mjfrombuffalo's Full Review: Now & Zen by Robert Plant
Zen is big. People want to align their baguas and feng shui their apartments to get more Zen. You see Zen in the names of stores and restaurants downtown. People encourage others to calm down, take deep breaths and "feel the Zen." Robert Plant was ahead of this wave in 1987 when he released Now and Zen. Unfortunately, you'll only hear a good song now and Zen when you listen to this album.
[Caveat: I am not a Zepplin fan. I don't hate them, I just don't know them. In fact, I like one or two Zepplin songs, like I like one or two Pink Floyd songs. And I regularly get confused as to which of those two groups did what song. That's a testament to just how not a real Zepplin fan (or Floyd fan, for that matter) I am.]
Now and Zen came out years after Plant left Led Zepplin to go solo, a solo career that was marked by the number of times people would call to ask him Zepplin questions when he did radio interviews. It was a time when 80's music was dominated by Pop, with New Wave (now Alternative) and Heavy Metal making strong showings. Now and Zen actually incorporated a bit of burgeoning New Age music with a touch of hard, Zepplin Album Rock feel and a sort of pop overlay in spots. Plant seemed to be finding Zen, and his own style, in this polyglot mixture. Alas, on the nine songs on this album, only four and a half are good.
Side 1 - three and 1/2 good songs
Heaven Knows
What kind of fool am I
Why do you take an eye for an eye
What comes over me
You were pumping iron as I was pumping irony
This song has a good beat and a good, hard guitar. Plant sounds vaguely dangerous and seductive, very sardonic, as he sings interesting lyrics. (Most of the lyrics on this album are poetic, if somewhat disjointed, and sexual - but mildly sexual compared to today's music.) There's a nice, synthesized counterpoint to the melody, making it one of the best songs on the album. It's a song about a man and a woman using each other in an apparently unsatisfactory relationship, and yet they stay together, "Heaven Knows" why. There's a poetic sexual reference and lots of cynicism in what could have been a romantic song with different words applied to the lush melody.
Dance on My Own
There's a girl who lives on my block (x3)
She's drivin me mad she's drivin me mad, she's drivin mee-ee...
And I don't know what to do x3
'Cause I want her so bad, yes I want her so bad, yes I want her soo-ooo...
This track features a well-fashioned blend of synthesizer, guitar, drums, all moving forward at a good beat without a rushed or overtly "driving" feel to the song. It includes a typical 80's guitar solo between chorus 2 and verse 3, but the song has a not-quite-standard-80's feel, with enough of a twist to keep it from going into the 80's pop or 80's Hair Band categories. A song of unrequited love, or unrequited sex. Probably unrequited sex, which makes his chorus "I'm happy dancin', dancin', I'll dance on my own" assume a different meaning. And this is the song that supplies the 1/2 of this side's "3 1/2 good songs." It's OK.
Tall Cool One
You stroll, you jump,
You're hot and you tease
'Cause I'm your tall cool one
And I'm built to please
Say what you will about Plant, he's secure in his sexual appeal. This is the head-banging song of the album, with a very strong, driving beat and instrumentation, hard guitar. It oozes sex, sex, sex with a pretty good melody and lyrics full of winks, innuendo, and flirting with overt sexual lyrics - but it's not just sex after all, as he repeats "Lighten up, baby, I'm in love with you." This song ends with an all-over-the-place section, including a twist ending with "hey, hey mamma" from Led Zepplin's "Rock and Roll" dubbed in.
The Way I Feel
The mirror tries to please me
The image wouldn't stay
The stranger is too perfect
To take my breath away
This is a song of identity crisis, someone with success that doesn't quite sit right with him. It's presented with a feeling of surreality, 80's rock mixed with New Age in the music. The theme and lyrics make me think of this as a melodic, faster-paced, updated version of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb." But it could just be me.
Side 2 - one good song
Helen of Troy
This is not the one good song. It's a meandering mess, far too long, and very forgettable in the end. The producers knew what they were doing when they didn't include this song's lyrics in the liner notes of the cassette version.
Billy's Revenge
Billy and Jane
You will never get old
That's a kinda lovely story
So I'm told
Another confused mish-mash. It's got a driving beat, a neat section ("He's been lookin' for someone") where backgrounds are minimized to a drum and the reverb seems cut. The line "When you're crazy with love, you can't stop" provides another bright spot, but apparently Plant couldn't stop either - it's got a drawn-out 80's Hard Rock Ballad ending like the one parodied by Blotto in their song "Metalhead."
Ship of Fools
On waves of love my heart is breaking,
And stranger still my self-control,
I can't rely on anymore.
New tides surprise,
My world, it's changing,
Within this frame an ocean swells,
Behind this smile I know it well.
Here is your only reason to ever flip to the other side of the album or tape. Ship of Fools has a beautiful (Spanish or Spanish-sounding) guitar line, a wonderful melody, and terrific, poetic lyrics. The melody ebbs and flows in volume, moves up and down the scale like waves, and Plant lets his voice float smoothly with it. When the drums come in with the third verse, they add to the intensity instead of breaking the mood. There's a haunting ending featuring Plant's voice with guitar/piano/drum interplay and, finally, the guitar and softer drums alone. There's a vague New-Age feel in the background throughout the song. And the guitar? Jimmy Page gets credit for the excellent work.
Why
As in "Why is this song on this album." As in "Why does this song exist." It's got an over-the-top techno sound, as though there's not a non-synthesized instrument or voice in the mix. It should have been titled "What?" instead of "Why" - I can't figure out what he's singing about or what the lyrics are because the techno-noise is so distracting. Something about a girl who wants something bad, "you don't know, you don't know, you don't know, you don't know why," being lost and found, a "happy end" or something like that. But I refuse to listen to it again to get a better handle on the lyrics, and it's another one that's not written out on the liner notes. Not hard to figure out "Why" not.
White, Clean and Neat
Beneath her skirts,
Between the clean, white sheets,
It's such a long way from the streets
Hmm... well, maybe I could say this is another half-good song. It's strangely compelling, with a finger-snapping rhythm, and an almost a capella feel in spots. The lyrics are a collection of rather disjointed impressions and it has a nice catch line, but the old recorded interview snippets dubbed in take away from the rest of the song. From what I can gather, it's a tale of a 1954 family where Mom stays at home and Dad watches Pat Boone on TV. Meanwhile, their son (Plant) apparently grows up looking for a Debby Reynolds-type "white, clean and neat" girl. Probably for sex. (He seems to have that on his mind a lot. Perhaps he was practicing celibacy in his quest for Zen and while making this album.)
Overall, I like Now and Zen well enough to keep it and listen to it now and th... every once in a while.
*****
SCROLL ALERT: Incredibly detailed information not needed by many
*****
For those who absolutely, positively think a music review is unacceptable without them, the stats are listed below.
Now and Zen
Robert Plant
Songs/Lyrics written by Robert Plant, Phil Johnstone, Dave Barrett, Robert Crash, and Doug Boyle
Guitars - Doug Boyle
Bass - Phil Scragg
Keyboards - Phil Johnstone
Drums/Percussion - Chris Blackwell
Guitar Solos - Jimmy Page
Distributed by Atlantic Recording Corporation, 1988
Liner notes written by someone who uses British spelling and doesn't seem to like using commas where they're needed
No animals were harmed in the writing of this review except Astro, who was sitting too close to me when I started "head banging" to Tall Cool One. He seems OK, he's hiding under the couch right now.
*****
END SCROLL ALERT: Incredibly detailed information not needed by many is done
*****
This review is the twenty-second installment of "Around My House in 28 Days," my response to the challenge leveled by amykhar. The challenge is to post one review every day for the whole month of February. Well, at least it's a short month. I'm starting at my door and going counter-clockwise around the house, reviewing whatever's in sight (and on this site). So far it's been the bathroom, then the kitchen, then the living room, and now the bedroom (found this tape under the bed along with two gum wrappers and a hutch full of dust bunnies)...
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