Robert Plant Fate of Nations released

Fate of Nations Robert Plant

Released: May 25, 1993 Peak: 34 US, 6 UK, 12 CN, 37 AU Sales (in millions): 0.5 US, 0.06 UK Genre: rock

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Calling to You [5:48] (5/15/93, 3 AR, 47 CN) Down to the Sea [4:00] Come into My Life [6:32] I Believe [4:32] (10/9/93, 9 AR, 64 UK, 37 CN) 29 Palms [4:51] (5/93, 4 AR, 21 UK, 11 CN, 79 AU) Memory Song (Hello Hello) [5:22] If I Were a Carpenter [3:45] (12/25/93, 63 UK, 50 CN) Colours of a Shade * [4:43] Promised Land [4:59] The Greatest Gift [6:51] Great Spirit [5:27] Network News [6:40] * On UK edition. Total Running Time: 58:53

Rating: 3.399 out of 5.00 (average of 16 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Robert Plant’s sixth album“was a more sophisticated affair than its front cover image – children watching a melting Planet Earth – might suggest.” Q On the “eco-conscious Fate of Nations” Q “Plant sounded at peace with himself.” Q Plant said he knew in 1991 that he wanted to reach into his past. He was inspired by listening to some of his favorites such as Moby Grape, Jefferson Airplane, Tim Hardin (Plant covers Hardin’s If I Were a Carpenter on the album), Quicksilver, Traffic, and other “turning-point artists in rock,” WK as he called them. He said, “These people were trying to tell the listener something, joining various traditions, with the sense of a quest being insinuated and bandied in their acoustic and electronic themes. I’m also proud of what I’ve attempted to do lyrically trying to tell vivid tales that come from a hearty tradition of prose.” Examples of Plant dipping into his past including Calling to You, where he is “reprising Led Zeppelin’s old bluster” Q and “the plaintive I Believe,” Q a song about about the death of his five-year-old son Karac in 1977. Those songs were album rock hits, as was 29 Palms. That song grew out of the previous tour and his time in a small California town in the Mojave Desert called Twentynine Palms. The town is one of the main entrance points to the Joshua Tree National Park. The album was Plant’s highest charting in the UK since his debut, 1982’s Pictures at Eleven. However, in the United States the album’s #34 peak was his lowest yet. The album did still reach gold status, maintaining his streak for every one of his studio releases with Led Zeppelin and as a solo act. This was Plant’s last solo album in nearly a decade. He reunited with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page for a live album (No Quarter, 1994) and a studio project (Walking into Clarksdale, 1998) before releasing his seventh solo album, Dreamland, in 20002.

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Robert Plant Q Mark Blake, Q magazine, Sept. 2010, p. 133. WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 2/9/2009; last updated 8/28/2021.

Tears for Fears “Break It Down Again” released

Break It Down Again Tears for Fears

Writer(s): Roland Orzabal, Alan Griffiths (see lyrics here) Released: May 17, 1993 First Charted: May 29, 1993 Peak: 25 US, 26 CB, 9 RR, 25 AC, 13 MR, 20 UK, 4 CN, 82 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to singles charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 23.68 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: Tears for Fears formed as a group in 1981 with members Roland Orzabal (vocals, guitars, keyboards), Curt Smith (vocals, bass, keyboards), Ian Stanley (keyboards, backing vocals), and Manny Elias (drums, percussion). That lineup lasted through the group’s first two albums, 1983’s The Hurting and 1985’s Songs from the Big Chair. However, Stanley and Elias were gone by 1989’s The Seeds of Love, leaving the group as a duo. Even then, Roland Orzabal had largely taken the reins, which contributed to the duo splitting. Four years later, Curt Smith released his first solo album. Orzbal released Elemental under the Tears for Fears banner, despite it effectively being a solo project at this point. However, one listen to the lead single, “Break It Down Again,” made it clear that he had retained the Tears for Fears sound. The song proved to be the last chart entry for Tears for Fears on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching #25. In the UK, two more songs would reach the top 40 (1995’s “Raoul and the Kings of Spain” and 2005’s “Closest Thing to Heaven”). The song was a top-10 hit in Canada, Iceland, and Italy. Talking about the songs on Elemental, Orzabal said, “A lot of the songs were written while I was in a sense going through the ‘divorce.’ Things like ‘Break It Down Again’ refer to that to some degree…I did psychotherarpy for about six years. I stopped going regularly when I’d finished Elemental, which I think probably says something. I think I’m moving on.” SF Resources: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Tears for Fears SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 8/6/2022.