No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded


No Quarter is a live album by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, both formerly of English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was released by Atlantic Records on 7 November 1994. The long-awaited reunion between Jimmy Page and Robert Plant occurred on a 90-minute "UnLedded" MTV project, recorded in Morocco, Wales and London.
The reunion event notably lacked the presence of bassist and keyboardist, John Paul Jones, thus deviating from a comprehensive band reunion.
Jones remained uninformed of this reunion by his former bandmates. Subsequently, Jones conveyed his discontent regarding the decision of Plant and Page to christen the album after "No Quarter", a track predominantly attributed to him.
In addition to acoustic renditions, the album features a reworking of Led Zeppelin songs featuring a Moroccan string band and Egyptian orchestra supplementing a core group of rock and roll musicians, along with four Middle-Eastern and Moroccan-influenced songs: "City Don't Cry", "Yallah", "Wonderful One", and "Wah Wah".
Several years later, Plant reflected on the collaboration very positively:

Legacy

In July 2014, Guitar World placed No Quarter on their "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994" list.

Track listing

For the tenth anniversary, the album was re-released with a different cover and altered track listing. "Thank You" was cut, "City Don't Cry" and "Wonderful One" appeared in substantially edited versions, and "The Rain Song" and "Wah Wah" were added. In addition, "Yallah" was retitled, and several other tracks had minor alterations to their running times. The new running order was as follows:
"Gallows Pole" and "Wonderful One" were released as singles.
All songs recorded in London except "City Don't Cry", "Wah Wah" and "Yallah" recorded in Morocco; "No Quarter", "It's Nobody's Fault but Mine" and "When the Levee Breaks" recorded in Wales.

DVD release

The tenth anniversary of the recording of the Unledded concerts was commemorated by a DVD release of additional songs, a bonus interview, a montage of images from Morocco, the band's performance of "Black Dog" for Dick Clark's American Music Awards and the music video for "Most High" from the Walking into Clarksdale album. The songs included on the DVD release not included on either CD release were "What Is and What Should Never Be" and "When the Levee Breaks". To compensate for their absence from the Live Aid DVD release, Plant and Page donated a portion of their proceeds to the Band Aid Trust.

DVD track listing

  1. "No Quarter"
  2. "Thank You"
  3. "What Is And What Should Never Be"
  4. "The Battle of Evermore"
  5. "Gallows Pole"
  6. "Nobody's Fault but Mine"
  7. "City Don't Cry"
  8. "The Truth Explodes"
  9. "Wah Wah"
  10. "When the Levee Breaks"
  11. "Wonderful One"
  12. "Since I've Been Loving You"
  13. "The Rain Song"
  14. "That's the Way"
  15. "Four Sticks"
  16. "Friends"
  17. "Kashmir"
Bonus material

Personnel

The songs were recorded in Marrakech, Morocco, on top of a waste tip at Aberllefenni quarries, in a forest in Wales and in front of an invited audience at London Weekend Television studios over two nights in August, 1994.
Musicians in Marrakech
  • Brahim El Balkani
  • Hassan El Arfaoui
  • El Mahjoub El Mathoun
  • Abdelkah Eddahmane
London and Wales band
Egyptian Ensemble
Percussion
Strings
  • Waeil Abu Bakr – soloist
  • Bahig Mikhaeel
  • Hanafi Soliman
  • Amin Abdel Azim
Also
London Metropolitan Orchestra
Violins
  • Rosemary Furniss
  • David Juritz
  • Rita Manning
  • Elizabeth Layton
  • Ian Humphries
  • Perry Montague-Mason
  • Mark Berrow
  • Pauline Lowbury
  • Clare Thompson
  • Jessica O'Leary
  • David Ogden
  • Peter Hanson
  • Jeremy Williams
  • Cathy Thompson
  • Ed Coxon
  • Anne Morlee
  • Harriet Davies
Violas
  • Andrew Brown
  • Rusen Gunes
  • Andrew Parker
  • Bill Hawkes
  • Nicholas Pendlebery
  • John Jezard
  • Janet Atkins
Celli
  • Caroline Dale
  • Cathy Giles
  • Stephen Milne
  • Ben Chappell
  • Jonathan Tunnel
Also

Production