Robert PLANT

Fate Of Nations

(1993)

1. Calling To You 5'48
(Robert Plant / Chris Blackwell)
2. Down To The Sea 4'00
(Robert Plant / Charlie Jones)
3. Come Into My Life 6'32
(Robert Plant / Doug Boyle / Kevin Scott MacMichael)
4. I Believe 4'33
(Robert Plant / Phil Johnstone)
Es PARANZA Single 98365 (June '93)
5. 29 Palms 4'51
(Robert Plant / Charlie Jones / Phil Johnstone / Doug Boyle)
Es PARANZA Single 98338 (April '93)
6. Memory Song (Hello, Hello) 5'22
(Robert Plant / Phil Johnstone / Charlie Jones / Chris Blackwell / Oliver J. Wood)
Es PARANZA [UK] Single FATE 4 (December '93)
7. If I Were A Carpenter 3'45
(Tim Hardin)
8. Promised Land * 5'00
(Robert Plant / Phil Johnstone)
9. The Greatest Gift 6'52
(Robert Plant / Chris Blackwell / Charlie Jones / Kevin Scott MacMichael / Phil Johnstone)
10. Great Spirit * 5'27
(Robert Plant / Phil Johnstone / Kevin Scott MacMichael )
11. Network News * 6'42
(Robert Plant / Chris Blackwell)

Bonus Tracks

12. Colors Of A Shade 4'46
(Robert Plant / Phil Johnstone / Chris Blackwell / Martin Allcock)
Previously only available in UK and Japan
13. Great Spirit (acoustic mix) 3'54
(Robert Plant / Phil Johnstone / Kevin Scott MacMichael)
Es PARANZA [UK] Single FATE 2 (June '93)
14. Rollercoaster 4'02
(Robert Plant / Doug Boyle / Charlie Jones / Chris Blackwell / Phil Johnstone)
Demo from Robert Plant's collection
Previouslt Unissued. 2006 TROLCHARM Ltd.
15. 8:05 1'50
(Jerry Miller / Donald J. Stevenson)
Es PARANZA [UK] Single FATED 3 (August '93)
16. Dark Moon 4'57
(Robert Plant / Rainer Ptacek)
Es PARANZA [UK] Single FATEM 1 (April '93)

Total Time: 78:21

  • Robert Plant - Guitar (8), Lead Vocal (1-16), Background Vocals (10)
  • Kevin Scott MacMichael - Guitar (1-11, 15), Background Vocals (4), Harmony Vocals (15)
  • Doug Boyle - Guitar (5, 11)
  • Oliver J. Woods - Guitar (2)
  • Richard Thompson - Guitar (3)
  • Francis Dunnery - Guitar (3, 8)
  • Rainer Ptacek - Guitar (13), Steel Guitar (16)
  • Phil Johnstone - Piano (4), Electric Piano (9, 10), Organ (8), Harmonium (3), Electric Orchestra (11), Background Vocals (10), String Arrangement (7, 9)
  • Phillip Andrews - Keyboards (6)
  • Charlie Jones - Bass (1-11), Everything else (2)
  • Pete Thompson - Drums (1, 3, 9, 10)
  • Chris Hughes - Drums (2, 4, 5, 7-9, 11), Aeolian (12)
  • Michael Lee - Drums (6, 11)
  • Nigel Kennedy - Violin (1)
  • Navazish Ali Khan - Violin (11)
  • Lynton Naiff - String Arrangement (7, 9)
  • Martin Allcock - Mandolin (7, 12), Guitars (12), Reoleon Pipes (12), Bass (12)
  • Gurdev Singh - Sarod (11), Dilruba (11)
  • Sursie Singh - Sarangi (11)
  • Nigel Eaton - Hurdy Gurdy (3, 4)
  • Maire Brennan - Background Vocals (3)
  • Julian Taylor - Background Vocals (4)
  • Steve French - Background Vocals (4)
  • John Flynn - Background Vocals (9)

    Produced by Chris Hughes and Robert Plant
    Engineered by Michael Gregovich
    All Tracks Mixed by Tim Palmer
    Except     * Mixed by Michael Gregovich
    Assisted by Benji Lefeure & Robbie & Jezz
    2nd Engineers - Henry Binns, Danton Supple, Jacquie Turner, Pete Lewis, John Cornfield, Ross Cullum, Mark O'Donoughe
    A+R: Dave Botes
    Bill Curbishley - Psycho Mentor + Ambassador to Barbados
    Michael Hoppen - Photography, Design
    Remastered by Dan Hersch and Bill Inglot at DIGIPREP
    Bonus Tracks Remastered and Renovated by Raj Das at     RAK RECORDING STUDIOS
    Emotional Porternoe: Martin Hodgson
    Robert Plant Photo: Julian Broad
    Kids Photos: Andy Earl
    Sleeve Design: Cally at     ANTAR
    Patience And Supervisions: Nicola Powell
    Management: Bill Curbishley at Trihifold

    Fate Of Nations (Tracks 1-11) was Originally Released as Es PARANZA 92264 on May '93

    Recorded at RAK STUDIOS
    Additional Recording at     SAWMILLS STUDIOS, Cornwall and MONMOW VALLEY STUDIO, Monmouth
    Mixed at     WESTSIDE STUDIOS

    Enviromental information courtesy of friends of the earth

    Enrole: Friends of the Earth International
    P.O-Box 19199
    1000 Ed Amsterdam
    The Netherlands

    Greenpeace

    Keizersgracht 176
    1016 D.W. Amsterdam
    The Netherlands

    [FATE OF NATlONS]

    The album was a didactic invocation of the folk genesis that had run quietly beneath much of LED ZEPPELIN's music, as well as the more lyrical, mystical roots of other bands from the 1960s: TRAFFIC, FAIRPORT CONVENTION, QUICKSILVER MESSENGER SERVICE — and, overtly, Tim Hardin.
    The cover alone inhabits another planet. The front shows children watching the Earth leaking into space. The inside pages t reveal other children watching and wondering why: pollution in cities, with supporting facts to inform. Then again, the ravages 1 of war: this time, children contemplating the toxic and deadly residue of radioactive and other waste left in the wake of the first Gulf War of 1991, a cry that eerily predicts future, even more calamitous, events. Turn the page, and children again contemplate the destruction of forests and lakes by pollution and acid rain. Opposite: the wreckage of the Amoco Cadiz, and the oceans of the planet suffocated by crude oil. On the last page, Plant holds his own eyes open with his fingers.
    Musically, Plant said, "I wanted to use a mixture of more acoustic and natural sounding instruments." The voice itself is soulful, restless, but rounded, poetic — a voice hinted at many times over the decades, but never heard quite like this.
    Plant teamed up with a crucial addition to the band, Kevin Scott MacMichael, formerly of CUTTING CREW, with whom he spent time playing a pile of '60s music that had inspired him. "I felt like I had found a soul brother", he recalled. Phil Johnstone is "liberated" from the keyboards and plays mostly on guitar and mandolin. Also brought in were Francis Dunnery from IT BITES on guitar, Peter Thomson (and later Michael Lee) on drums, Charlie Jones on bass, and an array of guest appearances.
    Plant has talked a lot down the years about his love for folk music and history, about what he calls "the other Britain", that Romano-British and Celtic times, and here he calls on its voices and sounds like Orpheus summoning his lyre. The result is quite simply the best album Plant had made with any band. An epic, adventurous, and deeply challenging album at once optimistic at source, but forceful and foreboding. Plant, now aged 45, is looking deep into his own musical being — and his own human being — at who he is and where he came from, as though there were depths yet to uncover. "My most passionate collection of songs", he told American weekly The AQUARIAN. And to the BALTIMORE SUIT. "The whole thing is a small Icatalogue of first-time events for me."
    Plant is also looking inside the world, its history, its musical sounds, and at the wreckage wreaked by power that he beholds in the present of 1993. So that on this unique record, as unexpected as it wos unprecedented in Plant's career, there is anger at "flags, princes, kings; patriotic fools" and harsh realism in the aftermath of war. But there is also a prayer for deliverance.
    The record opens with "Calling To You", propelled by Eastern chromatics, a hypnotic guitar line and a wild escapade on violin from Nigel Kennedy, no less. "Down To The Sea" is driven by a percussive tabla and haunted by Uillean pipes invoking the wild Atlantic coasts of the Celtic edge, of Wales, Ireland, and Brittany. "Come Into My Life" is a high point, shot through with eendess achieved by the startling combination of Plant's inimitable vocals, the soulful voice of CLANNAD's Maire Brennan, and the instantly distinctive perfection of guitar playing by the illustrious Richard Thompson — drawing on the giddy folk swirl of "MATTIE GROVES", grounded only by a chunkier, earthier strumming on MacMichael's acoustic guitar. There is also a spectral hurdy-gurdy from Nigel Eaton.
    "29 Palms", named after a dusty town in the California High Desert, celebrates Plant's great love for the vost sky and distances measurable only by telegraph poles, and also calls upon country intonations.
    "If I Were A Carpenter" is both recollection and homage: Plant used to sing Tim Hardin's biblical ballad during almost every set with his pre-Yardbirds Band Of Joy, with John Bonham. "Greot Spirit" is the kernel of, if not the climax to, the album: an anthem, a pleading, a prayer, an invocation to the Great Spirit in whatever sky it is for a healing power to balm and cure the planet described on the cover and in the heart-breaking subsequent track, "Network News," with which the album ends.
    Maybe it is too optimistic or redemptive to treat these two songs in reverse order — after all, Plant concludes the album decisively with the desolate "Network News", which describes: "Guns, death and noise / Sand, oil and blood / Frontiers drawn on paper / No consideration made for / The poor creature who is living / By the grace of God, just living / He's live on network news / Live on network news ..."
    Indian and Arabic sounds laid into the music give it a heart-wrenching topicality, given the subject matter.
    But on the penultimate track that deploys the title line Fate Of Nations, there is a plea from the heart and soul for spiritual healing of the pain of a raped world: "Great Spirit" is an anthem, a hymn, an incantation and a prayer, sung with a voice of greater intensity than we have hitherto heard even from Robert Plant: "Come, Great Spirit ..."
    "Who has chased away the moonbeams ? / Who has pulled a blanket across the sky ? / Who will sing in celebration / Throughout this land that's bound to die ?"
    In the American press, and understandably, the song was taken as referring to the slaughter and subjugation of the Native Americans. But for other publications outside America, it referred to the same country as thot in "Network News"; and given what has happened since, such prescient lyrics are hardly bearable.
    When Fate Of Nations hit the road, it did so as part of a joyous tour, from Britain, across Europe, and then the USA, linking up with Lenny Kravitz, swooping through Glastonbury (where the album belonged, really), and tentatively booking up with Neil Young and Bob Dylan. It never seemed more opposite, somehow, to have Plant taking his music across the planet. After all, some of this album, Plant has said, is a result of his reading Fawn Brodie's The Devil Drives, a biography of the explorer and translator Sir Richard Burton, who, says Plant, "travelled throughout Asia Minor and Africa in the Victorian period. Such people were shunned and called a mad pornographer because, in Burton's case, he translated the wonders of the KAMA SUTRA, The ARABIAN NIGHTS, and ANANGA RANGA: The HINDU ART OF LOVE for us in the West." But there was caution from Sir Richard. "The man wants to wander, and he must do so, or he shall die."

    — Ed Vulliamy



    1. Calling To You

      Beyond the river - over the sea
      Somewhere's last last farewell that ever will be
      It's calling to you, calling to you, calling to you
      It's calling to you, calling to you, calling to you

      Out in the blue now, just waiting to be
      A little breath of selflessness, adrift in all the greed
      It's calling to you, calling to you, calling to you
      It's calling to you, calling to you, calling to you

      Look for the match - cover Adam and Eve
      All the world when new was fire - it still was the scene
      It's calling to you, calling to you, calling to you
      It's calling to you, calling to you, calling to you

      So you're gonna - it's for your honour - it's gonna be done

      Where you gonna go? when you gonna stop?
      Who stole the keys to the gates of the castle of love?
      It's calling to you, calling to you, calling to you
      It's calling to you, calling to you, calling to you

      Who you gonna call? what you gonna say?
      Standin' in the shadows as the world's just fadin' away
      It's calling to you, calling to you, calling to you
      It's calling to you, calling to you, calling to you

      Who you gonna call? when you gonna stop?
      Who stole the keys to the gates of the castle of love?
      It's calling to you, calling to you, calling to you
      It's calling to you, calling to you, calling to you

      Who you gonna call? what you gonna say?
      Standin' in the shadows as the world's just fadin' away
      Just fadin' away, just fadin' away --

    2. Down To The Sea

      Carry me down to the sea
      Carry me down where they're waiting for me
      That's where I want to be - that's where it all comes around
      Watching the ships pass by me
      Friendships and small ships and hardships and dreams
      That's where I want to be - here where it all comes around
      Oh, my head is in the sand
      All my life passin' by

      All of my days I have seen
      All of the tears and the laughter and dreams
      Movin' before me - waves and the ocean and sea
      Life is a big tambourine
      The more that you shake it the better it seems
      This is my wisdom - these are just words from the sea
      Oh my head is in the sand
      All my days passin' by

      When I get older - settling down
      Would you come down to the sea

      Carry me down to the sea again
      Carry me down to the sea again --

    3. Come Into My Life

      Hopes drift in higher places - it's easier above the gloom
      Among the hollow faces, I know you're there - it must be soon
      And I must straighten up - review my disposition
      Pour the hope back in my eyes I thought I'd lost so long ago

      Come into my life - here where nothing matters
      Come into my life and roll away the gloom
      Come into my life - here where nothing matters
      Come into my life and roll away the gloom

      Always a love and beauty - a lover's sighs content too soon
      Somewhere behind her heartbeat a breath of kindness hints of gloom
      So I must straighten up - review my disposition
      Pour the hope back in my eyes I thought I'd lost so long ago

      Come into my life [etc repeated]

      Oh when you get there - you know I wanna be there
      When you get there - well, you know I wanna be there
      I wanna be there - I wanna be there

      Come into my life [etc repeated]

      Hopes drift in higher places - it's easier above the ground you know
      Hopes are drifting - hearts been lifting
      Somebody somewhere no, done you wrong - I don't know
      Come on, come on, come on, baby
      Come on, come on, come on, baby

    4. I Believe

      Tears, tears at the water's edge
      Hey little sister, there is laughter instead
      Tears for the teacher, from the eyes, from the soul
      This restless spirit takes a long way back home
      Like the wind, you are free
      Just a whisper - I hear you, so talk to me

      Oh, I believe, eye to eye
      Say brother, sisters, see your brothers in the sky
      Neighbour, neighbour, don't be so cold
      It's only glory from the story I'm told

      I believe, eye to eye
      Say brothers, sister, see your brothers in the sky
      Neighbour, neighbour, don't be so cold
      It's so much glory from the story untold

      Big fire, on top of the hill
      A hopeless gesture, and last farewell
      Tears from your mother, from the pits of her soul
      Look at your father, see his blood run cold
      Like the wind, you are free
      Just a whisper - I hear you, so talk to me

      I believe, eye to eye
      Say brothers, sister, see your brothers in the sky
      Neighbour, neighbour, don't be so cold
      With so much glory from the story untold

      I believe, eye to eye
      Say brother, sisters, see your brothers in the sky
      Neighbour, neighbour, don't be so cold
      It's so much glory from the story untold

    5. 29 Palms

      A fool in love - a crazy situation
      Her velvet glove knocks me down and down and down
      Her kiss of fire - a loaded invitation
      Inside her smile she takes me down and down and down

      Her moves look good - a touch of desparation
      From where I stood she turned my head around, round and round

      It comes kinda hard when I hear your voice on the radio
      Taking me back down the road that leads back to you
      29 Palms - I feel the heat of your desert heart
      Taking me back down the road that leads back to you

      Oh, I'm burning in love - a strange infatuation
      White cold cold touch - what must I do, do, do
      The heat and the dust increase my desolation
      In God we trust - always for you, and you and you

      It comes kinda hard
    [ etc repeated ]

    6. Memory Song (Hello, Hello)

      On my mind - all my talk
      From the lips of so many memory songs
      Prince of cool - are you lost without a crew?
      Stars still shine - winds will howl
      All my friends sense you now

      On my mind - all my talk
      From the lips of so many memory songs
      Prince of cool - are you lost without the crew?
      Beneath divided, we had our day
      But hell provideth, I'm sad to say

      Hello, hello, hello
      I saw you once before
      In my dreams you've come to call
      You are my friend, you are my friend
      You touch my soul

      You touch my soul
      Hello, hello, hello
      Hello, hello, hello

    7. If I Were A Carpenter

      If I were a carpenter, and you were a lady
      Would you marry me anyway? would you have my baby?
      If a tinker were my trade, would you still find me
      Carrying the pots I made - following behind me?
      Save my love through loneliness - save my love through sorrow
      I give you my only-ness - give me your tomorrow

      If I worked my hands in wood, would you still love me?
      Answer me, babe: "yes I would - I'd put you above me"
      If a miller were my trade, at a mill wheel grinding
      Would you miss your colour box - your soft shoes shining
      Save my love through loneliness - save my love through sorrow
      I give you my only-ness - come give me your tomorrow

      If I were a carpenter, and you were a lady
      Would you marry me anyway? would you have my baby ?
      Would you marry me anyway? would you have my baby ?

    8. Promised Land

      Oh baby - can't eat, can't sleep, can't understand a love song
      Drive me crazy 'cause my feet won't quit as I go slidin' in the sweet zone
      Round round like you want me to do
      Down down like you're beggin' me to
      The floor's small and the wall's too steep
      I can kiss your mouth when I go to sleep

      Oh, baby, got those personal moves so deep inside my move groove
      I go crazy - my head won't quit as I crawl inside your love groove
      Down down like you want me to do
      Round round like you're beggin' me to
      The floor's small and it's much too steep
      I can kiss your mouth when I go to sleep

      I feel alright, 'cause my little girl wants to dance all night
      What can I do - I know my little girl wants to dance with you

      Oh darling, come on baby, come on and mess with me
      Oh woman, I'll make it up to you, if you just drive me wild, child
      Down down like you want me to do
      Round round like you're daring me to
      The floor's small and the wall's too steep
      I can kiss your mouth when I go to sleep

      I feel alright, 'cause my little girl wants to dance all night
      What can I do - I know my little girl wants to dance with you
      I feel alright - my little girl wants to dance all night
      What can I do - I know that girl wants to dance, dance, dance

      Round round like you want me to do
      Down down you're beggin' me to
      The floor's small and much too steep
      I can kiss your mouth as I go to sleep

      I feel alright, 'cause my little girl wants to dance all night
      All my life - you know my little girl she wants to dance, dance, dance
      I feel alright - my little girl she wants to dance all night
      What can I do - my little girl wants to dance

    9. The Greatest Gift

      Everything I do, yes I do for my love
      Every place I go, she is on my mind
      I would give the world, my soul, to discover
      Send me just a sign, angel on my mind

      And if I should dream, I could dream of no other
      Out here in the deep, hear my body crying
      Heaven knows the fire that I hide under cover
      Glorify this fool, angel on my mind, on my mind

      This is the greatest gift that I can bring to you
      I feel the world that moves inside
      This is the moment I have dreamt of all my life
      Reach out and touch, and you will find

      Why am I crazy, who is fooling with the order
      I am strong - I will not fade - I will survive
      Look in my eyes, you'll see my heart - I will recover
      Send me just a sign, angel on my mind, on my mind

      This is the greatest gift
    [ etc repeated ]

    10. Great Spirit

      ( Great Spirit come - Great Spirit come )
      Who has chased away the moonbeams?
      Who has pulled a blanket across the sky?
      Who will sing in celebration
      Throughout this land that's bound to die?
      Oh - that's bound to die

      ( Great Spirit come - Great Spirit come )
      Who will put an end to all this sadness?
      Who hears the Earth that cries beneath the burning rain?
      All truth reduced to piles of greed and madness
      The accident remains the same
      It remains the same

      ( Great Spirit come - Great Spirit come )
      Robbery and evil and the stealing
      From the body and the mind for the healing
      Of the spirit and the pride and the will of the land
      ( Grace and courage, honesty and love )
      There's evil, there's evil, there's evil going on

      ( Great Spirit come - Great Spirit come )
      I love my brother - I must share the seed
      That falls through fortune at my feet
      The fate of nations and of all their needs
      Lies trapped inside these hearts of greed

      ( Great Spirit come - Great Spirit come )
      Great Spirit come - come on, come on
      ( Great Spirit come - Great Spirit come )
      ( Grace and courage, honesty and love )
      Great Spirit come - come on, come on
      It's the will of the land
      ( Great Spirit - Great Spirit )
      The will of the land
      We'll sing in celebration --

    11. Network News

      Guns, death and noise
      Sand, oil and blood
      Frontiers drawn on paper
      No consideration made for
      The poor creature who is living
      By the grace of God just giving
      He's live on network news
      Live on network news

      Flags, princes, kings
      Patriotic tools
      As freedom lies in twisted heaps
      Whose final breath his soul to keep
      Whose greatest foe, the endless sleep
      Whose dying wish to reach next week
      A bloody star on the network news
      A bloody star on the network news

      Tanks, boats and planes
      Fire, pain and lies
      Environmental terrorists
      Tease propaganda's paper fist
      Whose trade is all the truth that fits
      Who often lies but never sits
      But on the fence it's the network news
      Yes, on the fence it's network news

      The lion and the serpent parade out in the sun
      All order, flex and gesture
      All hail - the techno infidel has come
      With satellite bravado and infra-red texture

      Beyond these days in time to come
      Whose fate is it to measure
      Upon these sands such damage done
      To spoil God's finest treasure

      Beyond these days [etc repeated]

      Guns, death and noise
      Sand, oil and blood
      Guns, death and noise
      Sand, oil and blood

    12. Colors Of A Shade

      The day was old - the light was dim, as I stepped through the door
      And all my friends were gathering that day that I recall
      I shivered and shook, Lord I stood just waiting to chase the fall
      I wondered how my time would be when spring comes round once more

      I face the wind - I have no choice, but you must guard the heart
      And cast adrift from those I love, alone I drag my heart
      Against the cry of "why?" I turn my back to go
      But out beyond the tears somewhere, someone I need to know

      It's only love, in the colours of the shade
      It's only love, in the colours of the shade

      Old photographs were fading dim - my seed will tell it all
      And by the fathers' fathers' hands such pain on all was raw
      They read the signs without surprise of how they knew it well
      And in the mirror still I see the man, who came from hell

      It's only love and the colours of the shade
      It's only love, in the colours of the shade
      It's only love, in the colours of the shade

    14. Rollercoaster

      Not Available Yet

    15. 8:05

      Eight oh five, I guess you're leaving soon
      I can't go on, without you it's useless to try
      Oh to love you, was so good
      To keep you would be so wonderful
      Here is my heart That I give, it's all that I have
      Please change your mind Before my sunshine is gone
      Do you think you could try
      Do you think you could try Do you think you could try
      Oh, understand how I feel Until I can prove that it's real
      Fill my world with rain
      You know your tears, would only bring rain
      My heart, oh, eight-oh-five
      I guess your leaving, good-bye.

    15. Dark Moon

      I love the feel of his money
      One time I loved the feel of him, she yawned
      It was not until he was crucified
      That the benefits began

      Oh, it's a Dark Moon
      Oh, it's a Dark Moon

      For restoration I may baulk and churl
      I have my standards to maintain
      The angle I come from is quite absurd
      The aggravation leaves a stain
      In this Dark Moon
      In this Dark Moon Ooh

      If I had the possession that I thought that I should
      I never cease to amaze
      From the angle that she stands, so absurd so afraid
      In this Dark Moon Oh this Dark Moon
      In this Dark Moon Under this Dark Moon
      Oh this Dark Moon, ooh

      Wait a minute, wait a minute
      Woo! Oh well, oh well
      Oh oh oh oh
      'Cos Watch your soul, watch your soul, watch your soul
      Watch your soul, watch your soul, watch your soul
      Watch your soul, for my self