Communication Breakdown

Led Zeppelin’s 1997 release BBC Sessions was welcomed in many corners – at long last an official version of what had been bootlegged for almost 30 years.

Although fans were happy to see an official release, die-hards complained that some of the songs were edited or (gasp!) omitted entirely. So... the other day I found an album helpfully titled More Forgotten BBC. In the forum where I found this, there was a lot of back-and-forth over what had been officially released and whether or not More Forgotten BBC was an actual bootleg.

What it came down to was a couple of tracks that never made it onto the official release. One of these, which I present to you today, is a five-minute version of “Communication Breakdown.” When BBC Sessions was released, it was made up of two disks: Disk one consists of material from four different 1969 BBC sessions; Disc two contains most of the April 1, 1971, concert at the Paris Theatre in London. "Most" being the key word.

The first disk includes three different versions of “Communication Breakdown,” none of which is longer than three minutes. The song is excluded entirely from the second disk. Maybe Jimmy Page thought three versions were enough. He should have maybe dropped one from the first disk and instead included this smokin’ version from the April 1 show. In addition to being straight-up rocking, an extended bridge features Robert Plant vamping through a couple lines from different songs, even tossing in a little bit of the Supremes for good measure.

Communication Breakdown.mp3

Labels: Led Zeppelin, live music

posted by aikin @ 11:14 AM