31. Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes (240 points)
Total number of songs: 40
Average song score: 3.73
# of 5-point songs: 11
# of 4-point songs: 12
Top 50 track bonus: none
Personnel bonus: #10 vocalist Chris Robinson (partial bonus); #3 guitarist Jimmy Page (partial bonus); #10 drummer Steve Gorman (partial bonus); #8 miscellaneous/multi-instrumentalist (piano) Eddie Harsch (partial bonus)
Recommended listening:
Celebration Day (live at The Greek, 1999);
Custard Pie (live at The Greek, 1999);
Hots On for Nowhere (live at Jones Beach, 2000);
Mellow Down Easy (live at The Greek, 1999);
Shake Your Money Maker (live at The Greek, 1999);
Sick Again (live at Jones Beach, 2000);
Ten Years Gone (live at Jones Beach, 2000);
The Wanton Song (Live in Pittsburgh, 2000);
What Is and What Should Never Be (live at The Greek, 1999)
When The Black Crowes were on the European leg of their Amorica tour, they played a series of shows at Royal Albert Hall. After the second show, Robert Plant, who had a previous relationship with the Crowes (they refer to him as Uncle Bob), walked in with Jimmy Page. Jimmy had seen the show and was very complimentary, especially impressed with their improvisational jams.
A week later, the Crowes were playing a show in Paris and Jimmy was again in attendance. The band ran into him at the end of one of the sets and asked Jimmy if he would join them for an encore. Chris Robinson: “No worries, we’ll just play a couple of old blues.” Page took them up on the offer and joined them for “Shake Your Money Maker” and “Mellow Down Easy.”
Several years later Jimmy was looking for a backing band for a charity show in London and the band’s photographer made the connection between Page and the Crowes. It was supposed to be a one-time thing. The group was actually on the verge of breaking up as pianist Eddie Harsch got really sick right before the charity show and drummer Steve Gorman was planning to leave the band. In his book,
Hard to Handle: The Life and Death of The Black Crowes (in a chapter titled “Just When I Think I’m Out…Mr. Jimmy F***ing Page) Gorman describes how Page asked them to go on tour and that kept the Crowes together.
Jimmy Page and The Black Crowes toured together in in the fall of 1999 and summer of 2000. The concerts consisted of a mix of Led Zeppelin songs, Black Crowes songs, and various blues covers. It was a match made in heaven. I remember reading contemporary articles from that time saying the Crowes played the tunes better than Zeppelin. That is, of course, absurd. But they did about as amazing of a job with them as any band reasonably could.
The tour included two shows at The Greek Theatre in L.A. As soon as the tour started, Crowes manger Pete Angelus wanted to record a live album, but Page was initially not interested. He didn’t want the pressure of having to make a great album. Angelus made him a deal: they would record two shows at the Greek and Jimmy could have the tapes. If he didn’t love them, they would burn them.
The first show at The Greek was subpar. Many considered it one of the worst shows of the tour. Before the second show, Page looked to Steve Gorman for a way to relax. Gorman had a habit of taking a power nap just before each show, and Jimmy wanted to try it. Gorman quoting Page: “’Well, look in here,’ he said. ‘My dressing room has two sofas. I thought we could take a nap together.’ I was caught between thinking this was the single weirdest, most unexpected moment in my life and feeling like it was the most natural thing in the world.”
However weird it may have been, it worked as they blew the second show out of the water. Page was very happy and the entire
Live at The Greek album was taken from this second show.
Since that time, an unofficial recording from a show in Pittsburgh has been released and that’s where most of the non-Greek tracks in my library come from. As a result, the above recommendations are not always the exact tracks that I have in my library. If interested, though, you can listen to the entire Pittsburgh show
here.
Unfortunately, the tour was short-lived as Jimmy abruptly ended it. The official reason at the time was that Jimmy was having back issues. But in
Hard to Handle Gorman says that the real reason is Rich Robinson insulted Page by declining an offer to write songs together. Knowing how toxic the relationships around the Robinson brothers often are, that seems likely.
While it lasted, though, this pairing was awesome. Probably the best thing Page has done post-Zeppelin. You can get a great look at the vibes on the tour in
this video.
For this entry, the individual musicians get partial personnel bonuses as performers. However, since there was no original material from this pairing, I did not award any of their songwriting bonuses here.
He told quite a few stories about Lowell George, whom he knew.
