No can do - I'm missing a string for that song!
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.
No can do - I'm missing a string for that song!
He's brilliant and weird.
I stand corrected.
After watching the dvd, I have come to the conclusion that Page was not deficient in his abilities, he was restrained. Big difference!
People may laugh at this statement but I firmly believe that Grohl is one of the best --if not, the best, rock drummers currently playing today.
His work on QOTSA's Songs for the Deaf is incredible.
If Zep was to reform and tour, Grohl could sit on Bonham's drum stool and do the music justice.
Laugh away...
Queens of the Stone Age (QOTSA) is perhaps, IMHO, the best band on the scene right now.
They were formed about five years ago from the remains of a defunct hard-rock band called Kyuss.
I first caught them live purely on accident. It was 1999 and they were playing in front of about 200 people in my favorite dive bar: The 15th Street Tavern. I happened to be there enjoying some after-work drinks when they set up. I had heard of Kyuss, so I decided to stick around and see what they had to show me. I was not disappointed and have seen them two more times since them.
Here is a photo from the show that I saw them at (I may or may not be the dude in the front with the cigarette):
The bar was so small they had to turn the pool tables on their sides and remove their legs to accomdate the crowd.
They have three albums out and they are all great. The first is my favorite, only because I know the music much better. These dudes are getting huge fast! And it is well deserved.
P.S., if you like this type of music, check out Fu Manchu. They rock balls-hard as well, though they haven't developed the following that QOTSA has --yet!
I picked it up today but I haven't had the chance to listen to it yet. After the dvd, I had to have some new Zep to jam to in the car!
If it isn't there already, my guess is that the cd will hit #1 with a bullet.
I bought the last copy (once again) at the Media Play in downtown Denver.
My copy had no liner notes. Did yours?
Cool Pic Drew. That must have been some kind of show in that small place. If the song "No One Knows" is any indication I'm sure I'll like the album. I have always been drawn to artists/bands that take chances and go for unusual sounds.
If I have a criticism about music today it is that it is too sanitized, too over produced, too clean, too mundane and definitely over marketed. Speaking of which I heard that Nora Jones album recently and fell asleep after the first number. It's just too clean and contrived to keep me interested.
I miss that grit that even pop bands of the 60s had like the Fifth Dimension. Paul McCartney once lamented that his song "the Long and Winding Road" could have been a lot better but John Lennon told McCartney we do it on this take or forget it. And if you listen carefully to that song there are some technical flaws in it but that IMO makes it even better. I prefer mistakes and that chance note if there is live brilliance in the mix. So much spontaneity and brilliance is lost when bands try to achieve perfection in the studio.
I hear Ibanez sells them with a priest.
If you plan on coming down this way let me know. Rumor has it a certain homebody may come out of her shell and a trip to the PRS factory is in order.
You nailed it. While Clapton may be good night in night out, one night is never much better than another. Page, on the other hand, can go from sounding like me to something from another planet over the course of a night. Page at his best is probably my favorite player.
MD
I think of alot of that sound that we miss so much doesn't translate over to compact disc very well. I've listened to CDs - even the well made, "remastered" ones - and compared them to the original vinyl right afterward, and there's a quality missing from the former that's difficult to define. Some have said "warmness," and others "listenability" (which is even more vague). CDs, now matter how well engineered, seem to have a sterile sound quality to them that is difficult (if not impossible to engineer away. Perhaps it's just comes with the territory -- digital.
The "listenability" argument, vague as it seems, is right on the money in my book. I can listen to vinyl and vinyl recoreded onto analog (cassette) tapes for hours without suffering from "listener fatigue" (depending on what I'm listening to, of course). Rarely if ever can I do that with CDs ....comfortably, at least.
And adding to the sterility factor is what you mentioned -- most music is way overproduced these days. A lot of artists (like Neil Young and Tom Waits) have tried to combat this problem with various studio techniques, and although they achieve a certain level of success, the sound still sounds ....forced, not quite genuine.
Well, first you find a hillbilly...
I feel the same way. Those old LPs had better fidelity and were easier on the ears (of course they were easy to scratch too and usually had hiss in the background). The difference in sound quality I guess is because digitial recording only "samples" sound whereas analog electo magnetic recording picked up almost all the sound. Perhaps with CDs going to the DVD format some of this disparity in sound quality will be closed.
And adding to the sterility factor is what you mentioned -- most music is way overproduced these days. A lot of artists (like Neil Young and Tom Waits) have tried to combat this problem with various studio techniques, and although they achieve a certain level of success, the sound still sounds ....forced, not quite genuine.
What was that old method of recording called? "Through the Boards", or something like that? Where instead of multi-tracking a song together track by track all the members of a band would play together at once like playing live. This method of course limited what a band could do in the studio with sound effects and the like but it did produce a "live" feel to the music. Rory Gallagher and Rod Stewart/Faces often recorded this way.
And waiting...
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