and really listen to it now I get incredibly depressed quickly, no doubt because when I was younger I played that song a lot. It's tied to some dark periods of my life. I can't think of another minor key blues song that can equal it's sadness.
I saw them live at The Omni in Atlanta, GA in '77 when I was in High School. Their set that night included "ALS" along with a selection of songs from every album up to then.
DeleteI remember we had to wait for this show not knowing if they would cancel because that year and the previous year, was full of little mishaps for the band (Plants car accident in Greece that left him with some broken bones) that kept bumping the bands appearences around.
To your post point, their renditions of "Kashmir" and "ALS" got everyone up out of their seats, as I recall. Jimmy Page was literally on fire as he played with one of the first really cool stage effects using lasers I'd ever seen up to that point in time, bouncing over him and all around him. It was an artistic composition of light and sound. This was Zep at one of their best live performances, in my opinion.
This is where you had a unique opportunity to see them really jam, going off script musically from the recorded sessions you were used to, but also bringing some amazing added dimensions to the same songs you thought you'd knew, having listened to them over and over again. Imagine suddenly hearing an added phrase or a tangent spin off where the song would normally have faded out or ended. Or a bridge that went off for an additional 10 minutes of pure exhibition. Where most live groups would suck at this, Zepp, at least in this moment in time, were truly the masters of their craft.
Of course, years later, Page and Plant, Page particularly, would seem lost and wandering in their heads musically. The loss of John Bonham rippling still even as they pursued their individual projects once the band fell apart. But, on this night in '77, for as long as it lasted, they created something incredible in that space.
At that time, "Presence" was being shit on by critics after it came out in '76, but I think its uniquely powerful in terms of their overall catalogue. "ALS" was recorded by a pissed off Robert Plant Banshee-like from his wheelchair after the aforementioned accident. I mean, *listen* to him on that. Arguably, this album could have been titled, "The Jimmy Page Hour of Power," it still rings true as a progression on themes they revisited on back in "Physical Graffiti" and somehow managed to grow through the other selections. This was followed a few months later, by the way, by the release of "The Song Remains the Same" which also was not received well by critics, but loved by the fans, especially the stoners who had to watch the film at 'midnight showings' of it in regular theatres because, it was the 70's, that's why. Bonham and Jones were getting pretty bored with all of it by this time, but they managed to be professional about their contributions, either way.
Then there was "The Object." That weird statue was the brainchild of the album cover designer graphics company, way popular by far at that time, called 'Hipgnosis' who would create that little black obleisk which would be the '2001: A Space 'Oddity'of the 'Presence' marketing campaign. The idea, according to 'Hipgnosis' co-founder Storm Thorgerson (love that name), was that the obelisk represented the power of Led Zeppelin, which was "so powerful, they didn't need to be there." Yup. Got it. Right on, Stormy-baby.
Wicklow & Valles channelling a "Presence" all their own, & that statue is indeed "powerful".
ReplyDeleteA sync regarding "Hipgnosis" (& musical/stage "presence"): "Pink Floyd" have "re-formed" (sans cumudgeon in chief Roger Waters & the deceased Rick Wright & Syd Barrett) "to support Ukraine":
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/apr/07/pink-floyd-reform-to-support-ukraine?CMP=twt_a-culture_b-gdnculture
"The result is Hey Hey, Rise Up!, a new single by Pink Floyd ... to be released at midnight on Friday with proceeds going to Ukrainian humanitarian relief."
"They last released original new music 28 years ago, although in 2014 Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason reconvened to turn outtakes from their 1994 album The Division Bell into the largely instrumental The Endless River, as a tribute to the band’s late keyboard player Rick Wright. At the time, Gilmour was insistent that was the finale for a band that began in 1965 and sold more than 250m albums. Pink Floyd couldn’t tour without Wright, who died of cancer in 2008, and there was to be no more music: “It’s a shame,” he told the BBC, “but this is the end.”"
Gilmour, "the rock god guitar player", grafts some guitar solos on to a Ukrainian WW1/war of independence ditty titled "Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow", in Latin Viburnum means "wandering tree".
https://www.petalrepublic.com/viburnum-flower/#13-viburnum-flower-meaning-amp-symbolism
"It’s best known as one of the traditional symbols of Ukraine, with it woven deeply into their folklore. Its importance as a symbol dates back to the country’s pagan history. The bright red berries were linked with the immortal fire illuminating heavenly bodies like the sun and stars."
https://www.petalrepublic.com/viburnum-flower/#12-uses-and-benefits-of-viburnum-flowers
"Most plants are mildly toxic, but some produce edible berries as well."
So, a potentially risky & disorienting experience evoking higher powers a bit like ALS in all it's pomp & glory.
Given Floyd's comeback from the "Endless River" of the dead maybe some kind of old rocker "Live Aid" style event featuring "Zep" will be hocus pocused into existence later this year to "raise money" for Ukraine/NATO/"The Great Reset". (Zep played at the '85 concert & Floyd at the '05 twentieth anniversary gig).
Considering Zep/Floyd were the twin pillars of the 70's global music scene the Flood symbolism keeps on broiling, back in February:
ReplyDeletehttps://americansongwriter.com/watch-led-zeppelins-john-paul-jones-record-when-the-levee-breaks-with-17-musicians-from-around-the-world/
"Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones released a video of him recording the infamous hit song, “When The Levee Breaks,” with 17 musicians from around the world.
...
The video was produced by Sebastian Robertson (who also plays guitar on the track) and Mark Johnson for the Playing for Change’s Song Around the World initiative. All proceeds generated by the new rendition will reportedly go to charity partners of Peace Through Music, including Conservation International, American Rivers, WWF, Reverb, and the Playing For Change Foundation."
"Originally, “When The Levee Breaks” was written by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie two years after the event known as the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. See that version below. Led Zeppelin recorded their own version for their album, Led Zeppelin IV."
It's a "world music" splicing of featured musicians harking to the Pharaonic/antidelivien via the "Memphis Minnie" link.
Thinking about "Presence" what follows? Absence, "absence" describes "In Through The Out Door" (though it isn't wholly devoid having in place of the Zep minted sound a looser, let it all hang out pub band knees-up quality to it - at times they sound like Chas & Dave - like Zep were able to simply let the weight of the previous decade of rock goddery slouch of their collective shoulder hinted at on some of the jams on "Physical Graffiti") this absence is played too with the intro to album opener "In The Evening" with its space-rock/proto sludge cosmos straddling Pagery, hinting at what doesn't materialise on the record at all, only to let it go just as the big bombast would have launched on earlier Zep efforts. Even "Carouselambra" comes across like a display of what's lacking - an ersatz epic-Zep would-be stomper provided not to placate those Zep-Heads by now very impatient for some of the old time religion but to say "show's over", the heavy use of synth on this & the final two tracks, closer "I'm Gonna Crawl" says it all, emphasise that Elvis has well & truly left the building, it's over.
Absence also describes the contractually obligated outtake & prior discarded jam post-Bonzo compilation album that is "Coda" & stuff like Page's "Outrider", opening track "Wasting My Time" (so no excuse for buyer's remorse) & the closers "Prison Blues" & "Blues Anthem" , so "Prison Blues Anthem", to a "T".
Keith Richards on Playing For Change:
"Playing For Change, that's the way music was meant to be."
Gilmour hinting at more to come:
https://americansongwriter.com/pink-floyd-release-first-new-song-in-nearly-30-years-for-ukraine/
"Gilmour recently shared a portion of the song with Khlyvnyuk, who is now in a hospital in Kyiv after suffering a mortar shrapnel wound. “I played him a little bit of the song down the phone line and he gave me his blessing,” said Gilmour. “We both hope to do something together in person in the future.”"
"Pink Zeppelin" anyone?
Thorn - that was a very thought provoking post. I've often wondered about certain bands that transcend their initial entry into fame-for-money lifespan and take the next step past that point of 'pecunia pecuniae causa' where the lure of success is completely monetarily driven until they attempt to reach for something more.
DeleteIs this a conscious choice on the part of the individuals that make up the group in a hive-mind mentality that follows their Muse wherever she leads them, or is it something like a yearning of a Demiurge created from the adoration of fans and followers towards 'apotheosis'?
Using the examples you cited with Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd and using the model I briefly outlined, one can see that from their sketchy beginnings, there was a ramping up of global adoration that propelled each of these groups past their plateau of fame and fortune into something more than the individuals that made up the band.
But, everything has its time and like anything else, there is a lifespan with a beginning, a middle, and an eventual end. Whether this span is 'The Vapors' short or 'The Rolling Stones' long; you get a lifetime whatever the time allowed.
"Presence" followed by "Absence" descends that watery course into either "Obscurity" or "Eternity" on that ship of a million years. Through the generations of young people that emerge, each must pass through, then on, carrying with them the adoration transported on the sea of their music handed down from Mother, Father, to son and daughter.
Zep and Floyd continue to harvest followers as their music has been handed down through the generations with each new one discovering, connecting with, and falling in love over and over again. Why? Because their music is the transportation layer that carries the protocol, encapsulated in the packets that comprise the language of their Muse.
According to Greek mythology, music, instruments, and the aural arts are attributed to divine origin, and the art of music was a gift of the gods to men. But, what is the meaning of this gift and why gift this to humanity? Was it to turn on a functional part of consciousness where empathy resides? Consider this article excerpt from "Science Daily":
DeleteA SMU-UCLA study published in 2018 by the Southern Methodist University (SMU) is the first to find evidence supporting a neural account of the music-empathy connection. Also, it is among the first to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore how empathy affects the way we perceive music. The new study indicates that among higher-empathy people, at least, music is not solely a form of artistic expression."
"If music was not related to how we process the social world, then we likely would have seen no significant difference in the brain activation between high-empathy and low-empathy people," said Wallmark, who is director of the 'MuSci' Lab at SMU, an interdisciplinary research collective that studies -- among other things -- how music affects the brain. But in our culture we have a whole elaborate system of music education and music thinking that treats music as a sort of disembodied object of aesthetic contemplation," Wallmark said. "In contrast, the results of our study help explain how music connects us to others. This could have implications for how we understand the function of music in our world, and possibly in our evolutionary past."
The idea of Muses as mythological expressions for the method of musical transportation over human consciousness is fascinating to me, especially when considering how through the evolution of a musical form like rock has connected with so many on various levels that spawned off every genre and subgenre of the original expression. Taken further, by the exploration of some rock bands, such as Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, as examples of 'mythic level' groups who have exported their music over time and integrated it into the fabric of culture, inspiration, and memory.
& "charity" is an act of "empathy" so Pink Gilmour proffering the collection plate (& JPJ of Zep "Playing For Change" - spare change - Peace Through Music) doubly reinforces the pull at the heartstrings.
DeleteIt must be quite a thing to be adored like these "rock gods" are, the focus of all the admiration must be quite a daunting thing, or for the more frivolous among them just reward for their apparent brilliance. Playing the Same Song(s) over the years over & over & over again is quite some ritual to engage in & what does doing so in turn do? It acts to transcend a sense of time by fixing the listener to a specific (range of) feeling(s) it encourages reconnection with.
Delete"Remains" can also refer to a corpse - "the mortal remains" of "This Mortal Coil", so to step outside of time by being swept up in the emotion of a song - to be taken out of oneself is a form of death, a "Rock 'N' Roll Suicide" even, to wield such power, no wonder for those able to stand such a thing they keep on coming back for "The Song Remains The Same".
This Pink Gilmour "Hey Hey Rise Up" (like water?) concoction serves as medium/vessel for an artist by the name of Boombox, a Ukrainian, singing in Ukrainian. No previous Floyd piece features non-English vocals (besides 1 of the tunes on the almost "Darkside Of The Moon" companion piece that is "Obscured By Clouds" - an almost "In Through The Out Door" effort compared to the Waters minted "...Moon/Wish ... Here/Animals" run of "classic" all killer no filler albums), to most ears the meaning of the Ukrainian lyrics of "Hey Hey Rise Up" will be unintelligible but sentiment will be conveyed, such a combination in which the meaning of what is sung does not require immediate, or even possible, understanding reminds me of a certain Shimmering someone oft mentioned on the Twin blog of this site (& also here on the previous blog post).
ReplyDeleteSome further musings,
ReplyDelete"Hey Hey Rise Up" as in raise funds, "fund" is derived from "found" which means "the bottom".
Considering the collective loosh the likes of Floyd etc & those cashing in at the top of the record label hierarchy have at their disposal what does the putting on a show whilst handing out the begging bowl shennanigans, exemplified by "Live Aid" & the slew of "cause" concerts that followed in its wake carrying on to this day, achieve? It's certainly not in aid of affecting the momentum of the charity "gravy train" ("Pink Floyd" - "Have a Cigar" from "Wish You Were Here").
"The Bottom" could well described Zep's Live Aid '85 appearance in Philly, described by part of the Twin Bonzo fill-in that took the form of Phil Collins (who via a Concorde flight over "the pond" managed to perform at both the UK & US events) as "the second coming"
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/scraping-the-barrel.html
"Scraping the barrel is using or accepting something of inferior quality because all the better quality items have been used up. The phrase initially meant 'use every last part of the barrel's contents so as not to waste any'"
Lost and found is a phrase emphasising absence/presence & Zep's shambolic "Live Aid" appearance resulted in many a muso wishing it had never have come to be, though Zep regained something of their mojo in the '90s no amount of filling in, however considerately or professionally - even by the son of Bonzo - can fill the gap. Same with post-Barret or post-Waters Floyd, the contrasting character of previous driving forces no longer defines the sound.
Regarding "Live Aid" back here in Blighty David Bowie, performing after the fabled "back from the dead" set by "Queen", referred to the assembled Wembley congregation as "the real heroes..." as the sound of "Heroes" faded, he'd opened his set with "TVC 15" the b-side of which was "We Are The Dead" the "Diamond Dogs" track that originally would have been part of a musical based on Orwell's "1984". Curious "TVC15" is, in part, about being consumed by a TV set, post-"Videodrome" would that make the viewers of the live TV broadcast of the fundraiser involved in the hymn: "long live the new flesh"?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TVC_15#Composition
"NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray, who call the track "incongruously jolly", note an influence of the Yardbirds, as evident by the opening "oh-OH-oh-OH-OH", which is borrowed from the Yardbirds' 1964 song "Good Morning Little School Girl""
(though Jimmy Page didn't start playing for "The Yardbirds" until '66 of all years).
"TVC15" is also performed on that "Saturday Night Live" show from '79 that has been discussed previously here or the main Secret Sun blog.
The vocals for "Have a Cigar" are sung by Roy Harper:
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Harper_(singer)#Personal_life
"Following police interviews in February 2013, Harper was charged in November 2013 with ten counts of alleged historic child sexual abuse over a period of several years with two under-age females. After a two-week trial in early 2015, he was unanimously acquitted by a jury of two of the charges with no verdicts on the remaining five, then in November 2015, following a review by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders, the remaining charges were dropped."
Harper's brush with the law was part of the dragnet that followed the Savile admissions.
Harper worked with Jimmy Page on the 1985 "Whatever Happened to Jugula?" album, tracks include opener "Nineteen Forty-Eightish" (a homage to Orwell's tome), "Hangman", wiki, "about the feelings of an innocent man condemned to be executed for a crime he did not commit" & "Hope" a co-written affair/based on a David Gilmour composition that Gilmour also sent to Pete Townshend (no stranger to police inquiries into matters of child abuse), with an eye on featuring on the Gilmour's "About Face" album. Not feeling Pete's contribution Townshend kept it as the renamed "White City Fighting" on hs "White City" album, opening track: "Give Blood", the Harper/Page version of "Hope" includes the chorus refrain of "I wanted to live forever".
Also on "Jugula" a re-worked track titled "Elizabeth" (originally released on the previous year's "Born in Captivity" album the first side tracklisting of which suggests quite a narrative), opening verse:
"Stood on the street in the face of a holocaust
With thunder in your voice
As in the grace of great numbers
A world is made
To feel your choice
And I love you
For choosing to live with us
And making some noise"
the lyrics go on to sing:
"It's time that we joined our hands
Across the world
It's time that we joined our hands
To save our world"
so, shades of "Live Aid" in the air?
There's also a spoken word track titled "Bad Speech" which also features on the single release of "Elizabeth" also backed with a live version of "I Hate The White Man".
Harper's presence on Floyd had Twinned him with Clare Torry who provides lead vocals on "The Great Gig in the Sky" from "Dark Side of the Moon" until "Hey Hey Rise Up" added a new non-band member vocalist to the Floyd catalogue, triplets.
On Gilmour Floyd's "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" album the track "The Dogs of War", wiki: "describes politicians orchestrating wars, suggesting the major influence behind war is money" (the tune Twinning itself with the Floyd cash grabber that was the "Dark Side..." rocker "Money" in a number of musical ways), features Gilmour intoning "One World, it's a battleground...", on album closer "Sorrow" he sings "One world, one soul, time pass, the river rolls".
"One World" is the refrain ullulated across the recent decades by the music world "Heroes", "One World: Together at Home", the "Covid" concert, being a recent example a month into the first "lockdown" in "the west".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Division_Bell_Tour#History
ReplyDelete"The tour was sponsored in Europe by Volkswagen, which also issued a commemorative version of its top-selling car, the "Golf Pink Floyd", one of which was given as a prize at each concert. It was a standard Golf with Pink Floyd decals and a premium stereo, and had Volkswagen's most environmentally friendly engine, at Gilmour's insistence."
previously,
"All in all, the tour required 700 tons of steel carried by 53 articulated trucks, a crew of 161 people and an initial investment of US$4 million plus US$25 million of running costs just to stage."
http://www.pink-floyd.org/artint/spiegel.htm
"SPIEGEL: Your company is called Pink Floyd, and it works like an industrial enterprise. When you go on tour, you carry loads of equipment, and almost every newspaper article written about you begins with the 49 trucks and the number of planes which are needed to carry your equipment.
DG: These boring figures don't interest me. Before we go on tour, we get together and I say, "I want laser, I want quadrophonic sound, I want this and that". And in the end someone says, "OK, that's 700 tons of equipment. That is going to cost a lot of money". I'd like to do it cheaper myself."
Regarding the VW,
"SPIEGEL: Apart from the DM 20 million (8.5 million UK Pounds) sponsoring money, did you get one of the cars as well?
DG: Yes, but it hasn't arrived yet: they must have forgotten to send it to me.
SPIEGEL: Do you miss it?
DG: Not really. This whole Volkswagen story has caused me a very bad conscience. I have donated the money to charity. I feel better now."
+
"SPIEGEL: You own a collection of six airplanes, Mason stacks sports cars, and Wright owns a few yachts. Still you play the outsider and claim not to be part of the establishment.
DG: Actually, I am not a part of the establishment.
SPIEGEL: You are sitting here in an exclusive club in London, sipping Cappuccino for DM 15 (6 quid) a cup and claim not to be part of the establishment? This is pure luxury.
DG: Certainly."
That is some dry wit there from "DG".
Given what became of the monies raised by things like "Live Aid / Live 8 / Live Earth" & the ever-multiplying calls to "show support" for whichever "cause" every "Global Citizen" must make a display of deference to day in day out, there being so very, very many of these things now they overlap one another, sometimes in the most farcical of ways, as part of the "globalised" calendar ("Covid-19", "I Stand With ...", "Transgender Day of Remembrance", "Veganuary", "Movember" on & on & on) such exercises in futility (the disconnect between intention & result - a "presence" all its own - being what is reinforced) will only generate further handing round of the begging bowl.
THis exhange is an example of why Roger Waters can hardly stand to be in a room with Gilmour. It was a drag for us fans back in the 80s that Waters seemed such a buzzkill about it but in retrospect I've taken his side.
Deletehttps://www.spin.com/2020/07/leather-pants-and-chicken-wings-the-real-stories-behind-live-aid/
ReplyDeleteDarryl Hall (who with Oates backed Mick Jagger + special surprise guest Tina Turner the co-star of a Pepsi ad with "Let's Dance" era David Bowie (& later Rod Stewart)):
"...it was the first time that the whole world was observing an event. And as we played, I felt like the whole world’s eyes were on me, and us, up there. So, I felt it. I allowed myself to feel it, and I said, ‘Okay, I owe it to everyone to throw it back, to do something significant, something I care about, something I believe in, something a lot of people believe in.’ At least at the time, everybody was of one thought. It was an idealistic experience.”"
the '69 "Moon landing" would disagree, Bowie's "Space Oddity" would be used by the BBC to soundtrack said "landing".
From the same article Rick Springfield on the vibe of "Live Aid":
“Whenever I played in front of a really big crowd like that, the energy — it’s weird — it physically lifts you ... You feel lighter; you feel like you could fly. And it’s incredible, actually. I never expected that the first time I got in front of a really, really big audience — like in Europe, where they had those outdoor rock shows, and you’d get in front of 250,000 people… that changes things.”
So, a sense of separation - being "above" (already in place being "on stage"), observed & marvelled at is emphasised.
Another interviewee is "Black Sabbath" drummer Bill Ward:
"When Black Sabbath’s original lineup reunited onstage with Ozzy Osbourne for the first time in six years, Ward was newly sober at the time.
“We showed up the day before, and I believe we had a rehearsal — we just jammed on a couple of songs,” Ward says. “The easiest thing for me was going on stage. That’s when I realized that I was at home — that’s where I felt most comfortable. I didn’t want to focus on how large the audience was, and I also didn’t want to focus on how many at home were watching. I had to focus every piece of energy I had on the actual performance. So, I was able to detach from the audience. Otherwise, I think I would have been overwhelmed. I needed to be focused, even though we were only doing three songs because they were songs I hadn’t played in some time with the original band. That was a big deal. So, I had to focus there, and that’s what I tried to do: ‘Just play drums, Bill — that’s your job today.’ And that’s what I kept telling myself.”
Thinking back on it, Ward adds: “It was a victory for me and having victories at 18-months sober was pretty important.”"
So many drummers - the grounding aspect of a big band's sound, most famously "Moon the Loon" & Zep's "Bonzo" (add Ringo Starr as an almost), end up coming a cropper due to their spell among the showbiz-pantheon, it is telling Ward comments on needing to remove himself from the event so as to be present for it, this is quite a contradiction to embody.
"While the Live Aid’s aftermath has tainted its legacy, Hall doesn’t regret his involvement.
“People have their own opinions after an event, and after the fact — no matter what historical event happens ... Everybody’s intentions were right, for people to get together over a good thing as opposed to other things that aren’t so good, or terrible. This was about something good. This was about a bad situation that the whole world was trying to make better and you can’t fault anybody for thinking that way. You can call them naïve and you can call them idealistic, but you can’t fault them for it. But I think what happened was inevitable. Still, for me, it was fun, and we were all in it together. It was great.”"
Reaching for the stars is a lofty aim, so many efforts fall short but such failures can be made use of in consequent attempts to conquer the stars.
October 2020,
ReplyDeletehttps://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a34417764/jimmy-page-2020-interview/
"Jimmy Page Is Still Practicing
The legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist has nothing left to prove. But when he picks up his instrument, the ideas keep on coming."
Presence:
"Mostly, The Anthology illustrates the tale of a boy whose family moved into a house where the previous owners had left a guitar, an accident that set him on a lifelong quest. “The guitar made an intervention into my life, that’s the way I see it,” he says. “And then I became totally obsessed—the guitar just became another limb, like it was grafted on.”"
...
“When I look back on it,” says Jimmy Page, “it feels something like a charmed life.”
"Last month was the fortieth anniversary of John Bonham’s passing. What thoughts did that bring up?"
"It was just wonderful working with him. I just loved it. You’d have these long improvisations like on “Dazed and Confused”—the thing started getting longer and longer, it got like a classical piece, in movements—and it was all guitar-led, but we were so in sync with each other that you could try all this stuff. I’d give him the nod and he would know something was coming and it was almost like ESP—not only with him, all the band, but that was the key character I was working with.
It’s such a tragic loss, just for the music he would have been making all those years. Who knows what he would have done? I hope I would have done it with him along the way."
"The last Zeppelin project that was announced was a documentary for the band’s fiftieth anniversary. What’s going on with that?"
"Well, I did all my parts for it. I can’t give you any of the secrets away. I’m not sure but I think that it’s got slowed up relative to the Covid virus. So I can’t give you the exact date, but I’m sure it will get finished."
& regarding "Covid" = a need "to do things differently":
"Well, we all need to think about doing things differently now.
Yes, we have, haven’t we? I better keep practicing the guitar. Maybe I might even be able to play it live outside."
So, another "global" raising of "funds" imminent?
Page was a performer at the "Net Aid" concert at Giants Stadium in New Jersey back in '99:
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetAid#Launch_concerts
"Performers at Giants Stadium included: Sheryl Crow, Jimmy Page, Busta Rhymes, Counting Crows, Bono, Puff Daddy, The Black Crowes, Wyclef Jean, Jewel, Mary J. Blige, Cheb Mami, Sting, Slash, Lil' Kim, Lil' Cease, and Zucchero."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetAid#Programs_&_Administration
"In response criticisms regarding its finances, NetAid published a web page in November 2001 citing its record of donations to anti-poverty initiatives to date, such as granting "$1.4 million to 16 poverty alleviation projects in Kosovo and Africa — well over the $1m that had been raised from the public to that point... the remaining $10.6 million was dedicated to creating an innovative institution that will generate new support for reducing global poverty over the long term. Since January 2000, NetAid has used approximately $2 million to catalyze new support and partnerships for fighting global poverty."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetAid#MercyCorps
"In 2007, NetAid became a part of Mercy Corps."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MercyCorps
"Mercy Corps is a global non-governmental, humanitarian aid organization operating in transitional contexts that have undergone, or have been undergoing, various forms of economic, environmental, social and political instabilities. The organization claims to have assisted more than 220 million people survive humanitarian conflicts, seek improvements in livelihoods, and deliver durable development to their communities. In 2019, senior staff resigned following public disclosure of the organization's longtime inaction over its co-founder's sexual abuse of his daughter."
Bowie performed at the Wembley "Net Aid" gig.
Page's "Net Aid" set (with "The Black Crows") opened with the "Kashmir" regurgitation that was the "Godzilla" (1998) soundtracking "Come With Me" featuring "Puff Daddy" on vocals. "Puffy/P-Diddy" had previously minted "The Police" mega-hit "Every Breath You Take" sampling "I'll Be Missing You" in the wake of the death of "Princess Di" (the "Royal" face of "philanthropy/cause" cash-ins), though originally released to commemorate the life/death of "The Notorious B.I.G." (a "black star"), "Puffy's" performance of the tune was the emotional centrepiece of the "Concert for Diana" (2007) so quite an overlap of energies channelled in "Aid".
Though Zep, Floyd, Bowie weren't part of the "Concert For Diana" Gillian Anderson was a presenter, along with the likes of Dennis Hopper, Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton & Tony Blair. Another perfomer was Bowie mega-fan Ricky Gervais performing "Free Love Freeway" which includes the lines "Going home 'cause my baby's gone (she's gone)" (which if I recall correctly the TV presentation involved the camera switching to a shot of William & Harry laughing) + due to a delay in Elton John being ready to perform the closing set of the event (his 2nd after opening with "Your Song", the 2nd set failing to include his own re-worked hit in honour of "Di" originally written for Marilyn Monroe, "Candle In The Wind") Gervais sang the song Bowie performs in the episode of "Extras" he guest stars in to fill the gap, it's title "Chubby Little Loser".
https://www.hellomagazine.com/cuisine/2020082495890/princess-diana-diet-revealed/
ReplyDelete"Princess Diana's struggle with bulimia was no secret, but after splitting from Prince Charles in 1992, the People's Princess embarked on a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle."
"In 1981, a care home in Johannesburg, South Africa, wrote to members of the royal family asking for their favourite recipes to collate as part of a cookbook. A response from Diana's private secretary Oliver Everett was unveiled in January 2020, stating that her go-to was a bowl of Ukrainian beetroot soup."
U2 released a "Ukraine" version of "Walk On" this past week, to "jog on" is an utterance aimed at a presence a soul wishes would clear off.
Finally, though given the return from the dead that was Floyd at "Live 8" & in response to "Ukraine" (who knows maybe even Gilmour & Waters will bridge their divide again as a show of deference to "the need to...") maybe another thought will cross my mind in response to "Presence", the main proposition of all of these charity fundraisers, from the one-man collecting on the street for an actual local cause/second hand shops selling handed in goods for the same to things like the global "give us your fucking money" extravaganzas like "Live Aid", is that something bad has happened, or is ongoing, that this bad thing results in suffering & that in specific cases - especially those made a show of à la L8 - this suffering results in what are presented as what would have been avoidable deaths (if only for the supposed lack of assistance actually being available).
ReplyDeleteAvoiding the kind of suffering that results in death maintains a presence here on This Mortal Coil, the absence of those that have died due to otherwise avoidable suffering is made use of to accrue "Money" (a name of a song Floyd played as part of their L8 set).
Floyd's L8 get-together, though followed by Paul McCartney, was the crowning event of the show much like "Queen" & their contribution to the original '85 "give us your fucking money" (as cursed by Bob Geldof live on British TV before what was known as "the watershed" the 9 o' clock at night time after which "naughty words" & "adult themes" could be "explored" to a degree) fundraiser. As part of their set Floyd played "Wish You Were Here", the latter dedicated by Waters to "Syd", they closed with the song that broke the band, "Comfortably Numb".
Originally a demo by Gilmour for his first solo album discarded then picked up by Waters during "The Wall" sessions (all but a few tunes including the album defining "Numb" having been composed by Waters prior to the band sessions beginning) who worked on his own lyrical contribution, the song given the name "The Doctor", & though something of a song of two halves (which it always had been even as the original Gilmour demo), like "The Beatles" post-release reconsidered "first concept album" closer "A Day In The Life" (Nick Mason of Floyd saying "Sgt. Peppers" inspired Floyd to focus on albums, in so doing they became the masters of the album format) the halves work as one. Perhaps it's what "Numb" emphasises about Floyd - that they worked best when it was a group affair - that rankled Waters, who likes/d to see himself as the "brains behind the band", so very much thus fuelling the acrimony & division at work to this day.
Though Gilmour decided to join Waters for L8 & the band's performance is "professional", besides Gilmour's solos, their set lacks "soul", given the absence of Waters as part of the band line-up the preceding 20+yrs perhaps no surprise the "magic" wasn't present, & though Waters looks like he's having the time of his life back on stage with the band he thought would end when his attempt to stamp his authority it fell on deaf ears (by the rest of the band & the legion of fans alike) Gilmour is distant & initially as the set ends after "Numb" comes to a close (contrast how long some versions go on for at Floyd/Gilmour gigs sans Waters & the L8 take is a swift take in comparison) Gilmour heads offstage until he turns to see Waters beckoning to him as he stands with Mason & Wright, cue "The Final" photo...
...The "Hey Hey Rise Up" tune may be the "first new music" by "Pink Floyd" in "28 years" but it is not the first single during this time. Back in 2014, to promote "The Endless River" album of "Division Bell" leftovers (the former billed by Gilmour as something that wouldn't be followed up as keyboardist Rick Wright was "gone": "...and with him the chance of ever doing it again, it feels right that these revisited and reworked tracks should be made available as part of our repertoire"), the track "Louder Than Words" was released as a single, the lyrics were written by Gilmour's wife, Polly Samson, & detail her impressions of how the members of "Pink Floyd" acted towards one another during the L8 rehersals.
ReplyDeleteAn added twist is that the song that finished Floyd is about a somewhat (mentally) absent rocker requiring an injection so as to "...Rise Up" & perform on-stage, "there is no pain, you are receding, a distant ship's smoke on the horizon, you are only coming through in waves, your lips move but I cannot hear what you say" & then there's the song title itsef emphasising a contrary state of present/absent condition.
As well as the "Live Aid/8" twinning Floyd & Queen are twinned due to their respective absent frontmen both from indulging (though Freddie may still be alive to this day if not for having swapped the debauches of rock 'n' roll revelry for that other pharmacological dead-end that took the form of the initial AIDs "treatment").
"Live 8" was part of the "Make Poverty History" working, the incantation emblazoning from the giant screens at the gig in Gerald Scarfe's "Wall" script as the climax of "Numb" began to echo around the world.
"NO MORE EXCUSES" said the top of the stage set throughout the concert.
Listening to those Gilmour Floyd albums, "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" (1987) & "The Division Bell" (1994), both of which verge in places on an album of guitar solos interspersed with more ambient moments (+ Gilmour's "We Are The World" style lyrics), reminded me of the "Coverdale-Page" Twinning from '93, the cover of which is of a roadsign on which a black merging onto & straight ahead symbol is shown on a yellow background (& behind it blue sky) - quite "Presence" statuesque in form.
ReplyDeleteThe music, though given that elders of rock top of the range studio sheen, is something of a hint of a return to form for Page after the wipeout of the '80s, cockier Robert Plant Twin David Coverdale injected the procedings with enough of a ballsy vibe to achieve a kind of lift-off (after his own hard-rocking Zep-clone outfit "Whitesnake" temporarily disbanded) which the cover imagery boastingly boosts.
Plant's '93 album, "Fate of Nations", which was a return to form for Plant banishing his '80s output, opens with "Calling To You", no wonder come '94 Page & Plant were back on the road together (Coverdale nowhere to be seen as part of the package, surplus to requirements, job done) & "No Quarter.../Walking Into..." were released to rapturous reception. Zep bassist John Paul Jones hadn't been invited though which if I recall correctly wrankled him somewhat(?) & Twins him with Waters as part of the absent Gilmour Floyd lineup.
"Fate Of Nations" tracks include: "Come Into My Life", "I Believe", "Memory Song (Hello, Hello)", "Promised Land", "The Greatest Gift" & "Great Spirit". The tracklisting for the C-P album is more regretful: "Waiting On You", "Take Me A Little While", "Over Now", "Easy Does It", "Don't Leave Me This Way", "Absolution Blues" & "Whisper A Prayer For The Dying".
Plant on FON:
"From the very beginning of this project, around January 1991, right after the Manic Nirvana tour, I knew what I was going to do: go back into my past..."
It's a Zep album minus Page's wizardry (which isn't quite there on C-P either), if Page was still somewhat "lost" but Plant was "found" then their reuniting - a risky proposition given the previous decade - if successful served to set them both up for the "Money" grab of a full-on Zep "reunion" (+ this time Jones who shares the same surname with another reviver, Bowie whom Nick Mason of Floyd calls the one true "Rock God" due to his array of identities & ability to shift between them), after things like the Live Aid + '88 shambolic set at the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary event who in '93 would have wanted to see P&P especially with the newly minted "grunge"/"gangsta rap" sounds making bank? The post C-P/FON working made both Page & Plant hot tickets again the eighties excess forgiven & forgotten, signed as oncoming by the presence on C-P album cover?
The Covrdale/Page collab had no legs (literally- the tour ended after a couple dates in Japan) and despite really stand out chonky monsters like 'Over Now', it's the 80s Spandex Rock album Page should have given his fans instead of the damp squib 'Outrider'- part of his personal hunch that working with a British white soul singer would make some special magick. The problem was CP was up against Nirvana, Pearl Jam &c and though a lot of us bought it, radio didn't bother with it. The peurile lyrics on most of it were very much out of step with the 90s. As for Fate of Nations, I bought it and maybe played it once. It felt like a World Music vibe was happening that was a foreshadowing of where he's gone since. He's built a whole new audience amongst his generational peer group. Hard to fault a man for that.
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