A Lovely Tease
'Walking into Clarksdale' is what we desparately needed from Plant & Page: original material. 'No Quarter', their last team-up album was full of Led Zep material, which was WONDERFUL, but not as refreshing as one might hope. John Paul Jones is needed if these two ever pair up again... & it's been years & years since John Bonham passed away. It's time to bring Led Zeppelin back. All of their solo work proves they've still got it, so why not flaunt it? Newcomers, The White Stripes, have brought back the garage-band/blues sound we used to groove on, so the time is ripe for Led Zep to return.
With incredible tunes like 'Shining in the Light', 'Most High', 'Upon a Golden Horse', & 'Blue Train', from this album & 'Wonderful One' from 'No Quarter', we know these boys can unite & come up with some high quality material. I thoroughly enjoyed 'Walking Into Clarksdale' as an album to be listened to over & over. 'Dreamland', by Plant, is a must-purchase as well.
Come on guys, now is the time, the time is now. Please read the letter. Plant, Page, Jones forever.
Not a Zeppelin Album (Thank God!)
Led Zeppelin was a tremendous band, perhaps the most creative and influential in hard rock history, but they had their swan song twenty years ago. So when 'Walking into Clarksdale' first comes through the speakers, keep in mind that Page and Plant have grown and evolved, both personally and musically, for two decades! How very boring it would be if they had simply slapped on "Whole Lotta Love Part II", made their money, and gone home. Instead, Jimmy and Robert challenge their audience with minimalistic arrangements and genre-twisting songs. The only song that falls flat, "Burning Up", is indeed every bit the classic rock retread that a lot of reviewers here seem to be pining for, but other than that, the album succeeds marvelously as a profound yet intimate presentation of Page & Plant's continued evolution. 'Walking into Clarksdale' is easily one of the ten best albums of the 1990s.
Upon a Golden Fleece, walking away from Clarksdale.
This gets one star just becuase it's page/plant -half of zeppelin and this gets one star for "Most High" and the title track and "Please read the Letter" and "Upon a Golden Horse." I think they're the only truly interesting things going for this album. The song "Blue Train" is a near miss... something calm and kinda-like a Roy Orbison record, but still a little awkward and oddly unaffecting, when it should be emotionally potent stuff that lends itself well to an aging rocker. "Burning up" trys to rock hard, but smacks a little of desperation due to: it sounds like a demo with Page trying to do a mock metal rythmn that ends in half-melodic caterwauling from Plant. Literally everything else on the record is not memorable. Not the best Post-Zepp release from these guys and probably worse than Coverdale/PAGE! Although it's very near Page's band "The Firm" in the sense that they only have albums where half the songs have ANY merit to them- THE rest are borderline stinkers. Page and Plant have produced so much music filler on thier albums since Zep broke up, that one has to wonder if John Bonham and John Paul Jones weren't the heart and foundation of Led Zeppelin's sound. I did mention that there were some worthwhile songs on "Walking into Clarksdale."
Burning up?
Firstly, these songs are defintely not heavy rock, these are folk songs? Understood? This isn't Led Zeppelin although there's two members.The first song "Shining in the Light" is very good and catches me. It is very relaxing.
The other good ones are "Upon a Golden Horse" and of course "Most High", they both are a little bit heavier than the rest of the album. Also "Burning Up" is quite a heavy track. Robert Plant still has very good voice and "Please Read the Letter" is in my opinion good song although it's very peaceful.
I could say this is much like Led Zeppelin's III album. Very much ballads.
Priceless artwork
Walking into Clarksdale is the type of cd that you have to listen to a few times to really enjoy it to it's full potential. Just like Led Zeppelin in it's prime, it has an almost spiritual feel to it, as if the divine are speaking through Page and Plant. It has the ability to transport you into different planes of thought.
The best songs of the cd would have to be 'upon a golden horse' which has an old school led zeppelin feel and 'when the world was young' which is everything that I spoke about in the last paragraph. Admitingly some of the songs on this album are not all they could be, but this is still a great record by all means! There is alot of wisdom in their music and I recommend it for all and everyone.
Pity the aging rock star. All those declarations about sugar mountains and hoping to die before he got old don't leave much room for middle age. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant understood this in 1997 as they began work on Walking Into Clarksdale, the duo's first album-length collaboration on all-new material since Led Zeppelin blew apart in 1980. Despite inevitable comparisons with the music of their youth, their work here (recorded by punk deity Steve Albini) is no embarrassment. Too many of the tracks are frustratingly dry and somber, but the duo find shades of "Kashmir" on the epic "Most High," while Plant croons a beautifully Zeppelinesque chorus on "When the World Was Young." Dancing days are here again. --Steve Appleford
