Robert Plant: Nine Lives
Nine Lives is a box set of nine CDs and one DVD that includes twenty music videos and one sixty minute interview that spans Robert Plant’s career since the dissolution of the famous classic rock band Led Zeppelin. Upon picking up the box set you are greeted with excellent cover art:
…and it continues on the back:
It does not stop there as there is a sixty page booklet that provides more background on Robert Plant in addition to what you will view in the DVD interview. The booklet also sheds light on each of the nine albums as well. I found it very interesting to see that Phil Collins played drums the very first two albums of his solo career, Paul Shaffer played the piano on The Honeydrippers album, and even Jimmy Page made appearances on the The Honeydrippers and Now and Zen albums.
Having been a Led Zeppelin fan since my mid-teen years, I found this to be an amazing treasure. Something which I have totally missed out on until now. I do have other works by former members of Led Zeppelin such as:
- No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded
- Jimmy Page and Robert Plant: Walking into Clarksdale
- Coverdale Page
…but I have never followed closely what Robert Plant has done in his solo career. I am blown away by the amount of content and the shear diversity of it all. I have to admit that there is some questionable material. Especially his earlier works where he uses synthesizers heavily. Even his music videos are hilarious to watch. He definitely embraced the medium but I think he missed the boat on just what you can do with video. No matter, his voice is legendary and so is some of his later works as they really show his breadth of musical prowess.
The following is the list of albums contained in the box set complete with track listings:
Pictures at Eleven (1982)
- Burning Down One Side
- Moonlight In Samosa
- Pledge Pin
- Slow Dancer
- Worse Than Detroit
- Fat Lip
- Like I’ve Never Been Gone
- Mystery Title
- Far Post [Previously Unreleased]
- Like I’ve Never Been Gone [Live]
The Principle of the Moments (1983)
- Other Arms
- In The Mood
- Messin’ With The Mekon
- Wreckless Love
- Thru With The Two Step
- Horizontal Departure
- Stranger Here…Than Over There
- Big Log
- In The Mood [Live]
- Thru With The Two Step [Live]
- Lively Up Yourself [Live]
- Turnaround [Previously Unreleased]
The Honeydrippers: Volume One (1984)
- I Get A Thrill
- Sea Of Love
- I Got A Woman
- Young Boy Blues
- Rockin’ At Midnight
- Rockin’ At Midnight [Previously Unreleased]
Shaken ‘n’ Stirred (1985)
- Hip To Hoo
- Kallalou Kallalou
- Too Loud
- Trouble Your Money
- Pink And Black
- Little By Little
- Doo Doo A Do Do
- Easily Lead
- Sixes And Sevens
- Little By Little [Remix]
Now And Zen (1988)
- Heaven Knows
- Dance On My Own
- Tall Cool One
- The Way I Feel
- Helen Of Troy
- Billy’s Revenge
- Ship Of Fools
- Why
- White, Clean And Neat
- Walking Towards Paradise
- Billy’s Revenge [Live]
- Ship Of Fools [Live]
- Tall Cool One [Live]
Manic Nirvana (1990)
- Hurting Kind (I’ve Got My Eyes On You)
- Big Love
- SSS & Q
- I Cried
- She Said
- Nirvana
- Tie Dye On The Highway
- Your Ma Said You Cried In Your Sleep Last Night
- Anniversary
- Liars Dance
- Watching You
- Oompa (Watery Bint)
- One Love
- Don’t Look Back
Fate of Nations (1993)
- Calling To You
- Down To The Sea
- Come Into My Life
- I Believe
- 29 Palms
- Memory Song (Hello Hello)
- If I Were A Carpenter
- Promised Land
- The Greatest Gift
- Great Spirit
- Network News
- Colours Of A Shade [Previously Unreleased)
- Great Spirit [Acoustic Mix]
- Rollercoaster [Previously Unreleased]
- 8:05 [Previously Unreleased]
- Dark Moon [Acoustic Mix]
Dreamland (2002)
- Funny In My Mind (I Believe I’m Fixn’ To Die)
- Morning Dew
- One More Cup Of Coffee
- Last Time I Saw Her
- Song To The Siren
- Win My Train Fare Home (If I Ever Get Lucky)
- Darkness, Darkness
- Red Dress
- Hey Joe
- Skip’s Song
- Dirt In A Hole
- Last Time I Saw Her [Remix]
Mighty Rearranger (2005)
- Another Tribe
- Shine It All Around
- Freedom Fries
- Tin Pan Valley
- All The King’s Horses
- The Enchanter
- Takamba
- Dancing In Heaven
- Somebody Knocking
- Let The Four Winds Blow
- Mighty Rearranger
- Brother Ray
- Red, White And Blue
- All The Money In The World
- Shine It All Around [Girls Remix]
- Tin Pan Valley [Girls Remix]
- The Enchanter [Unkle Reconstruction]
Genre
Rock
Parting Thoughts
This is definitely a box set worth picking up for the Led Zeppelin enthusiasts or for those who love listening to artists that constantly change and keep expanding their horizons. Pop in a disk or two in your sound system, lie back on the couch, and enjoy the music!
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I will admit that even the girlfriend - and I am not a huge Zeppelin fan - likes a lot of these CDs. They’re good mood music. However, I would definitely dwell a bit further on the videos, which are not only bad but almost painful, like watching a video of an overdone high school play you once thought you did a good job in. Cringe.
And as I writer, I must say his lyrics are often equally cringe-worthy. For instance, there’s the incomparable:
Let’s play wild
Let’s play cute
Let’s play wild like wildcats do.
Given word creations like these, I was actually pleasantly shocked when Plant was an articulate, learned gentlemen on the DVD, using excellent vocabulary and expressing his ideas very well.
Yeah, true, there are some lyrics that make you scratch your head. You did forget to mention your most favorite lyric of all:
“You were pumping iron whereas I was pumping irony”
Which is from the song “Heaven Knows” off the Now and Zen album.