ROBERT PLANT - PICTURES AT ELEVEN

"But I don't know, no I don't know, what I'm gonna do"

Could it be? Led Zeppelin had officially announced 'we could not continue as we were' on December 4th 1980. Jimmy Page took the recorded plunge first, tempted and cajoled back into work by his Kensington next door neighbour Michael Winner to produce some startling music to accompany the second (and later 3rd) film in his Death Wish franchise the previous autumn, but somehow the end of Led Zeppelin only seemed completely final when the imminent release of Robert Plant's first solo elpee was announced.

As some of you will know, if anything I've always been a 'Jimmy man' so to speak. By that, if they were both playing the same night I know which one I'd pick to go and see. That's no detriment or slight to Robert of course. He'd trodden the boards with the Honeydrippers and rediscovered the joy of being up there with a mic and a pout in 1981 across the UK club scene and assembled a group of musicians to coax and inspire his new career.

Robert appeared on kids TV show 'Tiswas' in 1981 along with Cozy Powell. They had been working together, rehearsing at Rockfield in Monmouth, preparing new songs with a view to Robert's first solo venture of original material.

Listening back some 36 and a bit years later, Pictures At Eleven is a bold yet restrained step. Giant footsteps taken inch by inch. His new guitar foil was Robbie Blunt, a local musician formerly of Bronco, Silverhead and Stan Webb's Chicken Shack. A great player, tasteful and restrained, his clean fender sound fitted into Robert's new aural jigsaw, a texture rather than a combative or juxtaposed joust. The opening bluster of Burning Down One Side is a mirror image companion to Jimmy's Death Wish opener Who's To Blame, strident riffing (way further back in the mix than Jimmy would have done...) and a confident vocal. 

Moonlight In Samosa is a nice light track showing his vocal confidence, very In Through The Out Door, before the 80's swing of Pledge Pin, complete with Raff Ravenscroft's sax figures. But it's Slow Dancer where the elpee and Robert opens up. VERY Led Zeppelin for the 1980's, its one of the two tracks Cozy Powell adds his studied Bonzo thud to, giving a power and push Phil Collins could never do. Leaning towards the future eastern textures and arrangements of songs to come, this is where Robert fills his lungs and is a Rock God again. 

Shame his voice is a bit too buried in echo and in the mix, but that's part of tentative steps, the getting confidence and swagger back. Although not performed live until the next year when Robert had enough material from 2 elpees to fashion a set, lyrics from Since I've Been Loving You and assorted blues references gave it an extra live boost. It's as close as Robert wanted to get to his past grandeur and pomposity and is certainly one of the highlights of the elpee.

Flip over to side two (you CD only people don't know what you're missing) and Worse Than Detroit is a great strident romp, complete with some lovely harmonica licks amid a twisting blues riff or two. At the Princes Trust show at London's Dominion Theatre this was debuted and certainly showed the way forward. Indeed, the sirenesque vocals at the coda really lift everything. Fat Lip is another nice albeit slightly throwaway song, held back for me by Phil Collins dull almost machine like rhythms. It's a really nice song, but the flat backing hold it back far too much for me.

Then we come to the other 'big' track. Like I've Never Been Gone is a widescreen epic, later it would be called a power ballad. Very emotional and heartfelt, it's up there with Slow Dancer as the elpee highlight, and really was a show stopper live. Shades of the future Ship Of Fools lurk in there somewhere too. It's on these more expansive tracks that Roberts vocals and lyrics really come to life and soar.  

Finally Mystery Title closes the 8 track elpee. Another fine song, like Worse Than Detroit it shows the band to be in fine shape, a great unit even without those amazing vocals. It closes Robert's first foray of new music post Led Zeppelin with a flourish, sounding almost Presence like with insistent rockabilly licks in a counter rhythm behind some deft vocals.

The 2007 edition (and the version included in the Nine Lives box) include the non-elpee track Far Post, a great song only previously available on the b-side (remember those) of Burning Down One Side plus a live take of Like I've Never Been Gone from the FM Broadcast of the Summit, Houston, Texas 20-9-83 show from the Principle Of Moments Tour. The whole set would be nice, heavily bootlegged and circulated though it is....

Love the promo video for Burning Down One Side, complete with cheesy Page 3 models and 'mystery guitarist' head wrapped in bandages a la 'Nash the Slash', a tongue in cheek riposte to those rumours Jimmy Page was back with his old sparring partner.  

For me, it's a fine set. Played it over and over and have a very strong affinity for the style and mood of the whole elpee. Do remember playing it and Death Wish II back to back several times and thinking if only the had each other on those elpees both would lift and go somewhere else. Released on Swan Song before the label's demise, it hit No.2 in the UK and No.5 on Billboard. Robert's (correct) refusal to fill a set with Led Zeppelin numbers and tour led to no live action until the following years Principle Of Moments elpee. By that time 6 of the 8 tracks formed the backbone of his set. An uncertain time, but some fine music and even better shows.