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PHYSICAL GRAFFITI OLYMPIC STUDIOS PLAYBACK JIMMY PAGE Q AND A /TBL LED ZEP ’75 SNAPSHOT/EARLS COURT BOOK SIGN UP/ROBERT DATES/DL DIARY UPDATE/HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR FOY!

5 February 2015 3,737 views 13 Comments

Olympic feb 6

More reporting from the Physical Graffiti Playback Event:
 Tuesday February 3rd, 2015:
Olympic Studios – Barnes, London 
Hosted by Jimmy Page 

Jimmy Page Q and A:

Just prior to the playback of the seven tracks on the Companion Disc, Jimmy came on stage with Warner Music’s Robin Hurley to set the scene and this is what he said:

”The majority of the music that was on the double album Physical Graffiti and the music on the companion disc was mixed by Keith Harwood. When it came to mixing the material left over from the fourth album and Houses of The Holy etc – and what we had currently that we had been recording at Headley Grange, we did it here at Olympic, so it’s like coming back home with Physical Graffiti.

The reason why the companion disc is a single album is the fact there just wasn’t the surplus of material but I think you’re in for some good surprises and it’s a great playback for everyone – so enjoy it…”

Following the playback of the seven tracks , Jimmy took to the stage again and questions from the floor were encouraged. I asked the first one as follows:

DL: Everybody Makes it Through sounded great there and is a real eye opener in terms of showing the studio development of the track – at which point did you think you could do more with it and turn it into the In the Light version that we know…?

JP: The version that you heard there, that was a sort of a stringing together of various riffs and sections. In the same way as you’ve heard In My Time Of Dying, it’s just the performance straight off. So this is in the early stage and then it starts to move on. There’s more guitar overdubs and it starts to thicken up. Later there’s also a drone to it that isn’t used on this yet. So the drone is applied to it then John Paul Jnes comes in with that miraculous keyboard part which is so iconic. Robert has those block vocals which are almost reminiscent of that music of Bulgaria vocal stuff. So everybody on In The Light is shining at this point. It’s good to be able to present this early n because you can see the bare bones of it and it’s really good but everyone in here knows what it becomes. I think Everybody Makes It Through is a really good illustration behind this whole companion disc idea.

Here’s a summary of the Olympic Studios Q and A – these are Jimmy’s answers to various questions asked by the media in attendance: 

Question via Amanda at the BBC: You’ve mentioned on this album there were fewer things to choose from.Listening to those wonderful tracks I can’t help wondering about the other songs. From your perspective what is difficult to leave things out.

You have to understand the way that I approached this was – it was as good or as bad as the material I had. None of this is remixed – it’s all the relevant mixes of work in progress along the way. So somethings just didn’t turn up at all – for instance on Houses Of The Holy there just wasn’t another version of D’yer Mak’er – I could find anything anywhere. On this, there were more versions of songs with extra overdubs here and there, but its like a mean average of what is going to be the most informative for people to listen to. In the Light is a good example as I explained earlier on.

On the sequencing of the tracks on the original album :

I was really conscious of how to lace these albums together so the performances weather they fade out or they stop, would really set up the next song to give it a really good impact. Across the four sides as it was -in fact i think of it as vinyl as that’s the way it was originally going to be played.You would have a song to really pull you in on the opening track and then maybe a song to get you thinking by the last track of the vinyl. So you get this whole process of the moods and with Led Zeppelin because of the writing and the way things would be put together and produced, you had all these real character songs so you could really set them up and I think I got it right .The Companion disc slightly mirrors the double album but of course its a single disc.

Olympic 10

 

On Kashmir:

Kashmir and the idea of the orchestra would be behind the riff is something that goes back to what id been listening to in classical music like Benjamin Britten’s Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra where you’ve got the full orchestra coming in

I had the basic riff on a tail end of on something I’d been working on the acoustic. It was right at the end of a really lengthy piece and  the riff as you know it, the opening riff, then you had cascades which was going to be the trumpet and brass parts.

It started with the cascades and then the fanfares, then it goes into the riff and I thought Im really going to work on this when I get together with the rest of the band at Headley.

How it worked out it was just John Bonham there so we worked on this and basically I already knew the riff was going to be round so we laid it down with the electric 12 string doing the brass parts. The return to Headley meant there was a return to the great hall and the great drum sound. I felt it was going to be an epic track but the idea of getting the orchestra to emulate what was going on over the guitar parts, that I had when I was working it out with John Bonham and the opportunity to lay down these electric twelve string parts down over the riff.

On Boogie with Stu:

Boogie with Stu goes back to the first time we visited Headley Grange when we were recording the fourth album. There was a baby grand piano in the main sitting room. Ian Stewart was a member of The Rolling Stones, he played piano on a lot of their tracks – Stu wasn’t actively in the group now but he was involved in the administration and running of the Rolling Stones mobile studio. John Paul Jones had gone over hoping it was going to be a great concert grand,  It probably hadn’t been tuned for 20 years and it was really dusty. Stu came down just sat there at the piano and started rolling out this wonderful boogie-woogie – he was a master at that style of piano – he could play Otis Spann stuff and all that Chess stuff. He had an incredible knowledge and you can hear that on the Stones records, if it’s not Nicky Hopkins it’s Stu playing.  Stu wouldn’t make a solo album – he was very shy about that – so I thought, ‘Here he is, let’s just get him recording’ because it was just such fun. You can hear that clearly and he also played on Rock And Roll

On Houses Of The Holy:

It was left off the Houses Of The Holy album on purpose. It was saved for whatever the next album was going to be which turned out to be Physical Graffiti. It was probably unique at the time but it was fun to do things that were not done by other people.

On the equipment used for the album:

It was basically a Marshall amp and a Les Paul guitar. There’s a Dan Electro guitar on In My Time Of Dying. It’s just the main working tools. I didn’t use the Telecaster at all but on Ten Years Gone there’s a Fender Stratocaster. It was pretty minimal the whole run of guitars that is on it, its not like an army or arsenal of guitars but it sounds like an army of guitars by the finish!

On plans ahead:

Well, how it starts off is, you have to play guitar and get match-fit So currently I’m in the process of doing that – but I’m also in the process of doing this to too. It’ll be closer to the end of the year rather than next month. I’m definitely warming up on the touchlines, put it that way!

Had have you been  inspired by Queen and Adam Lambert  and would you get an array of guest vocalists for the tracks?

What I’m doing going to do is a project of my own what im doing is something that’s going to be quite different. It wouldn’t be anything that hopefully you’d imagine I would do.

Was the intention for Physical Graffiti to be a double album from the start of recording ?

I hoped it was going to be a double album because other people had put out double albums and I thought it would be good to do that-  see how much material we’ve got when we got in there. I knew that we already had material left over – there was Houses Of The Holy which was going to go anyway. There was material left over from the fourth album but it was a question of how juiced up we were as far as far as the writing goes. It  all had to be good we didn’t want putting out stuff for the sake of it. The one track that was indulgent was Boogie With Stu but that was so much fun to put out there as a showcase Ian Stewart. But it was flowing – the material was coming out and it was clear that we were working towards a double there was no doubt about that. I did want to do a double album that would really show a working band at a really creative process.

The response to the reissues so far:

Olympic feb 7

The respose to the schedule right from the first three reissues has been fantastic I knew that all of the material that was going to come was really great and I knew there were going to be surprises for people. It was really important to set the scene right from the beginning – to explain that there were companion discs. To shift the thought process to people getting used to having a companion disc – they might have been used to having bonus tracks .The response from the fans has been phenomenal and I thank the fans – it’s been a real fun project to do because I know what’s coming and I’ve known all the time what’s coming all the way through and I know there is some great surprises.

Visuals featured created by Warner Music’s Jason Morais and Richard Clark.

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Some final DL thoughts:

As with previous reissues, there have been plenty of adverse comments regarding the companion bonus tracks to be included on the Physical Graffiti.

Let me re iterate some facts: Firstly the companion audio disc for Physical Graffiti is very much in line with the policy adopted for the first five – in so much that the content is intended to act as a companion to the versions we all know and love.

It’s Jimmy’s vision to present working mixes and alternate versions to as he put it ‘’to hear a mirror of the tracks as you know them…some were reference mixes for us at the time…others completely different in approach.’’

Overall the simple fact remains that Jimmy can only work from what is in the archive and of releasable quality. As he mentioned at the Q and A,there just was not the surplus of material to extend to a second disc.

I respect the many opinions of many fans who have felt short changed by these releases. Odd fragments of rehearsals and offcuts though was never going to be the objective with these releases. Like any fan I love all that stuff too and much of it is out there on bootlegs. For a measure of objectivity  on all this have a look at Larry Bergmann’s comments below

The other criticism I’ve seen levelled is the lack of any live material being made available – with talk of this being an opportunity to release material from the Earls Court concerts.

Jimmy did employ the Paris 1969 recording as the bonus companion audio on the Led Zep I reissue. This was included as he felt there was insufficient outtake material to fill a Zep I studio companion disc. This initiative was not intended to act as a precedent.

Live material is clearly not the priority with the reissue programme – that’s not to rule out a potential live set of releases as a separate project in the future although of course nothing is cast in stone on such an idea at this moment in time.

Once again I think we need to be realistic in our expectations about what can be offered by way of companion audio – , there is plenty of scope for us to hear and enjoy the working mix down process that went into shaping the songs that have been ingrained on our brains for over 40 years.

I know I have been close to all of this in terms of reporting from the front -and many will see me as sitting on the fence on this issue..well call me easily pleased… but as a Led Zeppelin fan, well I flippin’ love this stuff!

Yes, we can all ponder on the might have beens and lost tracks that may or may not have been overlooked – far better we celebrate exactly what Jimmy Page has put before us… and in my world it is more than enough for me to love this band even more than I thought I did.

DL

Here’s the views of long time TBL contributor and fan Larry Bergmann Jnr:

I was disappointed when I realized there was no Swan Song on Physical Graffiti. I can see where us diehards might be miffed if there’s nothing on these releases that is a personal favorite, or whether or not there’s anything “new”.

However, I think some perspective is in order. There have been some great surprises…La La on II, Key To The Highway/Trouble In Mind on III, the alternate complete take of Since I’ve Been Loving You …

For the casual fans, Paris 69 had to be a mind-blowing revelation, as well as Jennings Farm Blues, Everybody Makes It Through. And for the charges that Jimmy is “gouging” the fans, these releases don’t have to be consumed in the deluxe editions, that’s the buyer’s choice. All of the re-releases with the almost universally praised enhanced sonics and bonus discs are currently available on Amazon as CD-only releases for the modest sum of approximately $13 US.

$13 is a lot cheaper than a bootleg, for example! I submit that had this bonus material with the alternate/rough takes come out via bootleg, it would be hailed by the community as one of the most important Zep bootlegs ever presented. So I’m not really getting some of the grief I see being tossed Jimmy’s way online.

As for “the Zep catalog has already been re-released in the past” I ask which big-time music act hasn’t gone that route? Everybody does it now. The music business which some of us grew up consumers of is on the scrap heap. The artists and labels turn every trick they can conjure to scratch out a few more ducats. “Singles” with “previously unreleased b-sides”, “re-releases with bonus tracks”, “box sets”, all a standard part of the game now. “Greatest hits” packages and compilations have been going on since the days of Elvis and The Beatles.

The old Zeppelin ethos of less is more didn’t outlive the band, and that was also at least partly a marketing ploy in its own way which happened to work quite well in its time.

Despite whatever various disappointments some of us might feel vis-à-vis the bonus material (and again I have mine too), I think Jimmy (and John Davis) deserves a lot of credit for really getting it right on the sound this time. For those of you who didn’t sample PG and In Through The Out Door on iTunes, for example, wait until you get a listen to them! The improvements are vast. And the rough tracks are interesting to hear, they’re available in quite economic packages, and again, what if they were much costlier bootlegs? My guess is the reaction to that material would be much different indeed.

Looking forward to the Physical Graffiti set, and the last round of three which will apparently follow later in the year, and I appreciate the thought and work that went into this undertaking.

Larry Bergmann Jnr. 

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TBL Led Zep 1975 Snapshot:

With the 40th anniversary of Led Zeppelin’s activities in 1975 upon us -I will be celebrating this era with a series of TBL Led Zep 1975    Snapshots – these will take the form of postings covering specific gigs and events from the era, with particular spotlight on the period January to May 1975. They will run periodically on the TBL Facebook pages and on the TBL website.

This is designed to track the progress of the year as it unfolded. I will also be listening to the relevant bootleg of the chosen gig on the day to add a perspective of how it sounds 40 years on.

TBL Led Zep 1975 Snapshot: Number Five

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 6th,1975

MONTREAL, CANADA

MONTREAL FORUM

Set: Rock And Roll/Sick Again/Over The Hills And Far Away/In My Time Of Dying/The Song Remains The Same/The Rain Song/Kashmir/No Quarter/Trampled Underfoot/Moby Dick/Dazed And Confused (inc. San Francisco)/Stairway To Heaven/Whole Lotta Love – Black Dog/Heartbreaker

Snapshot Listen:- How it sounded today:

montreal

I have this on the 1975 World Tour vinyl double album and the When The Levee breaks /World Tour ’75 CD set. I’ve always had a bit of affection for the World Tour bootleg – it was one of the fist I got of the 1975 US tour. It’s a fair to good audience recording but very lively.

This is an enjoyable performance though Robert’s voice is still struggling. Sick Again really rocks while Over The Hills appears in a unique arrangement as Page’s guitar lead cuts out and Plant fills in as JPJ carries the rhythm. After ”The Rain Song, Robert lectures the crowd on the Mellotron: “It’s a very peculiar instrument because every time we take it somewhere, it goes out of tune. It’s built and comprises of tapes inside the box, and to simulate violins is not an easy job when you’re travelling to North America. In fact, we’re gonna try to simulate some Eastern violins now.” Kashmir is growing more powerful with each performance and is rapidly turning into one of the highlights of the show. No Quarter clocks in at 19 minutes and pleasingly so.

Moby Dick is now stretching to 25 minutes and Plant refers to  Bonzo as “Karen Carpenter”, a reference to a recent poll in Playboy magazine which placed Karen Carpenter as ‘Best Drummer’, above Bonzo. At the time Bonzo’s first hand response was captured in an interview with Lisa Robinson: “Karen Carpenter couldn’t last ten fucking minutes with a Zeppelin number!”

Dazed And Confused (only it’s third outing on the tour) includes a very delicate version of San Francisco and is now recapturing some of its former glories. Page’s solo on Stairway To Heaven is also developing a previously unknown intricacy. Instead of Communication Breakdown they throw in a ragged but welcomed version of Heartbreaker as a second encore.

“Montreal – you are the best! Maybe the snow has melted all around the hall.” is Plant’s parting comment.

They were on the up, and there were some great performances imminently ahead.

To be continued…

DL – February 6th, 2015:

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Led Zeppelin Reissues win Ultimate Classic Rock Award:

The remastered sets for the first five Led Zeppelin albums are the winners of the Reissue of the Year category in the 2015 Ultimate Classic Rock Awards.

 http://ultimateclassicrock.com/led-zeppelin-ucr-award/

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 Rare Zep photos found in Southampton Daily Echo archives: 

Photos from the January 21st 1973 appearance of Zep at the Southampton Gaumont Theatre ent have surfaced – see link at

 http://m.dailyecho.co.uk/news/11768554.Amazing_Led_Zeppelin_photos_found_in_Echo_archive/

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Five Glorious Nights -Led Zeppelin at Earls Court May 1975 (Rufus Stone Limited Edition)

Five glorious spread one

Further to my announcement of the Five Glorious Nights – Led Zeppelin at Earls Court 1975 photo book – the sign up site where you can register interest and log your email for further news of ordering including a pre -release offer is now live –

Be sure to sign up to keep up to date with this limited edition publication.

www.fivegloriousnights.co.uk

More details on this forthcoming book as it unfolds.

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Robert Plant and The Sensational Space Shifters – Two UK Forest Live summer dates announced:

As previously mentioned Robert Plant and The Sensational Space Shifters will perform two special dates as part of Forest Live, the summer concert series promoted by the Forestry Commission.

Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters will appear at Forest Live on:

Friday 10 July – Westonbirt Arboretum, near Tetbury, Gloucestershire

Saturday 11 July – Cannock Chase Forest, near Rugeley, Staffsordshire

Tickets cost £48.50 (plus £4.85 booking fee) and go on sale from 9.00am on Friday 6 February from 03000 680400 or buy online at:

forestry.gov.uk/music

Details also at Robert’s official website:

http://www.robertplant.com/#news/two-headline-nights-at-forest-live-in-july

Lockin Festival:

Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters are pleased to announce a two-night headline appearance at Lockn’ Festival in Arrington, Virginia, USA. Robert and the band are joined by Keller Williams’ Grateful Gospel, Tedeschi Trucks Band, The Doobie Brothers, Widespread Panic, The String Cheese Incident and more. This is set for September 10-13 2015.

http://www.locknfestival.com/news/2015/02/04/lockn-announces-robert-plant-and-the-sensational-space-shifters-will-perform-two-nights/

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DL Diary Update:

Bob, Frank and me…

bob dylan and me

It’s something of a coincidence that as we head into the reissue of Physical Graffiti, Bob Dylan has a new album out. That was also the case 40 years ago. The only album I was interested in around that time – apart from the obvious, was Dylan’s then newly released Blood On The Tracks.Universally known as his break up album as the songs played out his divorce to first wife Sara, it’s themes of love and loss resonated greatly with this particular 18 year old as I myself was discovering first hand about matters of the heart in terms of relationships.

It’s somewhat fitting therefore that 40 years on, the new Bob Dylan  album Shadows In the Night is upon us as the reissued Physical Graffiti is also about to be unleashed.

The new Dylan set has captured my attention in the manner that Blood On The Tracks did all those years ago. It’s all the more surprising given that the album’s content is made up of Dylan’s versions of songs made famous by Frank Sinatra.

Now I am a bit of a Frank connoisseur. His music has resonated around me for decades – a copy of Songs For Swinging Lovers was often on when I was growing up. Strangers In the Night and My Way were massive hits at a time when I religiously tuned in to the top 40 chart show. His New York, New York was bizarrely something of an anthem out in Majorca when we were on a lads holiday in 1981. The real awakening though came when I wrote a piece for the column I did for the local paper at the time, concerning the reissuing of Frank’s albums on the Capitol label in 1984.

I was aided this by Jim Celitz – a lovely veteran fan who lived locally and had seen Sinatra a fair few times on his UK visits. Through his guidance, I began listening intently to those old Sinatra records and I was totally smitten. So much so that I began a quest to collect original Frank Sinatra albums on vinyl. During the early noughties this quest took on more serious proportions and by 2007 I had amasses over 100 Frank albums – ranging from his late 50s Capitol classics though to the more reflective and equally affecting later releases such as the 1969 gem A Man Alone. I still regularly search out a Frank album for inspiration – his peerless phrasing, the orchestral arrangements and of course those classic sleeve designs, all go to make up the unique Frank experience.

As for Bob Dylan..well me and him go back a long way. Right back to me being amazed that Sad Eyed Lady of The Lowlands took up one entire side of the Blonde On Blonde album. I bought and loved Self Portrait in 1970 and kept up to date with all his releases during the next two decades. Desire being one of his defining moments. I also saw him perform live on a few occasions most notably at Blackbush in 1978. Though his recent releases have not been high on my playlist, unsurprisingly I’ve enjoyed the Bootleg Series reissues -with the recent Basement Tapes Raw being another repackage gem. It’s a delight to report that Shadows In the Night is a very fine collection – rather than cover them with lush orchestral arrangements, Dylan has cleverly re worked Frank’s songs in simple band arrangements. His vocals, which in recent years have not been overly strong, are something of a revelation on this album – back to that pleasing gravel tone delivered with much conviction. As it did 40 years ago, a new Bob Dylan album is providing an inspiring counterpart to the Led Zep outpouring to come.

Bob it’s good to have you back on board…

Elsewhere lots of planning and prep on various projects – as mentioned above the Five Glorious Nights -Led Zeppelin at Earls Court 1975 sign up link is now live – be sure to register your interest for more info on this exciting project ahead.

We had a splendid day out at the Olympia Record Fair last Saturday. Vinyl acquisitions  included  superb Japanese pressings of Coda and Bad Company’s Rock’n’Roll Fantasy. Cliff ”the ticket man” Hilliard further extended his collection of his latest collecting mission which is to seek out as many original singles that Jimmy Page played on during  the session era. His catch included a single on the Immediate label by UK comedian Jimmy Tarbuck  – the B side of which -a Jagger/ Rchard composition Wastin’ Time has the aforementioned guitarist present.  It was also good to catch up with Eddie Edwards -he of the Garden Tapes logs (visit and Luis Rey author of the Led Zeppelin Live tapes book.

Gary Foy Japanese Firm album

Happy Birthday Mr. Foy!

I am sure you will join me in wishing happy birthday to the TBL number two Gary Foy on Monday. Here’s the boy Foy with one of his Olympia Fair purchasers – a Japanese pressing of the first Firm album .

Before that, on Saturday Spurs take on the old enemy Arsenal at White hart Lane and with Adam back from UNI this weekend ,we will be strolling down the Fox on Saturday lunchtime to clock the action and hoping for a home victory.

Finally, with 17 days to go and counting below is the unboxing preview of the super deluxe package of Physical Graffiti  …and what a prospect that is….

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You Tube clip:

The unboxing of the super deluxe Physical Graffiti…


Until next time…

Keep listening, keep reading…

Dave Lewis/Gary Foy –  February 6th, 2015 

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13 Comments »

  • Del said:

    I kinda agree with both sides here, I have chose to buy the Super Deluxe box sets and although like most who post on here I have all the original lp’s cd’s and remastered box sets I figured if I was gonna buy em again (hopefull for the last time) then I might as well get the best options. with regard to the remastering of the original albums I think Jimmy has absolutely nailed it, imo these great songs that we all know and love have never sounded better especially if like me you have a Hi Res audio system that plays the 24-96 hi res versions it really is like discovering these great songs all over again!! As for the companion discs I think 1, II and III are outstanding. Obviously the live set on first companion disc is a new official release and shows them at their raw earliest best and I think just the alternate versions of Whole Lotta Love and Since I’ve Been Loving You are worth buying II & III for. However a little disappointment with IV and HOTH, more alternate mix’s than alternate versions and not a great deal of difference between these and the originals to my ears. Cant really comment on Physical Graffiti yet as I have not heard enough of it to express an opinion but as this is, imo the greatest album ever released I can only hope the extras match II & III.

  • Graham Rodger said:

    Chances are there’ll be a box set of all these new CD reissues in time for Christmas 2015, one box containing the complete studio remasters, and another containing the complete deluxe editions. As an incentive to those like me who’ve bought this material twelve times over, a bonus “exclusive box set disc” will probably be included, featuring odds and sods. Record companies really know how to squeeze every last drop of juice out of the obsessive completists’ pockets, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this occurs.

    Incidentally, if you buy the deluxe edition discs from Japan, the discs themselves are housed in cellophane sleeves, not just roughly sanded between the cardboard cover as happens in Europe. They really know how to package their music, shows respect for the material I think (again, not just down to record comapny greed).

  • Malcolm B said:

    Hi Dave,
    Thought I’d put my two penneth worth in. Firstly regarding the remastering I think its a good job Jimmy’s done, but to be honest they are only as good as the Classic Records vinly remastering project of the noughties which were exceptional. So with that in mind I thought the companion LPs really needed to be good to make the extra exspense worthwhile. Sadly, in my humble opinion, they’re not, with one exception and that’s 3. Its so raw without the compression, it feels like its live, like a rehearsal. SIBLY Gallows Pole and Keys are just stunning. But 2 (exception La La) 4 and Houses just aren’t worth it. A few notes here, tambourine there. Nothing special

    And now PG. Its already been said there wasn’t enough mirror material to fill two LPs but so many interesting things could have been included. I for one would have loved to hear the bootleg rehearsals cleaned up. Why no Swan Song? I know its not on the original record and only mirror songs were to be included on the companion but then Keys is not a mirror of Hats and it ended up on the companion of 3

    Who knows what is planned for Presence with new tapes apparently being found and does it mean that just because the extended All My Love,which has been well bootlegged, will be left off the companion of ITTOD? A travesty if it is!

    What I’m hoping for is that Jimmy has something very exciting planned for Coda. Let’s face it the original album is only 33mins long so a companion disc of that is likely to be pretty dull, not to mention the deluxe package. Coda was an extras album so let’s hope all those extras that we’ve been wishing for will end up on that companion lp or double. It needs to be special.

    Jimmy won’t be doing this project again so this really will be his last chance to blow us away. I hope he does.

  • Ian in New Zealand said:

    I like Ed Bliss’s idea of 1 CD with all the really interesting bits on – a “Coda 2” I would buy.

  • Bill Cromwell said:

    I’m piling on as I’ve already chimed in a few times about the reissues on Dave’s awesome site. I agree with Ed Bliss, and I respectfully disagree with Larry. One disc or double disc of alternate mixes, etc. would have done the job. So disappointing that PG couldn’t have had more material. You know, REHEARSAL material would have been great. Sure, some is available on bootleg, but the quality is iffy at best As for Larry’s comment, the $13 American adds up, especially after already spending hundreds over the years for various incarnations of the material. Not sure we’re being gouged . . . too strong. I appreciate Dave’s defense of Jimmy’s efforts, but for all the emotional (and financial) engagement I’ve had with the band for these forty years, I was certainly hoping for more. Is it delusional to continue to hope for a miracle for the last three releases?

  • roger berlin said:

    super Dave and thank you soooo much
    Roger Berlin
    http://www.rogerberlin.de

  • Andrew r said:

    Ref the unboxing ad.Is it me or are the vinyl LP’s
    side loading or is that just the way it’s filmed?
    Every shot of them for sale on Amazon and elsewhere
    shows the vinyl exiting from the side not top loaded.
    Any ideas anybody?

  • Andrew r said:

    The whole problem with this reissue campaign is that the hype
    before the first three releases was allowed to run out of control,leading to
    unfair expectations. Secondly because only Jimmy has done the press for them
    (and frankly i love him but he is not the best interviewee) we didn’t get a three way view and explanation of what was intended.Lastly in the case of the Superdeluxe sets the market has moved on, the recent King crimson sets have reset the bar
    concerning what people now expect a boxset to contain.If they were simply seen as Remasters + Bonus tracks rather than the holy grail it might put things in some perspective.

  • Stephen said:

    I’ll reiterate my position again: the remasters sound great, but the companion discs are a let down and a missed opportunity. Do we know any other band that has offered slightly different mixes of album tracks as a bonus disc? No, because it is of minimal interest to fans. We want unreleased material, live versions, or early studio incarnations of songs. With Zep, there is little unreleased material, so Jimmy should have used work in progress stuff and filled in the gaps with live material. Look at the Beatles anthology and All things Must Pass re-release, I love the acoustic version of Beware of Darkness. The Beatles weren’t afraid to show us what was hanging on their washing line in the studio! At the end of the day, the whole concept of the companion disc with slightly different mixes is flawed. Who ever came up with the idea got it wrong. I respect you a lot Dave and have bought Celebration, FITW and Knebworth books. You are a treasure, mate, but on this one, your view on the companion disc is at odds with many Zep fans. At the end of the day, Jimmy is making a lot of money from these discs and he should have put out something that fans wanted.

  • Ed Bliss said:

    At the end of 2015, when the dust has settled and we look back on all the 9 companion discs, I think many of will realise that all the ESSENTIAL cuts on these discs could easily fit on to one 70 minute cd. Jimmy has uncovered some real gems: La la, Keys to the Highway/Trouble in Mind, Since I’ve been loving you, Everybody Makes It Through. But to spread these so thinly over so many Companion cds just leaves so many of us feeling disappointed. ONE stand alone cd of outtakes would have been far more satisfying.

    On the last page of the 1990 Remasters box set booklet, a comment from John Paul Jones is quoted under the ‘Coda’ album information: ‘…basically, there wasn’t a lot of Zeppelin tracks that didn’t go out. We used everything.’

    As each companion disc is released, I realise how right he was.

  • Richard Grubb said:

    Happy Birthday Gary – have a good one!

    Thanks Dave for the run down on the upcoming PG stuff, you’re right to restate the “no live stuff” promise made at the outset and recognise that Paris 69 was out of necessity rather than a statement of intent for the rest of the catalogue. I also agree with Larry – there are enough variations in releases for each of these to satisfy those want the improved sound quality but are underwhelmed by the companion discs.

    Has it been a missed opportunity? I’m not so sure. Outtakes and bootlegs are freely available on the web these days, but the companion discs for the most part are something genuinely new.

    In a way, the fact that there’s no live stuff included on the extra discs gives me hope that Led Zeppelin Live will be an entirely separate campaign for the future which will allow the studio stuff to stand on its own. Will it ever happen? Who knows and TBH, I’d rather have Jimmy playing or at least recording…

    I’m enjoying all of it, for what it’s worth!

    Cheers!

  • steve goldsmith said:

    I think it is complacent to suggest that we should be content with listening to slightly different mixdowns of familiar tracks. They are of little interest. How many times is anyone going to listen to them.
    It is incorrect that there is nothing left to release. In relation to Physical Graffitti, there is a large amount of unreleased material that already circulates amongst collectors which is far more interesting than what is being offered here.
    This was Zep’s biggest artistic statement. This reissue deserved multiple cds of unreleased material with cleaned up audio.
    In relation to the reissues so far released, When is there ever likely to be another opportunity for relevant unreleased material such as demos and unreleased takes to be collected and appropriately placed in big boxes like these reissues?
    How many more times will punters be expected to pay for studio cds that they have obtained a number of times over recent years.
    This whole project has been very disappointing.

  • Larry said:

    I was disappointed when I realized there was no Swan Song on Physical Graffiti. I can see where us diehards might be miffed if there’s nothing on these releases that is a personal favorite, or whether or not there’s anything “new”.

    However, I think some perspective is in order. There have been some great surprises…La La on II, Key To The Highway/Trouble In Mind on III, the alternate complete take of SIBLY…

    For the casual fans, Paris 69 had to be a mind-blowing revelation, as well as Jennings Farm Blues, Everybody Makes It Through. And for the charges that Jimmy is “gouging” the fans, these releases don’t have to be consumed in the deluxe editions, that’s the buyer’s choice. All of the re-releases with the almost universally praised enhanced sonics and bonus discs are currently available on Amazon as CD-only releases for the modest sum of approximately $13 US.

    $13 is a lot cheaper than a bootleg, for example! I submit that had this bonus material with the alternate/rough takes come out via bootleg, it would be hailed by the community as one of the most important Zep bootlegs ever presented. So I’m not really getting some of the grief I see being tossed Jimmy’s way online.

    As for “the Zep catalog has already been re-released in the past” I ask which big-time music act hasn’t gone that route? Everybody does it now. The music business which some of us grew up consumers of is on the scrap heap. The artists and labels turn every trick they can conjure to scratch out a few more ducats. “Singles” with “previously unreleased b-sides”, “re-releases with bonus tracks”, “box sets”, all a standard part of the game now. “Greatest hits” packages and compilations have been going on since the days of Elvis and The Beatles.

    The old Zeppelin ethos of less is more didn’t outlive the band, and that was also at least partly a marketing ploy in its own way which happened to work quite well in its time.

    Despite whatever various disappointments some of us might feel vis-à-vis the bonus material (and again I have mine too), I think Jimmy (and John Davis) deserves a lot of credit for really getting it right on the sound this time. For those of you who didn’t sample PG and In Through The Out Door on iTunes, for example, wait until you get a listen to them! The improvements are vast. And the rough tracks are interesting to hear, they’re available in quite economic packages, and again, what if they were much costlier bootlegs? My guess is the reaction to that material would be much different indeed.

    Looking forward to the PG set, and the last round of three which will apparently follow later in the year, and I appreciate the thought and work that went into this undertaking.

    Now, Jimmy, how about that tour…

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