It's been more than 20 years since this album came out, and I remember feeling conflicted about whether I should buy it. On the one hand I hoped that it would be great: Like every other red-blooded rock fan, I love Led Zeppelin, which of course also means Page's guitar playing. Since Zeppelin disbanded, his releases have been few and far between, but he rarely revisited their classics on record. I enjoyed the couple of albums he made with Robert Plant, but they were both too different to their old band. Plant had taken his distance from hard rock, and as a consequence Page's playing was also too restrained. Even when they did play Zeppelin classics together, it was with a new twist: more acoustic, and with different arrangements. Then they went their separate ways anyway, and hopes for a Zeppelin reunion were quashed once more. So Page's return alongside a younger hard rock group was a good omen: he'd surely now be able to cut loose on the guitar. On the other hand, there were doubts: For starters, would the old man be able to stand the comparison to his virile young self? Nowadays that seems a little laughable: Page was still only 55; twenty years later, his contemporaries (Clapton, Richards, Jeff Beck) still play their old hits without fear of disgracing their legacies. Secondly, and more importantly, could anyone other than Robert Plant sing these songs and do them justice? Live at the Greek was recorded during a two-night gig at the Greek Theater in L.A. Page and the band have incredible chemistry and are obviously enjoying themselves. They don't replicate Zeppelin's majesty and mystique, but display playfulness and easy affinity with the material. The arrangements do not deviate much from the originals, but there's room for stretching out, including some nice piano and harmonica solos that bring the songs closer to Southern Rock territory. Chris Robinson sings his ass off, successfully emulating Plant's style even though his voice is quite different - when he was singing "You Shook Me" he didn't remind me of the Led Zeppelin version, but the one by the Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart on vocals. Ditto during the cover of The Yardbirds' "Shape Of Things To Come". The song choices seem a bit random at first: it's not "the best of Led Zeppelin" - hell, there isn't a single track from their most popular album (Led Zeppelin IV, Four Symbols, or however you want to call it - they never named it). But, by including a few B-list numbers, they do more to remind us how great Zeppelin were than if they played the familiar hits like "Stairway To Heaven" and "Black Dog". There are a couple of crowd pleasers from II ("Heartbreaker", "Whole Lotta Love"), as well as blues workouts ("In My Time Of Dying", "The Lemon Song", "Nobody's Fault But Mine", "You Shook Me"), folkier tunes ("What Is And What Should Never Be", "Ten Years Gone", "Your Time Is Gonna Come"), and the atypically poppy B-side "Hey Hey What Can I Do". Above all, there's a heathy dose of hard rock ("Celebration Day", "Custard Pie", "Sick Again", "Out On The Tiles"). But, competent as the Zeppelin covers are, the singer and band sound more natural and relaxed during the blues covers ("Woke Up This Morning", "Sloppy Drunk", "Mellow Down Easy", "Shake Your Money Maker") and Fleetwood Mac's ""Oh Well". Everyone's being themselves instead of trying to sound like Led Zeppelin. I know that everybody was there to hear Page perform classic Zeppelin (I would, too), but these blues covers are the highlight of the record for me. I wish he dipped into that well more often, rather than offer mediocre original compositions like he did in the rare occasions he did resurface after the group disbanded. Incidentally, a few Black Crowes songs were performed during the L.A. shows, but they have never surfaced due to contractual reasons. After the success of these concerts, Page and The Crowes decided to take the show on the road, only to have the tour cut in half when Page packed it up and left. Health problems were cited as the reason, although according to others it was (guitarist) Rich Robinson's fault for insulting Page by turning down his idea to write new songs together. This aural document of their cooperation was released as a souvenir of their short time together - initially very limitedly, and then more widely on TVT Records. It was very well received by an audience starved for live Led Zeppelin material - and rightly so: if the original band had stayed together and sounded this good in 2000, nobody would complain. Except that... the original band (with Jason Bonham taking his father's place beside the drums) did get together one last time in 2007, and they sounded way better than anybody could have expected - the resulting live album Celebration Day is easily better than Live At The Greek, rendering it superfluous. Effectively, with the exception of the one-off Zeppelin reunion, Page retired as a performer after breaking up with The Black Crowes - he hasn't made another record or toured. Which is a great pity, because he's the only one who could have kept Led Zeppelin's legacy alive, and there's every indication that he had been up to the task all along, if only Plant was a willing collaborator or if he could find a suitable replacement. Now, it's unfortunately too late - or is it?
**** for Sick Again, Woke Up This Morning, In My Time Of Dying, Your Time Is Gonna Come, Nobody's Fault But Mine, Heartbreaker, Hey Hey What Can I Do, Mellow Down Easy, Shake Your Money Maker, Whole Lotta Love
*** for Celebration Day, Custard Pie, What Is And What Should Never Be, Shape Of Things To Come, Sloppy Drunk, Ten Years Gone, The Lemon Song, Oh Well, You Shook Me, Out On The Tiles
