Walking Into Clarksdale
by Father Eddie

Aw, yeah Sure, I was a teenaged Zep freak.

First Zep track I heard was Whole Lotta Love when a friend of mine bought the single. We were in 7th grade and it was the weirdest thing I'd ever heard. I hated it at first, but before long got the Zep bug like just about every other 13 year old male at the time. My fave was Houses of The Holy because it had a little of everything, and was their most sophisticated production effort. After Physical Graffiti they went downhill fast and Bonzo's death in 1980 provided a damn good reason to end the whole thing. The `70s are dead. Long live Led Zeppelin.

After many years of pointless solo meanderings, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant have finally figured out that if they want to make real money touring, they'd better team up again and put out some new material. Despite the absence of John Bonham and John Paul Jones, "Walking Into Clarksdale" is for all intents and purposes the new Led Zeppelin album. After getting about halfway through the CD though, I had to turn it off. Jesus Christ this record sucks!

The "songs" are merely excuses for Page to inject some licks and Plant (who is in fine voice, by the way) to go, "oooo, yea yea" again. Ironically, the drummer and bass player outshine the two legends they are supposed to be supporting, and famous grunge producer Steve Albini's mix is yet another example of his patented Houses of The Holy big room drum sound with the slap-back echo on everything, only this time he's been hired by his apparent mentors. The result is The Big Sellout for Albini. This album is about as far removed from art or anything remotely vital as you can get. It is a huge waste of time. Page's guitar playing sounds amateurish at best. If he's still going with the first take like the old days, my advice would be to work on it a bit more next time. And if I hear those fancy schmancy jazz chords he used in The Firm (his mid-80s "supergroup" with Bad Company's Paul Rodgers) again, I'll just scream.

In a nutshell, if you're so bored and disillusioned with today's music that this album is a big deal, I feel sorry for you. And if like me, you were a Zep fan in the early-mid 70's but thought that by the time they got to In The Out Door it was over, take my word for it: Walking Into Clarksdale is OVER+20 years. Don't bother.

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