Page & Plant - No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded - 1.44 million
This was always going to be spectacular. Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and Jimmy Page combining in 1994 for a show in the MTV Unplugged series was pretty huge news. Plant has later revealed a key caveat of the agreement with MTV though. The show wouldn't be unplugged at all.
But as a gesture to the concept, the pair agreed to rework a range of Led Zeppelin songs, not necessarily all the top hits, and some of them would be broadly acoustic. Well, if it got the pair working together again, that’s close enough for me!
It was just the two Led Zeppelin members getting back together. John Paul Jones wasn't involved in the discussions to set it up, nor the event itself. So the much-awaited reunion of the remaining three band members wasn't yet on. The MTV session was labeled as Unledded for good reason then.
It was a spectacular show when the recording sessions in Morocco, London, and Wales were edited together for MTV. Fourteen songs are on the album. They include experimental new songs with Moroccan musicians and instruments giving us "City Don't Cry", "Wah Wah" and "Yallah/The Truth Explodes”. There are also classics like “That’s The Way”, “The Battle of Evermore” and a brilliant version of “Kashmir” to close the show.
Ok, it wasn't Led Zeppelin. And with some electric guitar from Page in there, it wasn’t unplugged either. But it's a fabulous show and album and well worth hearing Plant and Page delivering so well.
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