Encomium: A Tribute to Led Zeppelin

Some are karaoke version remakes, with only a different vocal style. It's as if the cover artists are playing it safe, staying in a self-asserted comfort zone in deference to Led Zeppelin, so as not to alter the original too much. Hootie and the Blowfish do a near matching cover of the B-side "Hey Hey What Can I Do" and Darius Rucker's deeper voice does this song justice. Stone Temple Pilot's "Dancing Days" echoes the original, with Scott Weiland doing softer vocals in contrast to the rough as sandpaper intonations on his solo debut. Big Head Todd & The Monsters' "Tangerine", Duran Duran's "Thank You", Cracker's "Good Times Bad Times", and Helmet/David Yow's "Custard Pie" are further examples of this play-it-safe stance.

Of the differently styled songs, Sheryl Crow gives "D'yer Mak'er" a nice poppy feel and it's easily the best song here. 4 Non-Blonde's Linda Perry's vocals reflect Robert Plant's own soaring vocals on "Misty Mountain Hop," especially in the "baby baby baby" section. Blind Melon's "Out On The Tiles" is passable, with different styled guitars. Come to think of it, Shannon Hoon does have a high-pitched quasi-Robert Plant register, doesn't he? Henry Rollins' harder guitars and rougher voice gives "Four Sticks" a unique treatment. The harsh Melissa Etheridge/Janis Joplin-ish vocals of Never The Bride's lead singer gives "Going To California" a somewhat abrasive treatment, but it's tolerable. Hey, it began with a piano intro instead of guitar. I don't know how Zeppelin purists will take to this song. Finally, Robert Plant teams up with Tori Amos for a hushed, slowed down version of "Down By The Seaside," a contrast to the original on Physical Graffiti, but Tori shines through here, and this is my second favorite song here.

Interesting to note is that the songs are all the moderately well-known tracks: none of the real classic tracks like "Kashmir", "Whole Lotta Love", or the overplayed "Stairway To Heaven" are present. This is good--it's better to highlight other songs. (Runes) was the source of most of the songs, as seen below:

Led Zeppelin, 1
II, 1
III, 2
(Runes), 3
Houses Of The Holy, 2
Physical Graffiti, 2
non-album B-side, 1

A nice effort despite the play-it-safe motif pervading this album. For the next compilation, how about some more innovation?


Open Your Minds   November 17, 1999
9 out of 13 found this review helpful

The problem with everyone else's review is that they went into this CD expecting too much. You should know before you ever listened to it that it wouldn't be like true Zeppelin, but that's not the point. It is the artist featured putting their own self into a Zeppelin song. I happen to LOVE Sheryl Crow's Rendition of D'yer Mak'er, which is my favorite song of all time. She does a great job, in my opinion, just as good as Zeppelin, but in her own way. And if you buy the album just for Plant and Amos doing Down by the Seaside you got your money's worth. There is no song on this album I do not like, there are some I can see where others wouldn't, but the album is not a waste of money, as long as you don't try to look at it like you are buying a Led Zeppelin album. It is it's own album, seperate from Zeppelin as a whole.


Unspectacular cast falls flat trying to capture Zep's magic   December 1, 2001
P. Nicholas Keppler (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania United States)
8 out of 13 found this review helpful

Unlike other legendary rock bands, such as the Beatles or the Who, Led Zeppelin was not particularly renowned for their songwriting skill. Most of Zeppelin's classics are not spectacular as sheet music, yet through Robert Plant's mighty howl, John Bonham's rapid-fire drumming, Jimmy Page's virtuous, versatile guitar-playing and John Paul Jones' steady bass-playing and calculating arranging, they always came to shining life. Zeppelin was more about chemistry than craft. The ways in which they tackled their material made them great, not the material per se.

Thus, an artist who attempts to cover a Zeppelin song is almost doomed to produce a weak echo of the original. Such is certainly the case with the FM radio and alterna-rock lightweights who contribute to 1996's tribute album, Encomium. Take the Rollins Band, who cover "Four Sticks," for example. They may be a somewhat decent punk/metal band when ripping through one of Rollins' own rants, but the punk veteran's vocal abilities, made for a spoken word career, and the band's pitiful shredding fall embarrassingly flat when trying to wield the grinding riff rocking of "Four Sticks," an arrangement that required one of Zeppelin's most graceful performances to capture, twenty five
years hence.

The pattern reoccurs endlessly on Encomium. Sheryl Crow performs a humorless take on Zeppelin's most tongue-in- cheek song, "D'yer Ma'ker," Never the Bride looses the echoing darkness of "Going to California" and produces a wishy-washy ballad; Duran Duran forgets the majesty of the imagery of "Thank You" and records it as if it were one their own glossy love songs; Hootie and the Blowfish render "Hey, Hey What Can I Do?" as banal and boring as their own material. The only artists who provide a worthy tribute are Stone Temple Pilots. Their excellent cover of "Dancing Days" finds lead singer, Scott Weiland firmly grasping the song's dark ambiguity and channels it with a disciplined rotation of passion and reserve that should make Plant proud.

It is the exception, not the rule though. Encomium is mostly thrashy alterna-rock bands injected their own lack of passion and moany lethargy into the work of one of rock's most zealous bands or drippy versions of songs that were once mysterious and exciting from generic female singer/songwriters who belong on Lilth Fair's third stage. Perhaps even Encomium's cast could sound decent covering a finely-crafted Beatles or Who song, but these bottom feeders do not have the skill or style to make Led Zeppelin's trickier catalogue come
alive.


A Mixed Bag (3.5 stars)   June 13, 2000
andreas (Seattle)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

After listening to this tribute album, I was surprised at the variety of genres covering Zeppelin, which obviously says something about the great influence that Led Zeppelin has had on the music world. Also, covering styles ranged from playing the exact song to creating different interpretations of the music.

The albums' best tracks include Misty Mountain Hop by 4 Non Blondes, Hey Hey What Can I Do by Hootie and the Blowfish, and Dancing Days by STP. Each of these groups tend to stay to the format of the original songs, but put their own original stamp on the songs, making it exciting to listen to.

The decent tracks include Tangerine by Big Head Todd etc, Thank You by Duran Duran, Out On the Tiles by Blind Melon, and Four Sticks by Rollins Band. Some of these songs tend to stray too far from the original style and format, but for fans of these groups, this might be a good thing.

The only truly bad songs are Custard Pie by Helmet and Going to California by Never the Bride. In Custard Pie, the singer sings with no passion and seems very apathetic and reluctant to be there. The cover of Going to California is completely different from the original, and the version is fairly weak.

The rest of the songs on the album are very arguable to different people. Those who expect exact replicas of Zeppelin songs will be very disappointed with these songs, and will generally be disappointed by most of the album. However, it should be respected that some artists on the album create different but good versions of Zeppelin songs, particularly Tori Amos and Robert Plants' version of Down by the Seaside. The album will also be much better if you are familiar with the groups on the album. I doubt that most people over 40 would truly enjoy this album.

I think that although this album is widely loved and hated by different Zep fans, most of the groups are competent enough to put enough of themselves and their talent into these songs, and overall, Encomium is a decent album.


Give it a break... It's not that bad!   September 9, 1999
6 out of 8 found this review helpful

OK, first off, this maybe fails as a true TRIBUTE to Led Zep, and it certainly isn't an immitation by any means. I don't recommend it for hardcore ZepHeads. But when you look at the music, if you don't sour yourself on it by expecting a replica of the greatest rock band ever to record, you notice that this is really an interesting album. Call me crazy, but I like Sheryl Crow's version of D'yer Mak'er even better than the original!

Once again, this isn't Led Zeppelin, but it's a collection of by and large good bands puting their own spin on these classics. Rollins Band's Four Sticks is amazing... COMPLETELY different from the original, but amazing! Also of note: STP, Duran Duran, and 4 Non Blondes.

If you're willing to take this music for what it's worth, rather than trying to hold it up to the Led Zeppelin standard, then this is really a great album. And you can't go wrong with the Page/Amos duet!