Led Zeppelin [Deluxe Edition]

This is a review of all three of the 2014 album reissues. How many of us had a similar introduction to Led Zeppelin? In the second year of comprehensive school, somebody brought in a tape with 4 live songs – Black Dog, Whole Lotta Love, Rock n Roll and Stairway to Heaven. Looking back, I think the songs must have been taped using a ghetto blaster from a VHS copy of the Song Remains the Same movie. I had never seen a picture of the band, never seen an album cover (not that those gnomic objects gave much away in any case), and certainly had never heard any of them speak. They were a transfixing riddle for those about to outgrow jigsaws and board games. There were rumours that the guitarist was in league with the devil. Somebody much braver than me brought in a copy of Alistair Crowley’s Magick that he’d acquired on special offer from a book club advertised on the back of the Mail on Sunday, and he tried to evoke a spell to resurrect John Bonham in an RE lesson. Bonham had died choking on his own vomit after consuming 40 vodka shots, which seemed quite an exotic way to go for boys who had only just found the pleasures of secret home brew. Another boy had a necklace with the Zoso symbol that he wore surreptitiously as a bracelet under his school jumper, after the Science teacher saw it dangling in front of a Bunsen Burner. And those songs – which could be simultaneously, horny and wistful, suggested to 13 year old boys that they had found the meaning of life. For the first 10 or so listens we never got to the second minute of Whole Lotta Love, that primeval riff making us involuntarily reach for the pause button to hear it again and again. And those opening bars of Stairway to Heaven, which is difficult to listen to now without evoking the ‘No Stairway’ guitar shop scenario in Wayne’s World, was actually the soundtrack to many a little boy lost’s staring into space on drizzly evenings. We understood Zeppelin more than any contemporary band – they were our secret that we just happened to share with millions of others. Returning to these re-issues of the first three records has therefore been an opportunity for gleeful wallowing in nostalgia, but the recordings are also a reminder of how magnificent the band really was. Jimmy Page’s re-mastering has accentuated the secret weapons that they had at their disposal. In all three collections, John Paul Jones bass is a revelation –have a listen again to his work on How Many More Times and Dazed and Confused from the first LP. When you have Page, Plant and Bonham in the band – all lead players in the true sense of the term, it perhaps would be easy to neglect Jones’ contribution, but he plays with melody and swing, keeping control often when it looks like the songs are just about to kick off into a bar brawl. This is often due to Page’s electric guitar. His playing is exhilarating, like a go-cart rider who has lost a wheel and is careering down to a deep gorge, Bonham a hefty co-pilot egging him on to go faster and faster. On Heartbreaker it sounds as if any moment now his fingers are going to get caught up in the strings he is moving so fast, and somebody will have to call the fire brigade to extract him, like might have happened in a Bash Street Kids’ story. But Zeppelin were much more than cartoon, unlike many of the hard rock and metal bands that came in their wake. Regarded contemporaneously as a disappointment by people such as Lester Bangs at Rolling Stone, Led Zeppelin III is actually the best of the first three records. Here, the band magpies liberally, and wittily from rock and roll, blues, folk and late 60s psychedelia (interestingly, unreleased extra track La La on the first record, sounds like a Small Faces out-take) . Influence wise, Zeppelin proudly wore their hearts on their blouson sleeves. That’s the Way and Gallows Pole especially, are testament to the subtlety in Robert Plant’s voice that perhaps his Golden God persona prevented people recognizing at the time (he hasn’t always been the ‘Raising Sand’ national treasure he then became). Even the club-thump of Immigrant Song has its hippy nuances lyrically, Plant promising that ‘peace and trust’ can win the day, although the song does end with that low, ominous, banshee moan. The packaging of these re-releases faithfully reproduces the original 60s artefacts. The vinyl is pleasingly heavy in weight as well as in bass notes. Led Zeppelin III even comes with the original Zacron ‘volvelle’. Perhaps for Zep agnostics, the extra discs are interesting curios rather than essential for the most part, although at times they brilliantly accentuate the band’s strengths. Page’s acoustic, rather than electric guitar steals the show in rough mixes of Ramble On and That’s the Way with their dynamic Bert Jansch styled arrangements. The bluesy vocals on the early versions of Whole Lotta Love and Since I’ve Been Loving You are both fantastic, and the brilliantly loud live versions that make up all but one of the extras on the first LP, well, just make you jealous you weren’t there to see the magick as it happened.

OK, so all of the previous owners are familiar with the material here, best described by someone elsewhere in the reviews here as a collection of thinly disguised blues covers, to pad things out, along with a couple of new songs that Jimmy had been working on with the Yardbirds. I can't argue with that, but what I can say is that Zep took that stuff and made it their own. They completely adrenalised it and took the material places that it had never been before. It was a stunning debut album by any standards. Jeff Beck had his version of similar material, which is great in it's own way, but not the aural trouncing that Zep gave it. This new remastering really lets the whole thing breath a bit more openly, Pages acoustic guitar work and JPJ's pipe organ work being the main benefactors. There does appear to have been some sort of dynamic noise filtering used, perhaps even certain tracks have had noise limiting whereas others have not. Something strange is definitely afoot in the mix. The top end that gets pulled out with the usual noise reduction appears to have been sorted out by re-equing what was left.......or something along those lines. Everything still ends up as clear as the proverbial. Having said this, it works for me. It certainly has not sucked the life out of it the way Cedar noise reduction did when it came out. Crank up the amp and it is all there, ready to work your ears. The bonus cd has a gig from Paris on it and this appears to be a source of some distress to some listeners. I am not one of those listeners. Sure I have heard better sound quality recordings, but rarely have I felt that the atmosphere of the gig was floating right out of the speakers. This gig is wild!! It is like the rock and roll equivalent of lighting a stick of dynamite and dancing through pools of petrol outside a nitro glycerine factory. I have heard dozens of Led Zep bootlegs and would have to say that this one is as good as any I have heard for getting close to what the gig must have been like. Yes, there are sound balancing issues, yes, levels get shifted, but the adrenaline flow is constant. Six minutes into the last track, How Many More TImes, Page cranks out "that riff" during an improv section. He then plays "that riff" a couple more times......... Is this the birth of Whole Lotta Love? Worth hearing just for this alone. Horses for courses...you might love or loath the sound quality(which was significantly better than I had expected going by some of the existing reviews) this gig has atmosphere and a quality that make it worth hearing at least once, if not a dozen times.

Why do you need another remastered version of this album? I've owned this album several times over the years and it's always punched the ear drums. One of the best debut albums ever released, possibily only rivaled with Appitite for Destruction. When this album was released back in 69, the media shockingly slated the record and in hindsight can kind of understand why. At the time there was nothing like this anywhere. Since then, this is rightly regarded as a classic. So many brilliant songs on here including Dazed and confused, babe im gonna leave you and communication breakdown. The remastered sounds more beefed up, really adds to the power of this beautiful music. The remastered vinyl alone is worth the purchase however as a bonus also Includes a very gritty early live performance of the band. Really interesting to hear where they were musically live as their career was taking off, especially now since we also have access to BBC sessions, how the West was won and of course The Song remains the Same. If you are a Led Zep fan or a music fan in general, i honestly don't understand how you cannot own this record. I find it Incredible that this isnt even their best record. That shows the power of Led Zep.

このアルバムは全曲知ってます。アルバムで通して聞いたことがないので購入しました。最初から確立した腕前と調和能力のあるバンドがZEPですね。やはり素晴らしいですね。CD2のライブも良いので是非聴いて下さい

Great vinyl. Had the original which eventually wore down after extensive over spinning !!! So this triple LP is a welcome replacement for all die hard Led Zep fans. Enjoy the 180g pressing.

Excellent produit

Ótimo produto e entrega no prazo

A pesar de que han casi 55 años desde su publicación, este disxo se sigue escuchando muy bien, el paso del tiempo no le ha afectado nada , la calidad es insuperable, esta rendición es muy buena, todo es cartón, nada de plástico, viene con un librito con muchas fotos del grupo, además en el segundo disco viene el mismo repertorio del disco pero en un concierto inédito que es la primera vez que se publica, realizado por el grupo en París en 1969.