“Little By Little,” the opening track
of Robert Plant’s solo album,
Shaken ‘n’ Stirred is a glorious
thought experiment to find out
what a love child between The Police
and Led Zeppelin would sound like.
It’s a wonderful tune with the best
of what an 80’s stink has to offer,
the big snare drum, some odd but
heavy synth and electric bass combo,
and tasty new wave guitar.
1985 Robert Plant. You can just hear
him soaking in the decade, in
particular the 80’s synthesizer
and the Bowie-esque theatrics.
It’s a nuttier set than one would
expect from this giant of 70’s
hard rock, but still holds tight
to what must have been, and must
still be, Plant’s adherence to
great musicianship (the drumming
is fantastic) and strong songs.
And its got a sense of humor–
Hear Robert Plant make a hilarious
reference to “Black Dog” in “Easily Lead.”
I don’t know this record well, as
I bought it used (I think) or
inherited it from a relative, and
have only listened to it once or twice,
but I find it exceedingly enjoyable,
sonically interesting, soulful, fun, and
kind of kick ass. I think I’m listening
to it backwards, though, as I may have
mistook “This Side” on the disc label to
mean side one and “That Side” to mean
side two, as I discover that the songs
on “This Side” are listed last on the
back cover. I’ve never been a fan of
misleading disc labels. Damn it, just
clearly label the order of the tunes,
please, ‘cuz some of us can get kind
of anal about listening to a sequence
of songs in the right order. And yet,
even if it was not meant to be, “Little
By Little” is a great song to kick off
an album, as far as I can tell, the only
single from the album that got any
traction. In 1985, people were maybe still
reeling from the loss of their Zeppelin gods,
maybe held a grudge against Robert Plant,
were prejudiced against the punk and the
new wave, which was stupid, because this
(I’m gonna come right out and say it)
is a really good 80’s album.
Notes on the vinyl editions: Shaken ‘n’ Stirred, Atlantic Records, 1985, black vinyl.
In case you don’t already know: I’m listening to almost everything in my vinyl collection, A to Z, and writing at least one, sometimes two or three long skinny poem-like-things in response for each artist, and on a few occasions, writing a long skinny poem-like-thing in response to more than one artist. As a poet and a student of poetry, I understand that these things look like poems, but they don’t really sound much like poetry, hence, I call them “poem-like-things.” I’ll admit that they’re just long, skinny essays that veer every now and then into the poetic or lyric.
