I was in an airport headed to Austin waiting in the seating area waiting to board and I saw this older gentleman with his longish hair pulled back, wearing a leather jacket some nice heavy reading glasses seated browsing his iPad. Then it hit me. Is that Robert Plant? I looked at his shoes. They were 'creepers' with leopard accents. It was definitely Pearcy. From what I can tell I was the only one who recognized him. I decided to leave him alone. When the flight began boarding we ended up standing parallel, I in the regular line, he in the priority/frequent flier line. I briefly made eye contact and I guess he could see that my eyes got a little bigger. He gave me a little smile and he winked. That was it. It was an amazing moment for a kid that came home after school and slapped on the headphones and cranked LZII every day in eighth grade. When I got on the plane I could see him a few rows ahead- in coach. Then when the plane landed in Austin he was down there at the luggage carousel waiting patiently for his bag, again anonymously. I mean you don't expect to see the lead singer of Led Zeppelin at a baggage carousel, it was hiding in plain sight. Suddenly begins walking briskly to intercept an elderly woman with a red roller bag. "Excuse me my dear, but I believe you have my bag". She checked the tag and indeed she had snagged Robert's roller. A few minutes later I saw him waiting in line at the Avis rental car line. I'm sure he got something sensible. I guess Robert flies coach without an assistant, handles his own bags, rents his own car instead of being limousined, so when he gets offered ungodly amounts of money to do things he doesn't want to do he can politely say no. Robert retired from the diety game to be a lad.
Look up "steve albini ian mackaye kreative kontrol". It's a really long interview (two parts) and almost three hours, but it's not video. Still, it's those two live on a phone with a great interviewer.
This dude is a fuqqing genius where the hell has he been we need this now. He slugs it out behind the scenes. Anyone who worked in Post Production knows the drill this guy is incredible. He started out seeming to seek failure and maybe that was his exercise his exorcism his reformation his reformation. he may be gone now but he's not really gone. Steve Albini will always be with us.
Igor whatever the fuck your name is... After deciphering a certain comment.. that doesn't really make any sense considering Steve Albini has been and continues to play rather frequently in several bands, as well as being a sound engineer.. he doesn't like to categorize as a producer... overall a stand alone in the field of his art for the fact of his beliefs in what a producer has say so during the process of getting an album to future fans. Perhaps you could do a little research on the man before you assume he's a douchebag. Edit.. LOOSER RECORDING FARTS was the comment you'd made
@konstantinov Fortunately, he wrote a lot, and did lots of interviews. Maybe someone will put together a great documentary about his life. Who would play Steve in a biopic?
I have just learned that Steve Albini passed away. He and I shared the birth year. I respected him very much. Too early, we have lost one great man of intelligence. RIP
Hi Steve, you should be proud of being an integral part of Walking Into Clarksdale. It still sounds brilliant today after 25 years. Great job. Top man!
Great interview. I think Steve always does a great job when he's interviewed. I agree with him about Zep. Even if you weren't into them when they were current doesn't detract from the fact you should appreciate them for existing, because of the influence they had on so many bands and the breakthroughs they achieved in their recordings since. I feel the same way about a handful of other bands. The Beatles would be a prime example. If it weren't for The Beatles, we may have not even had a Led Zeppelin or a Black Sabbath or so many other bands that were admittedly influenced by seeing The Beatles for the first time on Ed Sullivan or wherever they saw them in the early 60s.
I totally relate to the "I wasn't into Led Zeppelin because I wasn't into the people that were into them." I think part of maturing as a music lover is learning to ignore that kind of thing as much as possible.
I came from a punk/hardcore upbringing where so many of the punks I know would often confess in certain company that they actually loved Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Rush, Pink Floyd, etc. At some point, you just can't deny the impact those musicians had on so much that would follow.
It's obvious you come from a top 40 pov where who made it 1st must have have influenced everyone from that point onward and none of these 70s hard rock supergroups would've ever existed. That statement is as stupid to claim you know the beginning of life on Earth. When in reality Page was already jamming with The Yardbirds during the mid 60s, and recording tracks much heavier and progressive than The Beatles could fathom on their own creativity. One of those Yardbird tracks is Stroll On, listen to that song and the other's music during the underground live scene at that time period and you'll realize who was influencing the next.... and it sure as hell wasn't the beatles. They were still making bubble gum rock songs and singing about holding hands at the time,lol. The beatles knew already it wasn't going to cut it by remaking love me do parts 2,3,4 & 5 over again, given the new underground scene taking over..... Clapton, Page, and Jeff Beck etc. Not to mention if you knew anything about music in it's form, there was no influence the beatles had on these innovative guitarists, their influence came from the Delta Blues guys who were African American and worked hard just to scrape a dime, hence the blues and the likes of Zep, Sabbath etc to electrify it by influence. Far as the rythm section, by age 7 John Bonham was already playing ahead of ringo, Bonham admired the big band jazz drummers Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Joe Morrello.....the rest is history on the biggest influence to musicians thereafter. Sorry to destroy your Casey Kasem and the good ol boys narrative. 😁
@@DG-sf9ei I'm not necessarily talking about musical stylings or what influenced their playing note for note. Just look at interviews of the artists themselves. Most of them claim that seeing or hearing The Beatles influenced them to join a band. Even Ozzy Osbourne, who I see you enjoy, has mentioned that the Beatles were one of the earliest musical inspirations to him.
I was lucky enuf to meet Jason Bonham but never knew much about his dads technique to recently about how advanced a style he had....that was eye opening watching people talk about his drum style and rythym....it was like wow that's why he was so special....subtlely talked about as greatness..THANKS
I was never crazy for zepplin,unroll I kept hearing more and more of their song on my local radio,and then they were one of my favorites if not the best of my collection
People have really no concept of how hard drums are sit down at a set,in front of 7 or 8 piece set,and think about keeping a rytyhm with all four if your arms and legs,then triple that and keep four separate rythtyms going for each arm and leg....just insane talent...thanks
I consider myself extraordinarily fortunate to have been absolutely enamored with Led Zeppelin in the 70's when I was just a young lass of 14, 15, 16, ....and still am, oh my gosh, 40+ years later.
What Zeppelin did was a game changer. Even Robert's 'irratating vocals". It's why Ritchie Blackmore fired Rod Evans and hired Ian Gillen because he wanted that vocal scream for Deep Purple. Jimmy's genius came from years as a session musician which he used to create Led Zeppelin wanting these unique and seasoned musicians to play with and got them.
The culture around the hours expected of studio engineers has always been insane. Work life balance is so hard with it. I hope Steve had time to live outside the studio enough.
There was a little 16 track in Boston called Room 9 From Outer Space. Taped to the board was a photo of boxer Joe Frazier with his face all punched and bloody, with the caption "What happens if you mix too long." It's a tough gig, for sure.
This is my first time hearing Steve... This guy is fucking hilarious I love his sense of humor and humility. I can see why Page and Plant chose him to work on things...
The other one only has about two new songs, the rest are rearranged Zep tunes. Oddly it sold less but that is sometimes the way with albums that are deemed great much later.
Plant was a Big Black fan before Steve worked with him. Dave Grohl interviewed Page and Plant and they had to basically tell him to quit talking about Albini, that's where I stumbled upon that fact if you want to check it out.
Great interview that got me thinking - to this day, that's the last album that Jimmy Page worked on. Over 20 years ago. A sad waste of an incredible talent over the last 20+ years! Steve Albini is great though!
Page has done half assed projects (barring the superb deathwish 2 soundtrack and Clarksdale album) since 1981. It's sad because the guy could have done more soundtracks, various genres of music, I mean he met with the drummer rat scabies... I don't know about anyone else but a punk album with Jimmy on guitar sounds kick ass. The guy just squandered his potential because he was holding on to the past, no matter how extraordinary it was.
I have appreciated his work over the years. As we age you cannot continue to neglect your overall health like we did as young adults. Too bad he did not take health more seriously. We are the same age and I just moved a grand piano out of a house by myself for a client today. Steve working as a sound engineer sitting in the studio most of the year is not healthy. Heart attacks are truly the silent killers in our country, remaining the number one killer in the world. Gone too soon. Much sympathy to his family and friends.
Steve seem to be a real super professional guy...I was watching some old English TV tape of ZEPPLIN,and the sound on the set was horrific,and Zep,still sound amazing,Plant sound out of this world the rest of the band mix was just 50 percent off but they still sounded tops as rough as the audio was....
The studio is a magnifying lens that permits time to concentrate on flawlessness. Live is a depiction, hit it or don't. He could nail notes, however, thinking back to the 70s there were such a large number of factors of sound monitoring working against musicians that truly don't exist today. Like him or not, he is a remarkable singer.
@@davedogge2280 Oh yes! He's playing his digereedoo in jail now! Another childhood memory destroyed! I was a big Gary Glitter fan back in the day, and wrote numerous times to Jim'll Fix It! All I need now is to find out they had swinger's parties on Rainbow or that Dick Dastardly used to beat Muttley and my childhood will be completely ruined!!
@@jimfritz9503 I loved The Banana Splits! Looking back on it though, I'm not entirely convinced it was for kids! I think the writers/producers were "of their time". I suspect there may have been the odd illegal substance knocking around during the "ideas" phase of production! It reminds me of the original Disney version of "Alice in Wonderland"!! I hope there was no impropriety on set, and nobody touched my favourite character, Bingo!
There is a relatively new band that people keep comparing to Led Zeppelin, and I find that new band's vocals irritating, even though I don't find Plant's vocals irritating.
