The Black Crowes and Jimmy Page have reunited to release a short film that tells the story of their Live At The Greek album, which was recently reissued to celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary.
It features both Robinson brothers and Page sat down together giving the whole nine yards on their short-lived collaboration. It seems Robert Plant was the link. The Crowes had already toured with the Zeppelin frontman and when the group played London’s Albert Hall near the end of the '90s, Plant asked if he could bring his old bandmate along. “We just hit it off, like that,” says Rich Robinson.
Page had already been impressed by what he’d heard of the Crowes. “They were a band who clearly understood its roots and knew its roots. There was already a bond as far as I was concerned.”
The Crowes and Page started rehearsing together – a mixture of Zeppelin and Crowes originals and blues covers. Page remembers some of the Zeppelin material was transformed by the new group. “Ten Years Gone - I’d never heard it like that because back in the days of Zeppelin I’d try and do as much as I could just with the one guitar. Suddenly there were all these harmonies going on. It was like I had died and gone to heaven. It was a really emotional moment.”
Meanwhile, Page added an extra element to the Crowes’ originals. “She Talks To Angels is maybe our signature song,” says Chris Robinson. “And Jimmy adding something that was different. She Talks To Angels was never the same after that because he elevated this thing.”
It was a “country twang” that he introduced, according to Live At The Greek’s producer Kevin Shirley. “It’s a sound that you immediately relate to Jimmy. He’s the guy that introduced the B bend into rock n’ roll.”
By the time the group and Page got to the Greek in October 1999 “we were just ripping it up,” according to Chris Robinson. “We were truly in flight. Now we knew we were truly in the groove.”
The album was reissued back in March in an expanded three-disc edition, which includes a whole load more Crowes and Zeppelin songs that were tried out at soundchecks during that 1999 tour. The ten-minute film is up on YouTube as of now.
