Posted on 05/28/2003 1:00:57 PM PDT by Drew68
By Dean Goodman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In the words of one of their songs, Dancing Days are here again for fans of Led Zeppelin.
Defunct for almost 23 years, the pioneering English band behind such hard rock classics as "Stairway to Heaven" and "Kashmir (news - web sites)" has cleaned out its vaults to issue eight hours of previously unreleased live material on DVD and CD.
The "Led Zeppelin DVD" contains footage from four tours spanning 1970 to 1979; the CD "How The West Was Won" combines two Los Angeles shows from 1972 to replicate a single concert.
Remarkably, the band's leader and guitarist, Jimmy Page (news), who compiled the releases, says he remembers all the concerts as if they were yesterday.
"To actually go through it bit by bit and hear sections of it, you go, 'Yeah, yeah, that's really good' or 'I played really well there' or 'My God, that's embarrassing, that bit I played then,"' Page, 58, said in an interview.
Both the DVD and CD were released this week with Page, singer Robert Plant (news), 53, and keyboardist/bassist John Paul Jones (news), 56, embarking on a publicity blitz. Ironically, Led Zeppelin shunned such chores during its 12-year reign, preferring to let the music speak for itself.
But rumors that the trio would play together came to naught. The band has reunited only twice since breaking up after the 1980 alcohol-related death of drummer John Bonham (news). Page and Plant toured and recorded together in the 1990s, to Jones' initial chagrin. These days, the threesome's relationship is more business than social, Page says.
"MAGICAL ELEMENT"
"There were four very different personalities anyway in Led Zeppelin, very different personalities," Page said. "But when they bonded musically, the four elements joined together, took on a fifth element -- a thing which is totally intangible and it can't be charted, which was that magical element."
Led Zeppelin's members fused folk and blues influences to create a genre known as heavy metal. The group's catalog, highlighted by their untitled 1971 album and 1975's "Physical Graffiti" has sold about 200 million copies worldwide.
But their strength was arguably live performances. They toured incessantly, setting new standards for ticket sales. Songs from the albums were radically reworked on stage.
The new CD boasts a 25-minute version of "Dazed and Confused," while Bonham drums relentlessly during the 19-minute "Moby Dick." Spontaneity was the key, which is why the band decided to call it a day rather than try to feign improvisation with a new drummer.
"You had to be totally, totally involved. It's like a sacrifice you were there for," Page said.
The DVD features songs from London's Royal Albert Hall (1970) and Earl's Court (1975), New York's Madison Square Garden (1973) and England's Knebworth Festival (1979). And that's it as far as live footage is concerned, Page says.
"We didn't have a documentary crew going round with us all the time. What would we do it for? We weren't a television band," Page said.
"A BIT OF A LAUGH"
Similarly, the only other audio footage in the vaults was from a university gig, which was done "for a bit of a laugh." Page vows it will never see the light of day because the band made so many mistakes. (Page did use some computer tricks to fix a few wrong chords on the newly released material.)
These days, Page divides his time between a historic London townhouse and a mansion in nearby Windsor. His post-Zeppelin career has been patchy, with highlights including a tour with the Black Crowes and recording a rap version of "Kashmir" with rapper Sean Combs. He says he's working on something "quite surprising" but declined to go into detail.
GREAT band! I spent a day (a release day) at the mall waiting for Grace Under Pressure to arrive. Unfortunately, release day does not equal "day album arrives at store..."
We all have opinions. I've played for 20+ years, have CD's out that some people have heard of. I played in many copy bands, and speaking for myself, I could figure out and reproduce anything RB played within minutes. The other 3 were all extraordinary groundbreakers I feel, that few can reproduce to the T. I can pull off most of the tunes, but some SRV tunes took weeks, and even then anyone would admit it still is not the same. To clarify, I shoot for the exact tone, dynamics, string bending, etc. SRV played predominately clean, which I've found much more difficult than hiding behind feedback/distortion. I've seen all but Hendrix play, and I was huge Blackmore fan as a teenager, but he was painfully sloppy and off tempo live. He himself couldn't reproduce RB. (J. Page was just as bad live. By contrast, Eddie Van Halen was a better player live both times I saw him, and certainly is one of the best). We all have favorites, reproducing SRV's "Little Wing" version is most humbling.
Check out "Chris Duarte..Texas Sugar, Strat magic." From Austin, good strat player; his follow up CD's aren't as good. I saw Joe Bonamassa few weeks ago, pretty impressive strat boy.
My equipment, 78 Les Paul, Strats, Kramer, Dean Flying Z..Mesa Boogie for clean, Marshall for distortion. Best of luck on your playing, and turn it up. Check out Line 6 equipment, awesome for studio work (direct box).
None that I know of. I remember when Page was considered one of the best, if not THE BEST guitar player in the world.
I was there the first and the last night. 3 1/2 hour gig. I snuck in a tape recorder, it's pretty sad how bad they actually played, JP was a heroin addict and at 120 lbs. drank an entire liter of Jack during each night. Bonham was incredible, you could set a metronome to him, and the railings literally shook with each kick drum.
They were in St. Louis in April of 1977. I don't remember a whole lot about that show except that there was no encore (Heard there was death threats against the band)
hang out and get wasted. And we did get wasted.
Ahh youth... wasted on the young
About the rowdiest concert I was ever at was a Black Sabbath concert in which bottle rockets were being shot, bottles being thrown, and youths being so wasted that their friends had to drag them out when the show was over.
Looking back, well what can you say.
Page was argueably the most innovative producer/guitar player, a phenomenal song writer, between him and Grant the best at marketing albums and selling concert seats. However, like Clapton once said, the best guitar player in the world is probably pumping gas somewhere. Randy California was undoubtably the best at reproducing Hendrix. However, I doubt he could have played a single Yngwie Malsteen lead. (and probably wouldn't want to for that matter.)
I saw TSRTS in the theater when I was 12, and it got me to be a huge fan. So big, in fact, that I bugged my folks to get me tickets to see the actual band the following year at the L.A. Forum (in '77) .....and succeeded! Without a question the loudest concert I've ever been to in my life, and one of the best.
Is "Randy California" another name for Randy Hanson? The latter was the famous Hendrix imitator, and although he couldn't come close to actually duplicating the original, he pulled it off better than anyone I've ever seen.
I saw them a week after you did, on the left coast. ...I was 13. The highlights, imo, were Sick Again, Nobody's Fault But Mine, The Battle of Evermore, Kashmire, and Ten Years Gone.
Jack Bruce. ...The greatest power trio in history, Cream was.
Problem with Les Pauls is that they've been made of inferior woods since the early 70's. In the 50's they dried out (aged) the mahogany sufficiently to make them reasonably light and comfortable guitars, but now they're mass produced, heavy pieces. Unless you're willing to spend the big bucks ($3000+) for a custom shop reissue, you're going to be buying an inferior product. And if you want one of the original masterpieces from the late 50's when the humbucking pickups were still made by McCarty, be prepare to spend at $50 thousand.
Paul Reed Smith guitars are a much better value, and recently hired the old master McCarty to build their pickups for them.
Indeed he was, and I also agree he tended towards sloppiness when he played live. The greatest studio rock guitarist, imo, was/is David Gilmour of Pink Floyd.
Same guy, great player, his speciality was more the best stage impersonation of Hendrix. I like Frank Marino doing Hendrix tunes, particularly the live album (Mahogany Rush). He didn't do a note for note deal, he had that overdose insanity sound/feel when he played, also ridiculously fast.
Worst thing I ever did was sell all my vinyl. CDs are cyrstal clear, but they lack the warmth of vinyl.
Speaking of Hendrix and the best, have you ever listened closely to the "Machine Gun" on his Band of Gypsies album? It was recorded at the Fillmore West at midnight on New Year's eve 1969 (ushering in the 70's), and to this day I think it's the best guitar work I've ever heard.
Snort....Thanks for the laugh.
"Snort....Thanks for the laugh".
BUMP---I needed that, thanks for beating me to that reply.Still LOL..........
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