Song Lyric Sunday: Unledded

The theme for Song Lyric Sunday this week, as set out by Jim in his post Collaborating Songwriting Partners,  is to play a song written by a duo. There is plenty of scope in this one, as there are many famous composing duos over the years, and Jim has provided us with a pretty detailed list. I thought about going for the obvious for a Brit of my era – the Beatles – but the Lennon/McCartney writing partnership was never really a true joint effort, in my eyes. They agreed at the outset to credit all songs jointly, and whilst they may have contributed to each other’s songs, more often than not the writing was the effort of just one of them. Anyone familiar with them can tell a Paul song from a John song.

Others crossed my mind, such as Elton John and Bernie Taupin, but when it came down to it there was only one duo I could really choose: the two guys behind the songwriting for a huge part of the music of one of my favourite bands. Not only did they write the songs for the band but later teamed up as a duo to play some of them, making them a perfect fit for Jim’s theme – and he included them in his list, too. I’m playing you two of their songs from that later incarnation, starting with what is still my favourite of all of theirs:

And the lyrics to one of the most beautiful love songs ever written:

If the sun refused to shine
I would still be loving you
When mountains crumble to the sea
There will still be you and me

 

Kind a woman, I give you my all
Kind a woman, nothing more
Little drops of rain, whisper of the pain
Tears of love’s lost in the days gone by

 

My love is strong, with you there is no wrong
Together we shall go until we die, my, my, my
Inspiration’s what you are to me
Inspiration, look ‘n’ see

 

And so, today my world it smiles
Your hand in mine, we walk the miles
Thanks to you, it will be done
For you to me are the only one
Alright, yeah

 

Happiness, no more be sad
Happiness, I’m glad

 

If the sun refused to shine
I would still be loving you
Mountains crumble to the sea
There will still be you and me

 

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Jimmy Page / Robert Anthony Plant

Thank You lyrics © Succubus Music Ltd., Sons Of Einion Publishing, Flames Of Albion Music, Inc.

 

Of course, that was Jimmy Page and Robert Plant playing a song from the album Led Zeppelin II, one of the best albums of all time, which was released in October 1969, and got to #1 in both the UK and the US, as well as in several other countries. It sold more than 12m copies in the US, and a further 1.2m in the UK, in addition to further sales worldwide. I played another track from the album in this week’s Tuesday Tunes – you can’t keep a good record down, can you?

 

The version I am playing today was recorded in 1994 for an MTV project, which resulted in the release of the album No Quarter in October of that year. The album included contributions from an Egyptian Ensemble and the London Metropolitan Orchestra, as well as the two guys – Charlie Jones on bass and Michael Lee on drums – who became part of the band that toured with Page and Plant and made a studio album with them, Walking Into Clarksdale, which was released in April 1998. It wasn’t a full reunion of the surviving members of Led Zeppelin, as John Paul Jones apparently wasn’t even told of the project, and was reported to be a bit upset that they named the album after a song for which he had the lead writing credit. I think they have reconciled, though! No Quarter reached #4 in the US, #3 in Canada and #7 in the UK, going Platinum in the US and Canada and Gold in the UK.

 

As I said earlier, I thought I’d play you a couple of tracks from the album, so here is the second:

 

 

That’s The Way was originally a track on Led Zeppelin III, which came out in October 1970 and, like its predecessor, was #1 in the US and the UK and a number of other countries. It sold fewer than Led Zep II, but still achieved respectable figures of 6m in the US and 300k in the UK, plus another million or so around the world. It was their next one that became the mega seller! I’ve always liked the band in their more reflective moods, and both of today’s tunes suit that well, for me.

 

That’s all for today. I hope you’ve enjoyed these and will visit other bloggers taking part in SLS – plenty more good music to be found there. Just follow the link I gave you to Jim’s blog if you’re interested. I’ll see you again for Tuesday Tunes, when I’ll be continuing my current series 😊