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The Firm - s/t (1985)

...or how partially successful albums still get "The Cut".

C/O MEMORY (Own, but not C/O. There is one saw/notch on the lower right hand corner on some copies)

Possible Reason: Over-manufacture of the vinyl - High expectations

Atlantic, 1985

Genre: 70's Stars in 80's Facelifts

To those interested: If you like well-produced 80's Rock with legendary musicians, with Jimmy Page offering some extra interest for his playing, then go for it, but beware of the dreaded "Lovin' Feeling" cover.

Others: Stream first. It's OK, but not either Page's or Rodgers' best, although the song that was based on a Zeppelin out-take "Swan Song", "Midnight Moonlight", is worth a listen and "Radioactive" is a good memory.

Instead: hear them live. These bands usually worked best that way.



"The Return of Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers!" screams the hype and a decent first single in "Radioactive" was a good advertisement for The Firm's first album. The return of unsold copies after the listeners found out that it was only regular AOR with solos by Jimmy Page screams the facts. It's really not a bad album except for one horrendous cover, but then again it's also the example of how high expectations ruin anything especially when the Rock scene was changing and thinking loud and visual.

It's very hard to top a catalog of well-played FM rock standards from Led Zeppelin or Bad Company only to return with some programmable AOR you can drink your beer to no matter how well played it is even with Page's guitar styles reminding you that you are listening to The Firm. They looked ready for the cameras, but despite the pedigree, a lot of cards were stacked against them. It seems that at first, nobody payed attention to the danger signs while going for the Platinum and only getting Gold in The US and Canada.


As you can tell from the video, The Firm were a bunch of legendary musicians and Bad Company's vocalist trying to get a hold of some 80's fame in a time when the word "Reunion" or "Supergroup" was a big thing, especially since Asia proved a major success. There was the talent, but little of the spark, and Paul Rodgers' presence was clearly not on the level of Robert Plant (a born lead singer and showman), David Lee Roth, Bruce Dickinson, or the number of Hair Metal singers who played to the audience in a way that the MTV-aimed generation could get into. The fact that most of the songs were nothing really special, the epic final track "Midnight Moonlight" with trendy backing vocalists that showed that Zeppelin's style was best suited for Robert Plant's very emotive style and not Rogders' more down to earth singing that is fine for straight ahead Rock and Blues (although they made an attempt at that style with some success), and that they tried too hard to compete with the changing times while sounding uninspired and too self-conscious for most of the album were possibly parts of the problem.

A vanity label on Side Two was not helping matters at all, either.





Let's take a look at the others involved. Besides Jimmy and Paul, there's Chris Slade on the Drums from Manfred Mann's Earth Band (then later AC/DC and Damage Control) and Tony Franklin on Fretless Bass, a major trend in The 80's. Also within their ranks, there's the Horn Section of Steve Dawson (Trumpet), Paul Weimar, Willie Garnett, and Don Weller (Sax) on the opening track, "Closer", while the female backing vocals by Sam Brown, Helen Chappelle, and Joy Yates tried to get things in gear with the times, although obviously to beef up both the crap cover of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" and also in "Midnight Moonlight" where their presence was like a too-tight fit of new fashion in an aged body. The videos were also big productions as well.




To me, The Firm were a professional band and well-suited for US AOR Radio, but sadly that's all they turned out to be. Titles like "Money Can't Buy", "Make or Break", and "Someone to Love" seriously suggested that this was going to be a short lived career choice after all was said and done, and after Page's ambitious work with Led Zeppelin, the listeners possibly had a feeling that this would not be going on for too long after hearing the workman-like results. This wound up in the cut-outs in The States after a time of approaching Gold level, as the number of unsold returns must have been enough for the cut to be made.

It should have been something interesting, the type of cut-outs I like to write about, kind of like some of Page's soundtrack work (Parts of the Death Wish 2 Soundtrack >>>>> This album!), but this is like hearing a good Bar Band that still does not spark much interest.

Let's clear the disappointment...enjoy some good Instrumental Movie Music that shows more of Page's talents than The Firm ever did. I'm sure that this was also a C/O (#50 in the US BB Charts...good bet it was I'm sure). And I like some Early 80's Action films, too!





Here's the demo from the Zeppelin days of "Swan Song" just to fill in the interest.