Jimmy Page's forgotten great album! (The Firm: Mean Business)*

Midnight Moonlight was actually from an instrumental Page wrote in 1973-74 for Physical Graffiti called Swan Song. (There is a studio version of this with Jones and Bonham)

The Firm failed to get off the ground because (IMO) Page had the wrong rhythm section. The fretless bass doesn't work.

 

Fortune Hunter came from the XYZ Band project with Page, Chris Squire and Alan White. During 1981.

 

Yes indeed. Been in collectors circles for decades

 

I could not agree more with this - absolutely. His bass work sounds like a tuba. I thought it was out of place on the Blue Murder album as well. The Firm with a nice, fat Fender Precision or Jazz bass would have sounded much better.

 

Love that riff too! It was first tried with Chris Squire and Alan White back in early '81 on a project called "XYZ". It could've well been on Zeppelin's follow up to In Through The Out Door...

Edit: Just realised this has already been posted above!

 

I like All the King's Horses. It got some airplay when it came out. Good times.

 

Yeah, that slippery slidey Bass playing was not a good fit imo.

 

For anyone who might be interested their 1984 London show is up on Youtube in full. Looks pro-shot. Would definitely make a nice addition to any deluxe sets.

 

I have the spirit of love. Naturally, I dig this album.

 

It's the bass equivalent of the gated drum sound from the 80's. Sounds really dated today.

 

It didn't work because it wasn't that good of a group.

 

I agree.

Tony Franklin is in fact an excellent bass player but didn't give his best in The Firm. But he did perform an interesting solo version of The Rain Song.



John Paul Jones played fretless bass on In My Time Of Dying and Sting used it quite extensively on The Police's Ghost in the Machine with better success.

 

This album is certainly not as good as the first one, but Free to Live is worth the price of admission.

 

Hmmm, not sure I could pick one album over the other, each had a few good moments. I do remember playing the second one quite a bit. Got to see them live in Worcester which was cool. I think I might have seen them after each album, but my memory of the second show could just be a flashback of the first, hard to say

Haven't played either since the 80s, would be interesting to play them again.

 

To me the Firm was great for getting Jimmy Page back in the public eye recording and play. In High School when they came out I thought they were pretty decent however over the years I just feel in the end it just didn't gel for me- the music and the band. They certainly were professional enough but it IMHO was just a case of the classic rock 70's and 80's blending together in a combination that was not coherent enough even though there were some nice moments/pieces of music for me here and there.

 

I like the first Firm album better. Paul and Jimmy together are a good match. But like others have mentioned, Tony Franklin's fretless bass just bothers me. I'm glad I'm not the only one (no pun intended). The Firm was great in concert. I remember some Outrider tunes and maybe some Rodgers-related stuff. But then again, any time seeing Jimmy live is great.....

 

This is a Rumor I heard years ago, Not sure if it's True or not. But during the "Mean Business Tour" Which I had seen
Live at the Pacific Amp---Paul Rodgers had broken his leg around late July or Aug of 1986 and Jimmy Page got pissed
off. (Maybe they had to cancel some dates--I don't know/--They I heard that it was only going to be a 2 record deal/project
so it's hard to say. I do enjoy both of them

 

the firm was the beginning of the end for jimmy page.

 

I like both albums and would've liked more but IMO the music world was moving on. I graduated from high school in 1986 and only a few of us were buying and listening to this stuff.

 

I have both albums.

"Spirit of Love" was the stand out track for me from Mean Business.

 

Fantastic album (better than the debut) too many zep heads thought it was gonna be Zep II and it never needed to be. All 8 songs here are pretty killer and the songs on side 2 Tear down the wall, Spirit of Love all sounded much more rocking live then they did on album. I love Tony Franklins bass sound on Cadallac. Fortune Hunter is the closes to zep they touch which is a good thing. ATKH and LIP are just great songs. I always dug the song Dreaming on here too. Im missing one song cant remember off the top of my head.

 

Just put this one on the other day and forgot what a great album

 

Neither album is all that good, IMO, but I did like "All the King's Horses" back in the day. For me, neither album has held up very well at all. In fact, I find it a chore to get through one side of a record. On the other hand, The Firm was one of the first concerts I ever saw-back in 1986 at Boston Garden. That was a lot of fun. But from both of those albums and most of Page's other post Zep projects, I'd say the muse left Jimmy Page somewhere about 1979.

 

The LPs would be helped with a tune up but that will probably not happen

 

Both albums by the Firm are disappointing in my opinion.