Tribute to John Entwistle, "The Ox" (1944-2002)

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

"On top of the sky is a place where you go if you've done nothing wrong, if you've done nothing wrong. And down in the ground is a place where you go if you've been a bad boy, if you've been a bad boy. Why can't we have eternal life and never die, never die?

"In the place up above, you grow feather wings, and you fly round and round with a harp, singing hymns. And down in the ground, you grow horns and a tail, and you carry a fork and burn away. Why can't we have eternal life and never die, never die?"

- Lyrics to the Who's "Heaven and Hell," written by John Entwistle

Lemon Squeezings mourns the loss of legendary rock bassist John Entwistle, who died Thursday, just one day before the Who was to begin a North American concert tour. LZ History sends its condolences to Who fans and those who held him dear. All rock music fans suffer the loss of this innovative instrumentalist, singer and songwriter. Led Zeppelin fans may recall that Entwistle took credit for coining the name of Led Zeppelin some time before the band existed. The 57-year-old's death will undoubtedly affect the plans of Robert Plant, who was to open for the Who on the second and third legs of that tour beginning next month.

Long live rock, be it dead or alive,
Steve "The Lemon" Sauer

Robert Plant 'Dreamland' album released in U.K.

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Robert Plant's Dreamland is now available in the United Kingdom.

Just a reminder: Plant's "Darkness, Darkness" video can be seen at http://65.45.90.98/events?13852xy132 (Web content no longer available).

'Red Dress': Robert Plant song review of the day (No. 10 of 10)

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

The last song to be reviewed is "Red Dress," the second of the two completely new songs on the album. This groovy shuffle begins with a lead played on fretless bass and steel guitar. The riff sounds like something out of the North Mississippi All Stars' songbook. (By the way, if you don't have that group's debut album from last year, Shake Hands with Shorty, you need it.) The percussion used here gives it sort of an Australian sound. It features Plant's first recorded harmonica probably since 1993. His last attempt I can think of was on "Promised Land" from his previous solo album, Fate of Nations. The harmonica in that song was just like in Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks." On Plant's new "Red Dress," the harmonica is not derivative of anything. If anything is derivative, it's the sound of that steel guitar; it sounds like it belongs on John Paul Jones' solo albums! The lyrics on the song aren't very intricate; Plant's pretty much singing about a "pretty little girl with a red dress on." When he hypothesizes about the meaning of love in this song, he manages not to get too deep in thought. It even sounds like he's guessing at what Skip Spence would say love is, too! No mention of badge holders anywhere, and that's a good thing in my mind.

'Skip's Song': Robert Plant song review of the day (No. 9 of 10)

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Today's song is "Skip's Song," named for its author, Alexander "Skip" Spence. As a member of Moby Grape, he and the band first recorded it as a demo on Nov. 6, 1967, while rehearsing new material for the group's second album. In those days, Spence was a really loving guy, those who knew him said. But during the second album's recording sessions, Spence apparently snapped, possibly the result of some drug use. In a well-publicized incident, Spence apparently tried to use an ax on another member of the band. Spence was then institutionalized for six months.

With Spence no longer in the band, Moby Grape chose not to use "Skip's Song" for the second album, Wow. But the song was retitled "Seeing" and used as the final track on Moby Grape's third proper studio album, Moby Grape '69.

Robert Plant has long been a fan of Moby Grape and Skip Spence. The lyrics to the first two lines of Led Zeppelin's bluesy "Since I've Been Loving You" are a play on the corresponding lyrics of Moby Grape's soulful "Never." Since the Led Zeppelin days, he's performed versions of Grape's "Sitting by the Window" and "Lazy Me" and recorded versions of Grape's "8:05" and "Naked, If I Want To" and Spence's "Little Hands." This new cover of "Skip's Song" falls right in line.

The song closes out Plant's new album, Dreamland. Organ and acoustic guitar are the first sounds heard on the track. Generally speaking, "Skip's Song" has a different sound from the rest of Plant's album; sorry, I won't be using the word "soundscape" in today's review. The song jumps from light to heavy in the flash of a drum fill -- and back.

There are backup singers on it that are definitely not Plant; some of them are female! But the male backup voices might be the boys in the band, like bassist Charlie Jones, Plant's right-hand man when it comes to backing vocals on tour these days. Whoever it is highlights the words, "Save me," definitely a jarring phrase when taken into consideration that they were written by Spence while he was still a friendly man.

Throughout the choruses, there are two electric guitars: one strumming the chords and the other playing a country-folk improvisation. The arrangement here was not unlike what Moby Grape guitarists Jerry Miller and Peter Lewis employed on their version of the song.

In the end, Plant's version just fades out. But not eerily so. In a way, it does sort of leave you hanging ...

'One More Cup of Coffee': Robert Plant song review of the day (No. 8 of 10)

Today's song is "One More Cup of Coffee," by Bob Dylan. Now, here's a song I'd been anticipating since the moment in February when I first heard the song was being recorded and even considered for a single. The thought that crossed my mind was that if the song were to be released as a single, the sound would have to be totally different from the original.

With all due respect to Mr. Dylan, the version on his January 1976 album, Desire, was about as uncommercial as one could get. It was nearly a dirge in a minor key with a poetic verse that requires one to ponder long before it makes any sense. It's not exactly lighthearted party music fit for commercial radio.

Dylan's even sounded unrehearsed in a few places. The violinist soloing in the opening bars obviously wasn't entirely sure of the chord changes, and that wasn't fixed by overdubbing. Dylan and backup singer Emmylou Harris obviously weren't reading from the same lyric sheet, and that wasn't fixed by overdubbing.

(Funnily enough, Plant left that second mistake intact at the end of his version, harmonizing with his own overdubbed second vocal line. With Plant's sense of humor, it's probably an intentional nod to Bob.)

On Plant's version, out goes the violin, and in come the electric guitars. He nudges the tempo just a bit so that the song doesn't drag. He sings it in the same key as the original, but instead of bellowing the lyrics as did his predecessor, Plant uses his raspy, breathy voice to ease through the verses. On the choruses, where he overdubbed his vocals to sing with himself, he alters the harmony from the original so that he doesn't have to sing in a female vocal range. Each chorus concludes with a full-band break preceding the last four words.

In these reviews, I've used words like "landscape" and "soundscape" so many times, I'm growing sick of it! But really, the Strange Sensation ought to be renamed the Smooth Sensation because the arrangements on these songs are perfectly smooth, swirling and textured. It will become such a cliche by the time I'm through reviewing each song, but that doesn't mean the album repeats itself at all. It's really an album that is worthy of being heard and thus enjoyed.

'Song to the Siren': Robert Plant song review of the day (No. 7 of 10)

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Today's song is "Song to the Siren," the highlight from Tim Buckley's 1970 album, Starsailor. Plant missed that version of it the first time around; the first time he heard the song was the 1984 cover version by the U.K.'s This Mortal Coil. Plant was smitten.

Recalling some of his all-time favorite tracks for an article in the May 1990 issue of Q magazine, Plant said of "Song to the Siren": "I like the Tim Buckley original too, but I'll go with [This Mortal Coil's] version. It's so rewarding to hear it on U.S. college radio." Plant's still raving about the song this year, too. He said in a 2002 interview, "The haunting element of it, the lyrical content, it's so powerful."

For the last few years in his last two bands, Plant has performed the somber song as an encore, frequently closing shows with its peaceful yet intense textures. In the context of Dreamland, though, Plant sandwiches the song as the fifth track, between a bouncy original and a laid-back blues.

Buckley's album version and This Mortal Coil's attempt both approach the song in free form. The layered background sighs match each other. The electric guitar is less in the fore on the 1984 cover, with chords strummed once instead of arpeggiated over the vocal line. But the vocals on This Mortal Coil's version sound somewhat rushed, particularly toward the end.

Plant's new studio version opens with just acoustic guitar, definitely laying down a strict tempo to which Plant adheres. Plant's voice manages to escape all the labels with which he's been criticized: breathy, feathery, whiny, raspy, contrived. In a short break before the second verse, the sound of strings enters.

The arrangement through the verse remains slight but with a definite pulse rather than the free form of previous versions. By the end of the verse, a quiet electric guitar accompanies the arrangement.

A substantial instrumental break is added between the second and third verses, with cymbals being heard for the first time. A simple electric guitar solo energizes the break. The first half of the solo is all within five notes, and the second half seems to fade out before the final verse. Leading up to the track's high tide during the final verse is a light current of crashing cymbals.

Plant, whose singing has piled on a lot of influence from Meditteranean and Arabic singers, could have taken the opportunity to evoke some trills. The vocalist in This Mortal Coil relentlessly peppered the last line of each verse with trills. Showing restraint, Plant surprisingly limits his inflections in his six-minute version to the very last line, where the trills are effective.

I wonder if Plant has sat down and compared all three versions in a row. I did. And if he has, I wonder if he decided his takes the cake. I did.

'Funny in My Mind': Robert Plant song review of the day (No. 6 of 10)

This news originally appeared in an edition of the newsletter "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History."

Today's song is "Funny in My Mind (I Believe I'm Fixin' to Die)." The opening track on Dreamland, it can't really be classified into any single musical genre. Robert Plant refers to the first bit as "Cajun psychedelic zydeco." The album is introduced with an accordion sound. But, as Plant says, "Just when you think it's performing in one particular area, it drops down into some kind of dark, psychedelic moment, which... I don't think Bukka White had that in mind, but I think it's the way that you have to move blues along. I don't think the polite interpretation of blues in the carpeted concert hall is what blues was all about in the first place."

Plant describes the arrangement as "bouncy and confident." He says it necessarily has to be that way to keep it entertaining for everybody concerned, including himself. It definitely has a driving, upbeat rhythm that doesn't hesitate. Plant sings with force throughout the track. Between verses, the band kicks into several different figures.

As for the lyrics, they're trotted out from songs that have been in Plant's repertoire for decades. We've heard some of these lyrics in Led Zeppelin songs before. "Fixin' to Die" is a Bukka White blues whose lyrics were no stranger to Led Zeppelin in the live arena; the April 1, 1971 "Whole Lotta Love" live medley on BBC Sessions includes "Fixin' to Die." Some lyrics are also in "In My Time of Dying," namely "Tell my Jesus to make up my dying bed," as sung in the new track. (Bob Dylan's first album employed both "Fixin' to Die" and "In My Time of Dyin'.")

The fast-paced music in Plant's new arrangement is definitely entertaining. The track fades out just after reaching four-and-a-half minutes. But that's really where it's just beginning for the Strange Sensation, Plant recently said in a promotional interview.

He said, "You can probably hear the great future for this band lurking on the fade-outs of the tracks. For instance, the kind of improvisation at the end of ... 'Funny In My Mind' is the kind of playing you will experience in a full hour-and-30-minute show. There is a good communion of souls, there's a lot of great guitar-filigree going on, not on a blues base but in that kind of Indo-raga style of playing, somewhere between John Fahey, The Flaming Lips and the Electric Prunes."

Plant is nothing if not a musical connoisseur, and, best of all, he knows how to implement all his influences into his own music.