"robert Plant" Now Then

Sublime musical expression does not necessarily proceed from serene spirits whose philosophical loftiness leaves them unmoved by the push and shove of the marketplace. Prefaces to printed editions of music in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries seldom reveal much of the personality behind the writer's effusive urge to prostrate himself before the dedicatee and his invocations to the muses to make worthy his humble efforts. Robert Jones, Tobias Hume and John Dowland were exceptions in this regard and often used their printed prefaces as a platform for polemics, self-defence and bile. In so doing they illumine the contemporary pressures of public opinion and changing fashions, as well as highly individual — not to say curmudgeonly — natures.

The Top 100 '80s Rock Albums span a series of genres as startling and varied as the era's neon-flecked fashions.No one was immune to the early-decade emergence of new wave, from up-and-coming acts to legacy groups – many of whom began incorporating the then-new sound into their bedrock approach.Meanwhile, classic rock and subsequently metal began a transformation into mass acceptance when the edges were smoothed out to form arena rock and hair metal, respectively. The arrival of roots, thrash, and world music influences kept things interesting, along the way. All of it made selecting the period's best releases both intriguing and deeply challenging.Check out the list below, as Ultimate Classic Rock takes a chronological look at the Top 100 '80s Rock Albums.

EMERSON LAKE & PALMER (ELP) reformed for the first time since 1998 to headline the High Voltage Festival on Sunday July 25th 2010. 2010 marked the 40th anniversary of the creation of Emerson Lake and Palmer, the band that was formed from King Crimson, The Nice and Atomic Rooster. They became the first true prog-rock Super Group and defined an era…

British rock singer Terry Reid could have been a lot more famous if he had been able to accept the slot of lead singer for the New Yardbirds in 1968. That slot, of course, went to Robert Plant, and the New Yardbirds became Led Zeppelin. Unlike Plant, Reid was also a guitarist, and the opportunity to head his own group no doubt played a part in his decision to gun for a solo career. Leading a guitar-organ-drums power trio, he recorded a couple of respectable, though erratic, hard rock albums while still a teenager in the late '60s. Some bad breaks and creative stagnation combined to virtually bring his career to a halt, and he never cashed in on the momentum of his promising start.

Any discussion of the Top 100 '90s Rock Albums will have to include some grunge, and this one is no different. A defining element of that decade, the genre (and the bands that rose to fame playing it) was given credit for revitalizing rock at a badly needed moment. That said, there's far more to the story. Our list of the Top 100 '90s Rock Albums, presented in chronological order, takes in the rich diversity of the period.

Digitally remastered and expanded edition of this 1985 release including bonus tracks. Dangerous Music was starting to generate good sales figures when his record company (Bronze Records) went bust and the record vanished from the shops. Now it's back 25 years later, with bonus tracks and eagerly awaited by fans all over the world. Robin George enjoyed a worldwide hit single in 1985 with Heartline and his stock was high as he entered the studio to record a follow up to his critically acclaimed album Dangerous Music. The album had the working title Dangerous Music II and was produced by acclaimed producer Gus Dudgeon. By the end of 1986 the album was completed and ready to go but his then management company went to market and because of the success of Heartline sought ridiculous advances and as such the album was never released-until now.

The AIDS charity concert staged by the surviving members of Queen on April 20, 1992, at Wembley Stadium was an appropriate send-off for the band's late lead singer, Freddie Mercury, who had succumbed to the disease five months earlier. The flamboyant Mercury was always in his element before gigantic crowds like the one that filled Wembley one last time, and his stand-ins for the occasion – Gary Cherone (then of Extreme), Roger Daltrey, Joe Elliott (Def Leppard), James Hetfield (Metallica), Elton John, Annie Lennox, George Michael, Liza Minnelli, Robert Plant, Axl Rose (Guns N' Roses), Seal, Lisa Stansfield, Paul Young, and Zucchero…