[Someone lost in time once asked me online, "Straight up, bitches. give it to me! What's the deal on those Zep releases, CD and DVD?"]
I can't speak on behalf of the CD How The West Was Won (will have to get that later) but I can fill you in on the DVD, mate. It runs at 5 hrs: 20 min of Zeppelin brilliance captured for posterity. It features four concerts nearly in their entirety, plus highlights from some other small venue performances, in particular two or three from 1969 featuring them still green about the ears. The audience members are so well behaved, it's interesting to witness humanity before moshing. Although there are four separate versions of their early staple classic tune Dazed & Confused, the best thing about it is that all four versions are unique enough in their own right to keep you glued to your set through each and every one.
Zeppelin were never a band to just show up onstage and go through their sets by the numbers. They would approach their songs from a new angle and in a different light entirely, time and again. The amazing thing is that this band featured only one guitarist, Jimmy fucking Page, despite rollicking riffs + leads that bands today would require at least two if not three guitarists to achieve.
Robert Plant is an intelligent being, despite some of you having concluded otherwise. There are several frank interview scenes on this DVD that will not only show this to be true, but also reveal that Plant was one awesome, badass motherfucker. His stage presence was electric, and his vocals unmatched.
Jimmy works himself into a drenched sweat at the Knebworth '79 set, played right at the end of their career, before Bonham died & they were forced to break up. Watching Jimmy & Bonham play off each other is fascinating... you really get the sense of how Bonham was far more than just the "rhythm guy"; his contribution with the sticks was as musical as any of the other guys in the band. I just wish the camera would focus on John Paul Jones more often. He must've asked not to be shown too much. His bass on that Knebworth show looked as if it were designed by Klingons!
Led Zeppelin were and shall always be the quintessential rock band. The fact they never allowed a single to be released in their homeland only illustrates their genuine standard of preserving album integrity. Can you imagine that-? Yet they managed to sell millions of albums anyhow. That, my friends, is the mark of one serious ass rock band.
Led Zeppelin were and shall always be the quintessential rock band. The fact they never allowed a single to be released in their homeland only illustrates their genuine standard of preserving album integrity. Can you imagine that-? Yet they managed to sell millions of albums anyhow. That, my friends, is the mark of one serious ass rock band.
I actually feel quite sorry for any of you who never "broke through their skin" to marvel at the glory beating underneath this legendary band. These were truly musicians of the highest order, who just happened to be gifted with the skills to do nothing more than rock the fucking world.
The Messiahs of Rock are precisely what they were. And they deserve every ounce of worship they get to this day.
