1001 Songs Challenge #963: Please Read the Letter (2007)

On 11 February 2019 I set myself the challenge of reading 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die by Robert Dimery (ed.) and following the book’s advice to the letter. I’ve previously read 1001 Films… and started 1001 Albums… but felt 1001 Songs… would be a sensible place to start for what I have in mind here.

My challenge is to read about one song per day and listen to it (YouTube and Spotify, I need you tonight!) before sharing my own thoughts. Some songs I will love, others I’ll hate, and I’m sure there will be those that leave me perplexed but listen to them I shall.

I’ll also try, and most likely fail, to pinpoint the best song from the 1001 on offer but I’m nothing if not foolhardy. Instead of one song, I’m predicting I’ll have about 100 favourites by the end and may have to resort to a Top 10 so far to maintain any semblance of sanity.

So long as I post every day (including Christmas) then this challenge should come to an end on Wednesday 8 November 2021. Staying with the Barney Stinson theme I am hoping that the whole experience will prove to be… legendary!

 

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – Please Read the Letter (2007)

 

 

Welcome to 2007, dear reader. We ended 2006 in the UK and today we are combining the UK and the US in the form of Robert Plant, once frontman of Led Zeppelin, and Alison Krauss, from Illinois and well versed in country, pop and bluegrass music. We join Plant and Krauss in 2007 with the release of Raising Sand, a collaboration between the two singers of folk, country and rock music. From there, 1001 Songs have gone with the track – Please Read the Letter.

Please Read the Letter dates back to 1998 and featured on the album – Walking into Clarksdale – a collaboration between Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, former lead guitarist of Led Zeppelin. The song itself sounds as if it is about unrequited love. The narrator is yearning for someone seemingly beyond their reach, not just physically but emotionally as well. The narrator has written a letter and beseeches this other person to read it. The contents are unclear but you can sense it is an outpouring of love and desire. The outcome of this tale is not confirmed but you get the feeling it is not a positive one.

This collaboration between Robert Plant and Alison Krauss was an award winning and critically acclaimed one. Please Read the Letter was just one example of this winning combination. Two years later Plant and Krauss are said to have reunited to try and work on a second album but the sessions did not work out. This year a further collaboration proved successful and a new album is due to be released.

 

Favourite songs so far:

The Animals – House of the Rising Sun (1964)

Simon & Garfunkel – The Sounds of Silence (1965)

The Beatles – A Day in the Life (1967)

The Doors – The End (1967)

Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here (1975)

Meat Loaf – Bat Out of Hell (1977)

Tracy Chapman – Fast Car (1988)

U2 – One (1991)

Radiohead – Paranoid Android (1997)

Snow Patrol – Run