No Quarter free essay sample

On No Quarter, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page dont so much look back or forward at their reunion, but look all around. The music on their eagerly anticipated album and highly-rated unplugged special is rich with music and musicians from India, Morocco, Egypt and even a symphony orchestra. They take old classics and re-evaluate them by deepening their texture with new instruments and styles, and craft new tunes with strong world-music influences. They disregard any protests that the originals are definitive versions. From the opening of the album, the listener waits for a few seconds in anticipation of the first few notes, and then begins to hear a song that sounds totally new. About 45 seconds later, one hears the familiar verse of nobodys fault but mine, ya, nobodys fault but mine from Led Zeppelins pulse-pounding 1976 electric-hit. The lyrics are the same, but everything else is different. On this version, the pace is slowed, the distortion pedal is traded in for an instrument called a hurdy-gurdy, and a delicate, bluesy, expectation-shattering remake of a classic song ensues. We will write a custom essay sample on No Quarter or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The rest of the album continues with experimentation, passion and craftsmanship. Plant and Page smartly choose to redo those songs that didnt get as much play time as ubiquitous Led Zeppelin hits like Stairway to Heaven and Whole Lotta Love. Four Sticks, Thats the Way and Friends, lesser-known songs are redone with care and, in the case of Four Sticks, improved upon from the original. The duos world music tendencies show up as they retackle Gallows Pole with acoustic guitar, Egyptian percussion, and banjo, and manage to make the song sound more like a good old-fashioned English folk romp than the original. They expand the mythic overtones of The Battle of Evermore by having Najma Akhtar, an Indian songstress, sing back-up to Plants familiar wails. Kashmir and Since Ive Been Loving You of course sound great, with all the proper elements in line: Plants searing vocals, Pages exceptional guitar skill, an Egyptian string and percussion ensemble and the London Metropolitan Opera. And the new songs? Thats where Plants and Pages musical experimentation is boldest. On Yallah, they loop a simple hypnotic Moroccan drum beat and Page plugs the guitar. Simply put, he rocks. Most amazing is Plants still present ability to wail and make it sound as effortless and beautiful as a birds flight. The lyrics, however, have not gotten any better with age. And the new songs arent great poetry, either. The whole gist in Led Zeppelins music was that the lyrics werent very important, for the music was textured, intricate and involving; it truly did the talking. After all these years, the music speaks eloquently, but in many tongues. .