Music Review: Kashmir

In my eternal search for songs to fill my iPod, I came across an old CD that I hadn't listened to in years: Kashmir: The Symphonic Led Zeppelin composed Jaz Coleman. Hearing it again, I am reminded why it had remained forgotten for so long. Some of the songs are definitely pleasant to listen to: "Kashmir" works pretty well, as do "Stairway to Heaven" and "Battle of Evermore," "When the Levee Breaks" is the best of the lot, while "Friends," "Going to California," and "All My Love" are forgettable. The problem with each of these songs is that they rely too heavily on their source material. I am not exactly a connoisseur of classical music, but I imagine that the percussion used in "When the Levee Breaks" is scarcely traditional. Where Coleman's rendition of "Levee" really soars is the part of the song that mirrors the original piece when Plant sings:

Don't it make you feel bad,
When you're tryin' to find your way home,
You don't know which way to go?
If you're goin' down South
They got no work to do,
If you don't know about Chicago.

Here Coleman really lets it all go with the strings and horns almost talking with each other. He doesn't just mirror the original "Levee." He uses it as a template and then forges boldly ahead. His redition of guitar solo from "Stairway" is a failure because he refuses to simlarly let go. The result is unsatisfying as it an almost note for note translation of a part of a song that sounds far better on the instruments it was meant to be performed on. I fail to see the value in an orchestra playing to the strengths of an electric guitar.