No Quarter - Jimmy Page & Robert Plant Unledded

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DVD details

Actor: Page & Plant
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Italian (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Dutch (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, Live, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 93 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-10-26
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Rhino Records

DVD Reviews of No Quarter - Jimmy Page & Robert Plant Unledded

DVD Review: PLANT... PAGE... PRIMAL AND JUST ABOUT PERFECT
Summary: 5 Stars

Robert Plant and Jimmy Page take the songs of Led Zeppelin and play them acoustically for the most part but also in a different thrust than the original. It's hard to find the words to describe what they did really... it's just so different than what you'd expect... and yet so tasty!

Much of the playing is set in India and they use Indian musicians and instruments behind them. It creates a very listenable quality to what you are seeing and hearing. When you relax into it a bit, the songs begin to get to you at a different level. I've done quite a bit of foreground listening in my life where I'm really immersed in the music and this one gets to you.

Some great art direction and cinematography help create a visual atmosphere that matches the audio feel nicely.

And then there's those Zeppelin tunes....

If you liked them as originally done, you'll very much enjoy this slightly different take on their studio nature. What I particularly liked was that they didn't change the songs so much that you lose what you loved about them in the first place... and, as Martha Stewart would say, "That's a good thing."

DVD Review: Un-quartered
Summary: 5 Stars

From the offset, this is probably the least impressive Led Zeppelin product that I own. Opening scenes are of scenery and nature, eagles crying, rivers; then, at the top of a waterfall, there appear Robert Plant and Jimmy Page performing "No Quarter." Robert looks okay - a little old, perhaps - but Jimmy is sprawled out in a suit that looks an acre wide, and were it not for the trademark hair he would seems more like the ghost of Peter Grant than Jimmy Page. But despite all of the mock enchantment, the song seems a bit naked without the monster drums and riffs. I'm disappointed, of course - it's one of Led Zeppelin's best songs and probably the most drastically underestimated composition in their playbook, and they lost the opportunity to make an impact; on top of all this, it's also a song that John Paul Jones had a large part in (so much so that it becomes the track in The Song Remains The Same that was incorporated with Jones' fantasy sequence), which makes his non-inclusion in a project named after one of his main songs a bit of a tacky decision on the part of Robert and Jimmy.

From this slow start, the video switches to a live stage setting and the band goes into a great version of "Thank You" and the painful "What Is And What Should Never Be." Seeing Robert and Jimmy onstage with a drummer who is not John Bonham (and who is the bass player who is NOT John Paul Jones?) is a bit odd, but you get over it soon when you hear the cornucopia of North African musicians who are playing along with them. Great, great, great. The drummer does a fine job, playing "Four Sticks" with four drumsticks (two in each hand), and other drum jams bare-handed. Besides Robert and Jimmy, the band has Charlie Jones (Robert Plant's son-in-law) on bass, and Porl Thomson, formerly of the Cure, on guitar. One of the surprises of the set was when the band played "The Battle of Evermore" with Najma Akhtar, an Indian singer, doing the part sung by the late Sandy Denny of Fairport Convention - it works, partially because you can't be sure if she's singing in English or another language. A few of the songs are performed on a hill with Welsh musicians, giving "Nobody's Fault But Mine" an amazing Celtic feeling (probably the reworked number that turns out the best). Present at the filming is an actual black dog.

Jimmy played a couple of shiny new Les Pauls, but also a double-neck Ovation as well as a weird custom-made three-neck object (6-string, 12-string, mandolin). With these heavy instruments, he's often seated. This adds to the appearance that he is in poor health, although for some songs when he does get up and swing the Ovation around it looks pretty awkward - maybe it's better that he stay seated. Like The Song Remains The Same, the camera lingers perhaps a bit too long on Robert Plant... but since he is by far the most dynamic person onstage, I guess it doesn't make sense to complain too much about this point.

One interesting thing about the DVD is that it contains songs that don't appear on other Led Zeppelin DVDs, songs such as "Thank You", "The Battle of Evermore," "Gallows Pole," "When the Levee Breaks," "The Rain Song", "Four Sticks", and "Friends". There are also some cool new songs. "City Don't Cry" features Robert and Jimmy jamming with four Moroccan musicians in a courtyard; "The Truth Explodes" is done MTV-style ("Where The Streets Have No Name" perhaps?) in a Moroccan parking lot with some amps, and lots of local people of all ages having a great time. "Wah Wah" is more courtyard folk drone, the Moroccan musicians sing along too. "Wonderful One" is probably the best of the new songs, it's very soulful and beautiful.

Besides the disappointing "No Quarter", another song that disappointed was "When the Levee Breaks", which was remarkably tuneless. Others were much better: "Since I've Been Loving You" was so good that Jimmy cheered up and gave a big baby-faced grin (finally - it was only 58 minutes into the 93-minute video); "Rain Song" with Jimmy's acoustic guitar and a full orchestra was lush and beautiful; and "Four Sticks" with the Moroccan orchestra and the snake charmer flute was great, the song is truly amenable to Eastern rhythms and the musicians don't feel tacked on here the way they do on some songs. "Kashmir" was... all right, nothing special. They messed around with it a bit, giving it a quiet intro before getting into the two monster riffs that dominate the song. Nice Moroccan rock 'n' roll reprise at the end, which included a bit of "Rock 'n' Roll".

The DVD has four extras, including an interview with Robert and Jimmy on a traffic island in London that mirrors a bit the interview between Robert and Peter Grant in The Song Remains The Same extras. Porl Thompson seems to be the interviewer (which would mean it was quite scripted), but I may be wrong. Robert is expressive, but Jimmy stutters a bit and doesn't seem confident. They point out that "Since I've Been Loving You" is their best live song, and the evidence on Unledded seems to back this up (the song appears on all three of their DVD releases). "Moroccan Montage" is just that, a delightful series of video scenes from Morocco of the guys hanging out with people. "Black Dog" was performed at the ABC American Music Awards, it's energetic but a bit cheezy as well - check out Robert's "captain" jacket. They also tack on the video for "Most High" from Robert and Jimmy's poorly-received "Walking into Clarksdale" (1998), a song which wasn't performed on Unledded. The video is a by-the-numbers spooky freak show that is sort of a blend of Heironymous Bosch (see also Metallica's "Until It Sleeps" video of 1994) and the Sadako scenes in Nakata Hideo's 1998 Ring movie. Not something you'd expect two music legends to be happy to have their names associated with.

DVD Review: GREAT DVD! NO REGRETS! EVER!
Summary: 5 Stars

For all Zeppelin fans, any CDs, DVDs relating to them will always be worth having.

DVD Review: Page and Plant still rock
Summary: 5 Stars

I've seen this DVD a half a dozen times already, very excellent! I like the way they retooled a lot of their songs on this DVD, the Rain Song, Kashmir, Hang Man, Friends, all sound terrific. Combining the two different orchestras with their rock sound added a nice mix to their music. By the way, Jimmy Page was a sharp as ever.

If you are a Led Zeppelin fan (at least 1/2 of the group) then this DVD is a nice addition to your music library. I just hope they come out with a DVD of their recent '07 concert. We can only hope it leads to a reunion tour someday.

DVD Review: Change is good
Summary: 5 Stars

Now, dear reader, this is Page & Plant, not Led Zeppelin. The world has moved on since 1980 and so have they - thankfully. They've taken the lesser known Led Zep songs and reinvented them as world music classics. I love the locations, the slate mine in Snowdonia, the Moroccan Casbah - what a laugh to see the little kid there covering his ears when Jimmy goes to town on the feedback machine - and the studio stuff of course. Jimmy is still a genius on guitar and deserves his place as one of the 5 best rock guitarists of the 20th century.

I grew up with Zep and these guys are personal heros of mine. Great they didn't stick to the same old thing. Reinvention and change is the key to longevity in music and in life...

Description of No Quarter - Jimmy Page & Robert Plant Unledded

Performing with the London Metropolitan Orchestra in 1994, Unledded documents the much-heralded reunion of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. Among the songs performed are reworked versions of many Zeppelin favorites, including "The Battle of Evermore," "Gallows Pole," and "Kashmir," along with four new songs, such as "Yallah" and "Wonderful One." The platinum-selling Unledded cd heralded a new era or renewed popularity. Released now for the very first time on DVD, Unledded is the DVD Led Zeppelin fans have been waiting for.

Track Listing:
No Quarter
Thank You
What is And What Should Never Be
The Battle of Evermore
Gallows Pole
Nobody's Fault But Mine
City Don't Cry
The Truth Explodes
Wah Wah
When the Levee Breaks
Wonderful One
Since I've Been Loving You
The Rain Song
That's The Way
Four Sticks
Friends
Kashmir

Decades after the death of drummer John Bonham and, for all intents and purposes, the demise of the group, Led Zeppelin's popularity continues unabated--and why not, as long as they keep coming up with offerings as worthy as No Quarter: Jimmy Page & Robert Plant Unledded. Originally released on CD in 1994 and then in a remastered version simultaneously with this DVD, the 115-minute program (including bonus footage) was recorded on a London soundstage, in the hills of Snowdonia, Wales, and outdoors in Marrakech, Morocco. It finds guitarist Page, vocalist Plant, and an array of other musicians performing some new material, but for the most part, the repertoire focuses on their Led Zep legacy--not a surprise, considering that what they did together in that group was better than anything they've done separately, including some pretty good Plant solo efforts and Page's regrettable stint as a member of the Firm. Yet instead of simply parroting their Zeppelin period (and relying on tired warhorses like "Stairway to Heaven" and "Whole Lotta Love"), they've given the music new life, adding exotic instruments like the bodhran (an Irish drum) and the hurdy-gurdy (played by cranking a rosined wheel against a set of strings) to less familiar fare like "The Battle of Evermore" and "Gallow's Pole." Add to that three brilliant new songs performed with a quartet of Moroccan players, a full complement of strings from the London Metropolitan Orchestra (on "Since I've Been Loving You" and others), and a host of Egyptian percussion and strings on an epic version of "Kashmir" (also from the London session), and you've got a world music blend that is at times genuinely thrilling--especially for those with 5.1 Surround Sound capability. --Sam Graham

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