The Firm Forest Hills NY

The Firm

The Firm

Atlantic Records, 1985

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 03/15/2004

Years after their untimely breakup, it's not surprising thatsome people would do anything to try and recapture the feeling ofthe magic that was Led Zeppelin. Following John Bonham's death in1980 and the dissolution of the band, diehard fans grabbed at anystraw they could which was Zeppelin-related in the hopes of feelingthat same excitement.

But guitarist Jimmy Page had not had a terrible amount ofpost-Zeppelin success. He had scored the movie Death Wish II, and did a nice set at the A.R.M.S. Concertfor Ronnie Lane. But when it came time for Page to take thedriver's seat again in terms of a band, the end result hit the walllike a NASCAR racer out of control.

The Firm was another attempt at a supergroup which was unable tolive up to its own hype. Pairing Page with former Bad Companyvocalist (at least at the time) Paul Rodgers seemed like a goodidea on paper -- after all, their two former bands were label-mateson Zeppelin's Swan Song imprint. Add in the rhythm section ofbassist Tony Franklin and drummer Chris Slade (who was better knownfor his work with Manfred Mann at the time), and you had a groupwhich seemed to hold promise.

Alas, The Firm, the group's debut release, fails on many levels.The songwriting is poor, the overall sound is surprisingly muddy,the energy level is almost non-existent, and -- the cardinal sinfor many people -- the group sounded neither like Zeppelin nor BadCompany.