Year-long Them Crooked Vultures stint to conclude this weekend

Them Crooked Vultures Twitter entry

Shortly after the arrival of Them Crooked Vultures in Japan, the band sent a picture to its fan base around the world. It was a photo of a truck in downtown Tokyo promoting the group's Wednesday night show there.

Their gig at the Shibuya-AX concert hall is the first of two shows the group will have played in Japan, with the second to take place Friday. That engagement is for the opening night of the three-day Fuji Rock Festival, with a scheduled 70-minute Them Crooked Vultures set immediately preceding the night's top act, Muse.

After that show, band members John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl and Josh Homme will be going their separate ways for the foreseeable future. With Grohl set to work again with the Foo Fighters on a new album, and with Homme already gearing up for some tour dates with his mainstay band Queens of the Stone Age, the supergroup ends what amounted to a full year of club dates, festival crowds, TV appearances and arena shows.

John Paul Jones plays his No. 1
bass guitar built by Hugh Manson.

All of those live gigs took place only after the secret of the band's existence was made known en masse one year ago next week. Considerable efforts ensured that all rehearsal and recording sessions, with the fresh pots that accompanied them, all took place in private away from the public's watchful and critical eye. The major players saw fit not to reveal their collaboration in advance so as to evade prejudices. Sure, not all reviews of the band's eponymous album released last November were positive, nor were their concerts universally lauded. However, a staple of most opinions of the band was the outpouring of support for Jones, portrayed more than ever before as a gifted multi-instrumentalist as well as a major rocking force and riffmeister.

Mansons Guitar Shop in England offers
the John Paul Jones Signature Bass Guitar.

But no matter how many flashy instruments the former Led Zeppelin co-conspirator wields onstage, Jones may perhaps always be known the best as a bassist. This is why last week's announcement of the John Paul Jones Signature Bass Guitar is fitting. Mansons Guitar Shop says Jones's "number one four-string bass has been made available as a low production unit made in Europe with careful quality inspection and final set-up at the Manson Guitars workshop in the UK. Specification is identical to John's actual bass made by Hugh Manson with all upgrades carried out to date, thus reflecting the 2010 version JPJ has toured with Them Crooked Vultures." Full details, specifications and ordering information can be found at the Mansons Guitar Shop website.

At this time, what plans Jones may harbor for the months that lie ahead have not yet been revealed. A wise bet holds that Them Crooked Vultures will return for another round someday. The week of the first album release, it was unanimous among the three group members that a second album would be on the way -- someday.

I'm Falling in Love Again (Band of Joy song of the week, No. 5 of 12)

Last week's installment in this 12-part series on the roots of the songs on Robert Plant's upcoming album Band of Joy focuses on a tune originally recorded by R&B guitarist and singer-songwriter Barbara Lynn. This week's installment focuses on a song from a group of her contemporaries. In February 1966, she performed on the same two back-to-back episodes of a U.S. television program called The !!!! Beat as the Kelly Brothers. Despite hailing from two divergent areas in their common country and playing different styles of music, both Lynn and the Kelly Brothers shared a long history of performing for years before they gained their short-lived national attention. Similarly, both Lynn and the Kelly Brothers tend to be largely overlooked today when it comes to their contributions to Black American music in the 1960s. Leave it to Robert Plant and the Band of Joy to remedy that.

Brothers Curtis Kelly, Andew Kelly and Robert Kelly formed a five-man gospel group in 1948 with T.C. Lee and Offie Reese in Chicago. They called themselves the Kelly Brothers, and it wasn't until the mid 1950s that they began recording. Their first single went unissued, but other gospel numbers saw release, leading off with "Prayer for Tomorrow," originally issued on the C.H. Brewer label in 1955 and reissued the following year on the Vee-Jay label. It proved to be bad timing for a gospel group on Vee-Jay, as the Indiana-based label was springing to national attention with secular R&B acts such as Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker and Memphis Slim.

The Kelly Brothers turned to Nashville for their next recordings, but the Nashboro label produced only two singles for the group in three years. Switching to the Cincinnati-based Federal record label, the Kelly Brothers quickly found much more support for their gospel ambitions, releasing two singles and an LP, Songs from the Good Book, all in 1960. Their output on the Federal label continued through 1962, incorporating religious songs such as "Waiting for Jesus," "I'll Be a Witness There Too" and "Lord, Remember Me."

Then, a sharp change in direction occurred for the Kelly Brothers as the group began to record secular music. To do this, they at first adopted a new name, the King Pins. It was under this moniker that they offered four singles on the Federal label in 1963 and three more in 1964. Success greeted their second single as the King Pins, "It Won't Be This Way Always," backed with "How Long Will It Last." Other titles included "Don't Wait, Pretty Baby," "Monkey One More Time" and "I'm a Lonesome Rooster." (The title of one of their B-sides during this period, "Wonderful One," matches that of a Jimmy Page and Robert Plant single issued 32 years later.)

Robert Plant to take his Tennessee-based musicians to Europe

After the current U.S. leg of Robert's Plant's tour with the Band of Joy, he'll be taking his group of Nashville players back to Europe with him for a series of tour dates. In addition to their previously announced U.K. dates surrounding the September album release (Sept. 13 in Europe and Sept. 14 in the United States), the group plans to headed to the continent's mainland in October. The full slate of non-U.S. concert dates is currently scheduled as follows (with updates added on Aug. 8 and Aug. 11):

• Sept. 2: London, England - HMV Forum (already on sale)
• Oct. 14: Stockholm, Sweden - Annext
• Oct. 16: Oslo, Norway - Sentrum Scene
• Oct. 17: Copenhagen, Denmark - Falkoner Theatre (Update, Aug. 11: This show has been canceled)
• Oct. 18: Edinburgh, Scotland - Usher Hall (Update, Aug. 8: This show has been added; already on sale)
• Oct. 19: Berlin, Germany - Tempodrom (Update, Aug. 11: This show has been canceled)
• Oct. 20: Gateshead, England - The Sage Gateshead (Update, Aug. 8: This show has been added; tickets)
• Oct. 21: Liverpool, England - The Olympia (Update, Aug. 8: This show has been added; tickets)
• Oct. 21: Paris France - Palais de Sports (Update, Aug. 8: This show has been postponed to Oct. 24)
• Oct. 24: Brussels, Belgium - Cirque Royal (Update, Aug. 8: This show has been canceled)
  
• Oct. 24: Paris, France - Palais De Sports (Update, Aug. 8: This show has been rescheduled from Oct. 21)
• Oct. 26: Cardiff, Wales - St. David's Hall (already on sale)
• Oct. 27: Birmingham, England - Symphony Hall (already on sale)
• Oct. 31: Manchester, England - Palace Theatre (already on sale)
• Nov. 1: Dublin, Ireland - Olympia
• Nov. 2: Belfast, Northern Ireland - Waterfront (Update, Aug. 11: This show has been added)

On the eve of what Plant said was his first concert with the Band of Joy in 43 years, he spoke during a press conference in Memphis about another time in history that performers from Tennessee found themselves bringing their music to European audiences.

"That Stax tour that came to Europe with Eddie Floyd and Otis [Redding] -- that was huge," said Plant, referring to the Stax/Volt Revue that sent a lineup of Memphis-based soul singers from the Stax label to Scandinavia in 1967.

"You can get DVDs of your people playing in Sweden, and the people are just screaming and going mad," said Plant. A disc filmed in Norway on April 7, 1967, includes a headlining performance from Redding as well as supporting acts Floyd, Booker T. and the MGs, the Mar-Keys, Arthur Conley, and Sam and Dave. The disc was released three years ago, in conjunction with the show's 40th anniversary.

Plant continued, "I was talking to [Booker T. and the MGs bassist Donald] 'Duck' Dunn not long ago -- and it was early in the evening -- and he was just saying how amazed they were that Memphisians, or whatever you call it, got off the plane and became like Elvis [Presley], you know. It was fantastic!"

A member of the Band of Joy crew told Lemon Squeezings last week he expects the group would return to the United States for another round of touring in January, if not earlier.

The Band of Joy includes guitarist Buddy Miller, who joined Plant and Alison Krauss on their Raising Sand tour in 2008, which also played a handful of dates in Europe. Miller and Plant, who are the co-producers of the forthcoming Band of Joy album, are joined onstage by singer-songwriters Patty Griffin and Darrell Scott as well as drummer Marco Giovino and bassist Byron House.

Miller, Griffin and Scott are all afforded onstage opportunities to lead songs of their own. Their live sets consist partly of Americana music -- some of which Plant first tackled with Led Zeppelin on the albums Led Zeppelin III, Physical Graffiti and Presence -- as well as songs from his solo work and his 2-year-old collaboration with Krauss. On Plant's new album, he draws mainly from a selection of music cutting across several generations of Americana.

You Can't Buy My Love (Band of Joy song of the week, No. 4 of 12)

A biography of producer Huey P. Meaux, "The Crazy Cajun," appears in the May 1996 issue of Texas Monthly. The Louisiana-born Meaux worked throughout the Southern United States, where his role in discovering ZZ Top in Texas would have served as a great addition to an impressive career. After starting to produce in 1959, he earned production credits on a string of rhythm 'n' blues hits in the early to mid 1960s and continued to stay at the forefront of the music scene in the decades that followed. In the Texas Monthly piece, author Joe Nick Patoski compiles a list of the people who "made records or worked with Meaux at one time or another" -- folks representing "two generations of Gulf Coast rock and rollers" who viewed him as "the pipeline to the big time."

One of the discoveries Meaux is credited with is that of Barbara Lynn, born in 1942 in Beaumont, Texas. This singer-guitarist topped the national R&B charts when she was 20 with her song called "You'll Lose a Good Thing." Even if she could be deemed in retrospect a one-hit wonder, Lynn surely enjoyed her time at the top. She'd graduated from skirting the law as an underage performer in East Texas juke joints and was now instead playing before a national audience on "American Bandstand" and even overseas. Lynn continued recording her own music with Meaux as producer for years to come but never again experienced the same flash of stardom despite some winning singles.

Losing, or simply having, a "good thing" became a thematic mainstay in her catalog, such as with "Oh! Baby (We Got a Good Thing Goin')" and the song that appears on the forthcoming Robert Plant album, Band of Joy. "You Can't Buy My Love" is one exception to the rule that Lynn actually wrote most of the material she performed. As noted in last year's annual music issue of Oxford American, the single may have been a response to the Beatles' hit of the same year, "Can't Buy Me Love." In the Lennon/McCartney song, the Fab Four had offered a diamond ring and complained of the inability of money to guarantee love. The female's response was certain, that indeed no man could buy his way to her heart: no diamonds, no pearls, no money in the world. The theme would rear its head again within a few years on the debut Led Zeppelin album, where in the song "How Many More Times," Plant promises, "I'll give you all I've got to give, rings, pearls, and all." Perhaps he hadn't learned Lynn's lesson!

When Jerry Wexler signed Led Zeppelin to a contract with Atlantic Records label late in 1968, one of the albums released on the label earlier in the past 12 months was called Here is Barbara Lynn, which attempted to pave the way for the singer's comeback to a national R&B audience that had already largely forgotten about the singer-guitarist over the past five years. Unfortunately, the album did little to restore her name in the public. As writer Bill Friskics-Warren notes in Oxford American, "The album's would-be hit, 'This Is the Thanks I Get,' stalled at No. 69 on Billboard's pop singles report. The song's title says it all."

"You Can't Buy My Love" kicks off the two-CD set included with Issue 67 of Oxford American, a compilation that also includes entries from Sonny Burgess, Bukka White, Memphis Slim, and dozens others whose names can generally be discovered only by the venerable act of "crate-digging," sifting through dusty stacks of unknown records and mining for the occasional odd gem. Last week in Clarksdale, Mississippi, I had the pleasure of meeting one of those crate-diggers, editorial assistant Natalie Elliott, who contributed a piece on Kenni Huskey, another female performer whose brush with stardom came early in life. When I told Elliott that I was twice seeing Robert Plant perform in the South that week, and that I'd just purchased a copy of Oxford American to see what the magazine had to say about Barbara Lynn and that particular tune destined for Plant's new album, she wondered whether or not Plant might have picked one of his cover songs from that very magazine. Although I didn't get to sit down with Plant at any point while our paths crossed in the South last week, I'm still hoping I can find out his answer to that question.

Jason Bonham says aborted project with Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones was 'as close as you could get,' felt real

Jason Bonham didn't keep it a secret in 2008 when he thought he might be working in an official capacity with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. The drummer said he'd been to England for rehearsals, and Jones soon remarked that once singer auditions concluded, the announcement of an album and tour would be likely.

In a far-reaching interview for MusicRadar, Bonham goes further than ever before in explaining why their collaboration in 2008 never did come to fruition before he and Jones went on to separate projects last year.

"It got as close as you could get. It got real close," he tells Joe Bosso in a piece published online yesterday. "You know, we did a year of writing and putting stuff together. I loved working with Jimmy and John Paul. It was so much fun. That band ... I think we felt more like a band than Black Country Communion."

It is in an unpublished portion of the interview that Bonham more fully discusses that group, whose debut album was recorded in less than two weeks and will be released this September. The crux of Bonham's interview, as published online yesterday, focuses on his imminent touring project, called Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience, which is a multimedia tour featuring the music of Led Zeppelin and plenty of personal photographs and home movies that help Bonham to tell the story of growing up as the son of Led Zeppelin's drummer. Bonham says he will not announce the lineup of his band before the first show of the tour, so as not to invite any prejudices regarding the musicians he has already picked.

As to why last year passed without him touring with Page and Jones, he says, "I think ... basically, they [Page and Jones] agreed to disagree. After a while, it was just time to move on."

When Bosso asks whether singer Myles Kennedy was a definite enlistment for their group, Bonham says, "Nope. There was somebody else. [pauses] Somebody else was involved -- and that's all I'll say to that. But as I said, I've always love the time we had together. I can't even explain it, it was just great!"

Lemon Squeezings spoke with Bosso today about the interview, and he declined to speculate on who the other singer might have been. At least one account has confirmed that Aerosmith's Steven Tyler sat in one weekend in 2008 but that Page thought his audition was "shambolic." Another possibility is that Page was hoping to hold out for Plant to join up.

Bosso did comment to Lemon Squeezings, however, on Bonham's statement regarding the rehearsals with Page and Jones feeling "more like a band than Black Country Communion." Bosso says he didn't interpret this as a dig on the so-called supergroup, which also involves singer and bassist Glenn Hughes, guitarist and singer Joe Bonamassa, and keyboardist Derek Sherinian.

"We did another part of the interview that will run on MusicRadar later," says Bosso, "during which he said that the group (BCC) recorded their record 'very quickly; the whole thing took 10 days from start to finish.'

"He said that the speed in which they worked was surprising, that he might have liked to have done some drum parts over again, but everybody else seemed very happy so there was no reason to. My take, and you can quote me, is that he sounded very proud and pleased with BCC and is definitely looking forward to going on tour with the band and making another record with them. He does see them as a band with a future. From the impression I got, he's looking for them to gel as a group on the road. Because the record was done quickly, this is in stark contrast to the year he spent working with Page and Jones, hence his remark. I don't think his comment was a slight against BCC at all."

Central Two O Nine (Band of Joy song of the week, No. 3 of 12)

Each week until the release of Robert Plant's new album Band of Joy, Lemon Squeezings is focusing on the roots of a different song featured on the album. For this third installment of the 12-part series, today we look at the track with perhaps the most diverse history, "Central Two O Nine."

The track "Central Two O Nine," the press have been informed, was "built around a studio jam" between Robert Plant and his studio group that came to be called the Band of Joy. It may have been one of the group's early studio cuts Plant said "sounded like Moby Grape outtakes." CMT, upon hearing the finished product, described "Central Two O Nine" as a "country blues stomp ... with banjo and acoustic guitar combining for an old-time string band vibe."

An official press release also says the song has "jangling blues imagery." A song called "Hello Central (Give Me 209)" recorded by Lightnin' Hopkins appears on his 1965 album for Mainstream Records, called The Blues. If you define "jangling" as harsh or discordant, that's what the lyrics are in this solo acoustic guitar performance.

They seem at least partially reflective of the discrimination experienced by a black man in segregated society. The words "It seems the buses done stopped runnin', [and the] trains won't allow me to ride no more" may simply be the result of the bus and train schedules having expired for the night, but that may just be the singer's logical excuse for illogical discrimination. Either way, the singer has a woeful communication breakdown. He is nearly desperate, needing "to talk to my baby," whether it be by long-distance telephone call or face-to-face discourse that would first require mass transit.

Without either option available to him, he gives up, turns away and starts walking home, with his thoughts along the way focusing on what he'd done wrong. The downtrodden man whose image is painted on the cover of the Lightnin' Hopkins album certainly looks like he's suffering a fate like this.

A Document Records compilation called Rare Country Blues Vol. 4 (1929-c. 1953) contains an earlier recorded version of "Hello Central (Give Me 209)" from Robert Lee Westmoreland. This rendition from the singer and slide guitarist in the St. Louis blues tradition is believed to be from around 1953. It's also a solo guitar performance with basically the same set of lyrics Hopkins would later perform.

Songwriting credit on this track -- as is the case with both "Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down" and "Cindy, I'll Marry You Someday" -- will go to Plant and co-producer Buddy Miller. This will be true for one more of the 12 songs on this album.

Catch John Bonham's 'Fool in the Rain' influence live at Iridium in New York

One of John Bonham's major drum influences is out gigging this month. If you're in New York over the weekend of July 16 to 18, you'll have three chances to see Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, whose work "some mmMMMmrrrhhhh years ago" inspired Bonham's drum part in "Fool in the Rain."

That drum part is a tailored version of what's called "the Purdie Shuffle," without a doubt one of the most famous percussion riffs ever. Purdie used it to great effect on Steely Dan's 1977 album, Aja, on a track called "Home at Last." It didn't take long before Bonham was laying down his own version of it in the studio; "Fool in the Rain" was recorded late in 1978.

Purdie revived the sound on another Steely Dan song, "Babylon Sisters," used as the opening track on their 1980 album Gaucho. Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro used the Purdie Shuffle on the 1983 song "Rosanna." The fact that Bonham was so ahead of his time was not lost on musician and journalist Geoff Nicholls, who contributed technical analysis about the Led Zeppelin drummer in Chris Welch's 2001 book, "John Bonham: A Thunder of Drums." Nicholls writes:

Bonham was obviously hip to the rhythm years before most drummers had mastered it. ... All this is evidence that Bonham was keeping his ears open and developing his technique all the time. It provides a taster of his capabilities, and an indication of what he might have gone on to do.

Opinion: A proper settlement for 'Dazed and Confused'

Here's a fun little game called "The Dazed and Confused Payoff Game."

To play it, first go find yourself a Led Zeppelin bootleg with a 35-minute live version of "Dazed and Confused."

The Seattle '73 version would do.

Before you start listening to it, take 35 dollar bills in your hand -- one for each minute the song elapses -- and sit down at a table. Have two half-dollars or four quarters handy just in case you need them later in the game.

After each minute of the song passes, take one dollar out of your hand and place it on the table. If what you just heard for the past minute was written by anyone in Led Zeppelin, the dollar goes on your side of the table. If what you just heard for the past minute was written by Jake Holmes, the dollar goes on the opposite side of the table. You are the judge.

If you are stuck on which party wrote the music you just heard for the last minute, or if you think it might have been a part written by Jake Holmes but amended significantly by anyone in Led Zeppelin, then the dollar goes in the center of the table between the two stacks, to be divided evenly when the music's over. This is where that dollar's worth of change might come in handy.

When the music's over, count up the amount of money in each pile and compare. Which pile has more money? You'll probably be sitting right in front of it. Led Zeppelin always wins!

And that, kiddies, is how you play "The Dazed and Confused Payoff Game." Have you had fun?

Oh, you'd prefer the adult version? The drinking game is played with a friend. One of you will be Jake Holmes, and the other will represent Led Zeppelin. Every time a minute's worth of Jake's composition is heard, Jake takes a drink. Every time it's a minute's worth of Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin takes a drink. Every time it's a minute worth of both, social!!!

In the end, Led Zeppelin can always drink Jake Holmes under the table. Did you ever have any doubts about that?

Cindy, I'll Marry You Someday (Band of Joy song of the week, No. 2 of 12)

Each week until the release of Robert Plant's new album Band of Joy, Lemon Squeezings is focusing on the roots of a different song featured on the album. For this second installment of the 12-part series, today we look at the track with perhaps the most diverse history, "Cindy, I'll Marry You Someday."

A week ago, we recalled American music historian Mike Seeger, who was a founding member of the old-time revival group New Lost City Ramblers in 1958, almost 50 years before he ever laid down the autoharp for Robert Plant and Alison Krauss on their studio version of "Your Long Journey." Now deceased, Seeger admitted in a 2007 interview for Lemon Squeezings that he didn't know who Plant was when he worked with him. Seeger was big on making distinctions between folk music and other styles. In fact, he even believed that not all folk music was folk music. He explained in the liner notes of The New Lost City Ramblers Vol. 4, released in 1962:

In the performance of folk songs, the urban singer may take one of three basic approaches; that of Art (with a capital A) music, of popular music, or of folk music (the traditional style of folk song performance). In general, the first two of these categories view the folk song as raw material on which to base compositions or rearrangements that they think will be acceptable to city audiences.

As Plant takes his unreleased set of 12 songs on the road this month to 12 cities in the United States, he'll find out how acceptable they are to the audiences. The first of these songs ever named in the media -- in an interview with Darrell Scott published on Feb. 11 for the Bristol (Va.) Herald Courier -- was a song of many names, often referred to simply as "Cindy."

Jake Holmes's greatest hits

Get to know Jake Holmes, the man who claims Led Zeppelin's "Dazed and Confused" is a copy of his song from 1967. Here are a handful of his more "commercial" efforts.



Finally, here's the song you know you wanted to hear.

Robert Plant announces 4 U.K. dates in September, October

Four U.K. dates have been announced via Robert Plant's official online mailing list.

The first show takes place Sept. 2 at the HMV Forum in London. Tickets to the London show go on sale July 7 at 9 a.m.

It is the only U.K. show so far announced that precedes the U.K. release of his new album, Band of Joy, on Sept. 13.

Plant's three other U.K. shows take place in late October in Wales and England. They are:

• Oct. 26 at St. David's Hall in Cardiff (Tickets to the Cardiff show go on sale July 7 at 9 a.m.)
• Oct. 27 at Symphony Hall in Birmingham (Tickets to the Birmingham show go on sale July 7 at 9 a.m.)
• Oct. 31 at Palace Theatre in Manchester (Tickets to the Manchester show go on sale July 7 at 9 a.m.)

In addition to these four dates, Plant is also said to be performing "a one-off gig at a VIP launch party" held at Molineux Stadium in Wolverhampton. Steve Bull, who spent more than a decade playing for the Wolverhampton Wanderers football club, will be launching a charitable foundation on a date to be announced.

Plant is a longtime fan of the team and, since August 2009, a vice president of the club.

In an article in the Express and Star, Bull comments, "What a night it's going to be. 'Planty' live at Molineux -- incredible. If that doesn't pack the place, nothing will."

Meanwhile, back in the United States, Buddy Miller has been named August's "artist-in-residence" at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville. The co-producer of Plant's album, Miller is scheduled to perform at the venue on three consecutive Tuesdays in August.

According to a report from CMT online, the singer and guitarist is slated to perform with some of his favorite collaborators. There has been no word so far as to whether Plant will be one of Miller's guests on any of the dates, Aug. 10, 17 and 24.

Lemon Squeezings will be in attendance as Robert Plant's 12-city North American tour kicks off July 13 at the Orpheum Theater in Memphis.

Robert Plant shoots music video in Chicago with Los Lobos

Preparations for Robert Plant's upcoming tour and album release are under way, with a video already in the can for a single.

The singer spent some of the past several days in New York and Chicago for some last-minute activities just ahead of rehearsals for his 12-city road trip through the Southern United States.

Among Plant's reported activities over the past several days:

• Thursday, June 24: After selected reporters gathered at the Back Room, a nondescript bar on New York's Lower East Side, to feast their ears on Plant's new album, Band of Joy, the singer himself made a surprise cameo appearance to discuss what it was like making the music with his new group, the Band of Joy. Reporters in attendance hailed from such media organizations as Rolling Stone magazine, CMT (Country Music Television), Goldmine magazine and Spinner.
• Monday, June 28: Robert Plant unexpectedly broke out in song in the lobby of the James Hotel in Chicago, while he was there for dinner at David Burke's Primehouse. Reporting from the Chicago Sun-Times online.
• Tuesday, June 29 (afternoon): Robert Plant filmed a video for his upcoming single, "Angel Dance." The song is the first track on his upcoming album, and it was originally written by Los Lobos. Naturally, the band joined him at the video shoot, which took place in the Little Village neighborhood of South Chicago. The Neighborhood is the title of the Los Lobos album on which their "Angel Dance" first appeared. More details about the video shoot, and some photographs taken, were sent for fan consumption by a member of the film crew; these are available in the For Badgeholders Only archives.
• Tuesday, June 29 (evening): Robert Plant made a second surprise appearance in Chicago, this time in Grant Park for the Taste of Chicago event. He sat in with Los Lobos for a version of Roy Head's "Treat Her Right," with Plant throwing in some lyrics from the Led Zeppelin tunes "When the Levee Breaks" ("I'm going to Chicago/ Sorry, baby, but I can't take you") and "D'yer Mak'er." Plant strained to hit some notes that are normally well within his range, but his onstage mannerisms were those of an expert. Additional reporting from the Chicago Tribune online. See also amateur footage on YouTube below.
  
  

Jimmy Page delays autobiography to incorporate more content

The release of Jimmy Page's pictorial autobiography is being postponed three months so as to include additional, newly discovered photographs, along with personal recollections about them supplied by the former Led Zeppelin guitarist.

Genesis Publications, the U.K.-based publisher of collectable luxury books, sent an alert on June 30 advising customers of the reasons behind the new September publication date.

"We know that you are waiting patiently, and originally we anticipated to have copies finished this month ready for delivery," Catherine and Jim Roylance of Genesis Publications explained in their message to customers distributed Wednesday.

Page's book comprises many photos from throughout the duration of his professional career and his own personal reflections on his life and times. Prior to forming Led Zeppelin in 1968, Page spent parts of the decade as an art school student, a touring musician, an in-demand studio session guitarist, and a member of the Yardbirds. Since the Led Zeppelin days, Page has been known as one of the world's most highly respected guitarists.