Songs of the Day: 80's Robert Plant

Those of us who grew up on MTV probably knew more of Robert Plant from those early videos than from his days in Led Zeppelin.  Their only album of the 80's, "Coda", was a collection of outtakes released after John Bonham's death, so Robert Plant's solo material (and, later, Jimmy Page's stint with "The Firm") was many a young person's introduction to their talents.

Two videos in particular seemed to get a lot of airplay: "In The Mood" and "Big Log".  Each has it's own quirks and each is dated in it's own way, but both songs sound good even twenty six years later.





The drummer on both tracks is Phil Collins, most noticeably on "In The Mood".

I always thought the backing track for "Big Log" had a Morricone/Good, Bad and the Ugly feel to it, which added to the atmosphere of the video.

Bonus:

A few years later, Page and Plant would be reunited (albeit in secret) as members of "The Honeydrippers", a project that Page, Plant and Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records wanted to produce.  Only one album was recorded, "Vol. 1", but evidently it satisfied their urge to record an anonymous album of 50's and 60's cover songs.  The biggest hit from that album, and another video that received quite a bit of airplay, was their cover of Phil Phillips 1959 hit "Sea of Love".   Great guitar solo by Jimmy Page.