THE HONEYDRIPPERS Volume One (Es Peranza)

Anyone who savored Robert Plant’s great performance of Elvis Presley’s “Little Sister" on Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea will be delighted to know he’s released an EP of roots rock. Now for the bad news: most of it’s junk. Joined by Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Nile Rodgers, and other uncredited helpers, Plant spoils the occasion because he treats most of the songs like throwaways. “Sea Of Love,” for example, drowns in its own preciousness, undertowed by dopey strings. And does anybody need yet another bland rerun of Ray Charles’s “I Got A Woman?” Is Plant incompetent? Far from it, as the inspired “Rockin’ At Midnight” shows. With pumping piano and honking horns nipping at his heels, Plant gives Roy Brown’s jump-blues classic the sexy, wildeyed reading it deserves—you can practically hear the cops threatening to break down the door and stop the party. Hope Volume Two can pick up where “Rockin’ At Midnight” leaves off. J.Y.