Page comes back

with other talents

Jimmy Page

Outrider

Geffen/Warner Bros. Records

by Sean Noble

campus editor

Remember Jimmy Page?

He had this definitive 1970s hard rock superband called Led Zeppelin, and fronted a pretty decent mid-1980s group known as The Firm. You remember him, he helped change rock n‘ roll with his heavy, bluesy guitar riffs and the “visionary” songs he wrote with Zep’s Robert Plant.

Page is back now, two years after quitting The Firm, with a new LP on which he attempts—very successfully—to show he can stand as an artist on his own. That’s not to say Page doesn’t surround himself with some competent musicians on Outrider.

For example, the record opens with “Wasting My Time,” featuring Firm bassist Tony Franklin and drummer Jason Bonham, son of the late Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. This churning tune showcases the gritty guitar talent of Page and the powerful vocals of John Miles. Miles sounds like AC/DC’s Brian Johnson at his most hoarse and best.

Miles also helps Page out on the laid-back, bluesy “Wanna Make Love,” which has gotten a considerable amount of airplay along with “Wasting…”

Page throws a couple of Zeppelinesque send-ups into Outrider, such as “The Only One.” The bouncy, chugging guitars on this song are reminiscent of “Walter’s Walk” from Zeppelin’s 1982 album, Coda. To further the inevitable comparisons, Page is joined in writing and performing “The Only One” by old bandmate Plant.

Page also lifts the music for “Prison Blues” note-for-note from Zeppelin’s “I Can’t Quit You Baby.” Not that the melody isn’t public domain anyway—it’s basic, 12-bar blues that Led Zeppelin themselves stole from Willie Dixon.

Chris Farlow sings on “Prison Blues” and two other Outrider songs. This seems to be one of the few flaws in the album as a whole; Farlow seems embarassingly lost at times. His songwriting talents are also questionable. “Blues Anthem,” which closes the record is, to put it mildly, lyrically and musically pathetic.

But it is Farlow’s work on this album that might be most interesting to dyed-in-the-wool Zeppelin fans. Farlow was considered by Page for the job of lead singer when Page was forming Led Zeppelin in 1968. After two decades of speculation, fans can now hear how the Page-Farlow pairing might have sounded.

Three instrumentals are included in this album, throwbacks to the work Page did with Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck on Guitar Boogie. Listen to the upbeat guitar patchwork on “Writes of Winter” and the poignant solo of “Emerald Eyes.”

Bonham takes charge of providing a solid backdrop of drums much the same as his father did for the same guitarist 10 years ago. Ex-Jethro Tull drummer Barriemore Barlow fills in effectively on a couple of songs as well.

Page does a fairly good job of demonstrating his (in)famous guitar styles throughout Outrider: heavy blues, straightforward rock and some subtle strumming.

Two years of rumors preceded the release of this LP. Rumors that Plant and Page might be back together again for good, that Page was determined to produce a double-album’s worth of material, etc.

Now that Outrider is out, the real truth can be known: Jimmy Page stands firm on his own.