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.
Is that (Songs for the Deaf) good? I've only heard that one release (that I like) they play on the radio "No One Knows"...
This is the new band I was thinking about earlier. I know little about this up and coming group other than that number "No One Knows" has a cool crunching beat that kind of stands out in the ocean of blandness today.
In more ways than one. I can't name one song by The Band or Roxy Music or Cream for that matter. I spent great hunks of my life listening to music made prior to WWII. I need to catch up!
Evidently Queens of the Stone Ages have been around for awhile and have a few albums. Shows you how much I'm plugged into contempory music these days. A sample of "No One Knows" is on Amazon.
heh heh heh. I know what you mean.
I would be hard-pressed to name a better CD from the 1990s than "August and Everything After" by the Counting Crows.
Mostly classical and jazz---I like Glenn Miller, Gershwin, Joplin, The Duke, Armstrong, Bechet, Miss Sarah Vaughn, dixieland...
Classical--- I like Bach, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt, Ravel, and later romantic/early Modern Slavic composers--Prokovieff, Khatchaturien, Shostakovich---also, Latin composers, Falla, Villa-Lobos, Alberto Williams.
I like fire and power and anything interesting and unpredictable but not completely atonal. Especially Piano.
Holy sh!t -- I can't believe someone else has those same "moments" . . . I can put a list together right here as I write this. Songs that belong with certain places at certain times.
America's "Ventura Highway" late on a spring night on I-94 in southern Wisconsin.
Neil Young's "Winterlong" on the Trans-Canada Highway north of Lake Huron at sunset.
The Allman Brothers' "Midnight Rider" on I-80 in Pennsylvania in the dead of a summer night.
Ian Tyson's "Fifty Years Ago" while driving up the grade along Sarcee Trail on a July night in Calgary, and looking down on the city skyline during the fireworks display on the last night of the Calgary Stampede.
Rush's "Red Barchetta" on a camping trip in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York.
Etc., etc.
Jeez....I had a similar experience cruzin around listening to Fragile particularly the song "Roundabout". Let me see, yep, I was about 17/18, in an altered state, driving my old man's Mustang on some winding roads in NW Wisconsin with some friends and totally digging the music and Steve Howe's guitar leads. It was almost an out of body experience. About a year and a car crash later I never went down that road again.
Speaking of Neil, and of "those moments," I had one of 'em driving my convertible '65 Mustang on the campus of UC Santa Cruz in the summer of '82 listening to the song "Out on the Weekend" (on Harvest). Nothing psychedelic or anything. ....It's just that everything was, for a few short minutes, perfect. Abosolutely perfect.
Let's keep adding wood to this fire.
Saw them just a year or two ago here in Raleigh on tour with Yes. Was unbelievable. Both bands sounded almost exactly as they had on their great '70's albums. I just couldn't believe how they have held up. Steve Walsh had lead vocals duty, as usual......and you wouldn't believe that voice.
I don't know the name of the guitarist they had (chunky dude with shaved head and was wearing an eye patch......not exactly "rock star" looks, trust me) actually did a more than passable job with Livgren's famous licks. It was a treat, for the whole show was truly a "thank you" to their older fans..............ALL of their older stuff. Steve Howe looks like a retired accountant.....and is still a genius on the guitar. Just jaw dropping.
I probably know less than you do about contemporary rock music.
"Well, it was back in Blind River in 1962,
When I last saw you alive.
But we missed that shift on the long decline,
Long may you run."
"Long May You Run" by Neil Young
Blind River is a small town in that part of Ontario, and this song was about an old car of his that broke down on the road there in 1962.
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