Paris
	Produced by Jimmy Robinson
	Released on 1976
	US CHART POSITION #103
	Find it at GEMM
ST-11464 cover [high resolution photo]

W ell, we’ll always have Physical Graffiti. As for Paris, they’re just a cheap Led Zeppelin knockoff. Interesting in a vicarious sort of way, but why in Heaven’s name would you copy Led Zeppelin almost note for note, song for song? Of course, I said the same thing about Utopia’s Deface The Music, and I’m sure there are a few Zebra fans out there who are wondering what point I’m trying to make. So I’m left to assume that Paris either left their respective bands (Fleetwood Mac, Jethro Tull, The Nazz) to throw themselves prostrate at the altar of Zeppelin, or maybe they thought no one would notice. It’s hard not to notice; Robert Welch sounds like Robert Plant, and the riffs are all but lifted from Led. Sometimes they escape the heavy shadow, as on the slinky “Beautiful Youth,” only to plunge back into darkness. Visually, Welch looks uncannily like Elton John, which when I think about him channeling Page and Plant reminds me of the Wilt Ghandi character from Dilbert. That said, Zeppelin fans who thought Coda was pure sugar-coated pleasure might grow sweet on Paris too. Certainly there are worse bands to mimic, and if you don’t care from whence it comes these songs might slip under your skin like “Darlene” or “Ozone Baby.” From the opening “Black Book” to “Nazarene” to “Red Rain,” the band plays it remarkably straight (so did Flash, and the two have more than a label in common). Paris (the album) is more interesting than their pedestrian followup, Big Towne 2061, which watered down the formula. Here it’s an undiluted homage to one of the greatest rock & roll bands of all time, which isn’t an awful way to spend forty minutes. Had they developed more of an identity, Paris might have succeeded at becoming a rock destination unto themselves and not a waystation between Led Zeppelin records.

ST-11464 back cover	ST-11464 lyric sleeve

TRACK LISTING

1. BLACK BOOK    3:10
2. RELIGION    5:18
3. STARCAGE    3:55
4. BEAUTIFUL YOUTH    3:35
5. NAZARENE    3:56
6. NARROW GATE (LA PORTE ETROITE)    6:42
7. SOLITAIRE    4:04
8. BREATHLESS    3:20
9. ROCK OF AGES    3:11
10. RED RAIN    3:21
    
    All selections composed by Robert Welch

CREDITS

GLENN CORNICK -- bass, keyboard, logo design
THOM MOONEY -- drums
ROBERT WELCH -- guitar, vocals
Jimmy Robinson -- engineer
Roy Kohara -- art direction
Herbert Worthington -- photography/design

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