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
One Night In Paris (with Led Zeppelin, not Ms. Hilton)
All right – I made it back on line and will stay on line for a while. I hope.
As promised, I dug around the Licorice Pizza vaults in order to bring you good people something to make up for the downtime. What I came up with is a nearly 40-year-old Led Zeppelin concert recording.
One Night Stand In Paris was recorded October 10, 1969, at the Olympia in Paris. According to the notes that came with the file, this recording comes from audio released to radio stations. So it’s like one step up from FM broadcast quality.
Actually, I found the quality of this recording so good, I burned it onto a CD and had it in my car for a couple of weeks. That’s something you can’t say about many live recordings – especially recordings from 1969.
This show took place a little less than two weeks before Zeppelin would release their second album, so there’s a mix of songs from both disks. This short set is heavy on the blues, but, as Zep would prove over the years, they could add a heavy element to almost anything. No exception here. They also stretched the songs out into showcases,
a la the 23-minute version of “How Many More Times” you’ll find here.
Introduction.mp3 Good Times Bad Times (intro) / Communication Breakdown.mp3 I Can’t Quit You Baby.mp3 Heartbreaker.mp3 Dazed and Confused.mp3 White Summer / Black Mountain Side.mp3 You Shook Me.mp3 How Many More Times.mp3Labels: classic rock, guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin, live music
"Shut the Door and Cover Me..."
The other day, while searching through eMusic for a couple of songs, I stumbled across a bunch of compilation disks. These disks all have names like those old
KTEL releases – things like
Trailer Park Hits and
Monster Mullet Rock. If I saw these in the cut-out bin (do they still have those?) I probably wouldn’t even give them a second glance.
As I skimmed the song titles, though, I saw these disks were filled with cover versions I’d never heard: Roger Daltrey and Slash doing “No More Mr. Nice Guy.” Ted Nugent playing “Rag Doll.”
I’ve ‘fessed up before that I love to hear a good cover of a good song. Rarely can a cover surpass the original, but it’s almost always interesting to hear a musician stamp a song with their own style. Case in point: Faster Pussycat. I’m not going to even get into their whole evolution from Motley Crue wanna-be’s to Marilyn Manson wanna-be’s, but did you ever think you’d hear an
industrial version of “Misty Mountain Hop”? Also, check out Yngwie Malmsteen’s take on “Dream On.” Whoever’s singing is no Steven Tyler, but Yngwie just
shreds the song. Joe who?
No More Mr. Nice Guy (Alice Cooper cover).mp3 ~ Roger Daltrey and Slash
It’s a Long Way to the Top (AC/DC cover).mp3 ~ Lemmy
Squealer (AC/DC cover).mp3 ~ Genitorturers
Viva Las Vegas.mp3 ~ Johnny Ramone
Tie Your Mother Down (Queen cover).mp3 ~ Lemmy and Ted Nugent
Misty Mountain Hop (Led Zeppelin cover).mp3 ~ Faster Pussycat
Dream On (Aerosmith cover).mp3 ~ Yngwie Malmsteen
Rag Doll (Aerosmith cover).mp3 ~ Ted Nugent
Money (Pink Floyd cover).mp3 ~ Edgar Winter
If you haven’t done so already, you need to check out
eMusic. For a fair price, they have become my number one source for independent, DRM-free music.
~~~~~
(
Picture Note: The pic is of Gen, singer and founding member of the Genitorturers, from the band's MySpace)
Labels: AC/DC, Aerosmith, classic rock, covers, guitar heroes, industrial, Led Zeppelin
Untitled Zeppelin post (take 12)
Well my friends, here we are at long last. The final chapter of my temporarily recurring feature here at the Licorice Pizza: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Sessions disks.
When I kicked this off, I had intended to post one part per week. That was almost four months ago to the day. Well, I came close. I doubt I’ll undertake again anything of this magnitude; it stopped being fun after the first few weeks! Judging from the hits I get for these posts, though, I think most of you liked it and I do appreciate you checking it out.
Fittingly enough, these last 10 songs come from some of the last stuff Zeppelin would do: The first three tracks, recorded in May 1978 at Clearwell Castle in England, are early rehearsals for
In Through the Out Door. The remaining tracks were recorded in April and May 1980 at the Rainbow and the New Victoria Theatres in London, just prior to the band kicking off its European tour. That tour started June 17 in Dortmund, Germany; three months later, John Bonham would tragically die, effectively bringing to an end one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands to ever exist.
The only real stand out here is a song called “Fire,” the first track. I couldn’t find any information about this song, where it came from, or what the story is behind it. It could be a cover, but I don’t immediately recognize it. Of the other tracks, there is nothing really special, other than the chance to hear Led Zeppelin together one final time.
Per usual, I’ve posted the individual songs and also Zipped them all up for you. I’ve also provided links to the 11 previous posts. Of those previous posts, I know the individual song links are still active, but I’m not sure about the RapidShare links – they expire after 30 days if they’re not used. Let me know if you come across something you can’t live without and the link is dead.
Fire.mp3 Carouselambra.mp3 Carouselambra.mp3 Carouselambra.mp3 White Summer.mp3 White Summer/Black Mountain Side.mp3 Kashmir.mp3 Achilles Last Stand.mp3 Achilles Last Stand.mp3 Stairway to Heaven.mp3 Unzip it all
here.
~~~~~~~~~~
Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 11 Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 10 Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 9 Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 8 Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 7 Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 6 Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 5 Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 4 Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 3 Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 2 Untitled Zeppelin Post
Part 1Labels: classic rock, guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin, outtakes
Untitled Zeppelin post (take 11)
I know, I know – I’m a lazy sod and it’s been another two weeks since the last installment of my temporarily recurring feature here at the Licorice Pizza: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Sessions disks. I’d like to think that the gaps would keep people checking in to see if I’ve posted the latest chapter, but things don’t seem to work that way in the blogosphere.
But here we are, with the penultimate disk, this one covering a little of
Presence and a lot of
In Through the Out Door. Sessions for both of these albums took place during tumultuous times in the Zeppelin camp. Recording for
Presence started while Robert Plant was recovering from injuries sustained in a 1975 car accident. Plant was convalescing in Malibu, Calif., and writing lyrics when Jimmy Page joined him. The two fleshed out the music Plant was working on, before being joined by John Paul Jones and John Bonham at SIR Studios in Hollywood for rehearsals. The album would ultimately be recorded at Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany.
The first three tracks of today’s post are from the sessions in Hollywood.
By late 1978, when Zeppelin set about recording
In Through the Out Door, the band had divided into two camps: Jones and Plant, who were actually trying to record an album; and Page and Bonham, who were both reportedly battling addictions. Often Plant and Jones would record during the day and Page and Bonham would show up at night to record their parts.
In Through the Out Door is the only Zeppelin album with original compositions (“South Bound Suarez” and “All My Love”) that Jimmy Page had no part in writing. The resulting album was much more keyboard-oriented than any of the previous Led Zeppelin disks.
These sessions took place during November and December 1978 at Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. Some things to note: This version of “All My Love” has an alternate ending with a “twangy” guitar solo and additional vocals. Plant also did all of the vocals in one take, so, other than the ending, this is the same version as on
In Through the Out Door.
The title of “South Bound Suarez” seems to be a point of contention among Led Zeppelin fans. Some think the title contains a typographical error; it is thought by some that “suarez” is a misspelling of the French word for an evening party,
soirée. More likely, though, is that it’s just a play on words, as the lyrics reference “flying down” (southbound), being happy to have his feet on the ground again, watching a woman walk and talk, heavy rhythm, and “con carne,” a Spanish dish prepared with beef.
Since there are only 14 songs on this disk, I posted them all, but also Zipped them all up for you. And I’ll try to get to the final disk sometime before Christmas!
1.
Royal Orleans.mp3 2.
Tea for One (aka Hootchie Cootchie version.mp3 3.
Don’t Start Me Talking / Blues Medley / All My Lovin’.mp3 4.
Carouselambra (inst).mp3 5.
unknown song (intro only).mp3 6.
Wearing and Tearing.mp3 7.
Fool in the Rain.mp3 8.
Hot Dog.mp3 9.
In the Evening.mp3 10.
South Bound Suarez.mp3 11.
Darlene.mp3 12.
Fool in the Rain.mp3 13.
Carouselambra.mp3 14.
All My Love.mp3 Unzip it
here.
Labels: classic rock, guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin, outtakes
Untitled Zeppelin post (take 10)
A little more from
Physical Graffiti as I continue the voyage that is my temporarily recurring feature here at the Licorice Pizza: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Sessions disks.
This disk shows Zeppelin tightening down on the versions of the songs that would ultimately end up on the album. You can hear, though, some are still works in progress, i.e. this version of “In the Light.” While it is now recognizable as the classic from
Physical Graffiti, it’s still distinctly different from the final version.
While I didn’t include it as a separate track here (it’s in the zip), I found the instrumental version of “Kashmir” almost as interesting as the final version. “Kashmir” is one of my favorite examples of how great a drummer John Bonham was and without the vocals, it really seems like the drumming takes center stage. I’ll admit, though, I kept expecting to hear, “Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face...”
Another of my favorite Bonzo tracks is “Boogie With Stu,” more for its rhythm than its technicality. There are a few versions of that song represented here: For posting purposes, I pulled one of the final versions, as well as the shorter drum “outro” from the song.
You can
link backward to get some insight to the
Physical Graffiti sessions. The quality of these recordings is all pretty decent. The only one that sounds really bad is a live recording of “The Wanton Song.” It comes from a Jan. 1, 1975, WLIR radio broadcast, in Westbury, NY. Why it got included with the studio sessions I couldn’t tell you, but it’s here so it’s yours now.
As usual I’ve posted a few songs and also zipped up the whole thing for you.
Track List1.
Trampled Underfoot.mp3 2. Kashmir (intrumental track)
3.
Custard Pie.mp3 4.
In the Light.mp3 5. Midnight Moonlight
6.
Midnight Moonlight.mp3 7. Ten Years Gone
8.
Ten Years Gone.mp3 9-10. Ten Years Gone
11-12 Boogie With Stu
13.
Boogie With Stu (outro).mp3 14-17. Boogie With Stu
18.
Boogie With Stu.mp3 19-22. Night Flight
23.
Night Flight.mp3 24. Night Flight
25. The Wanton Song (live)
UnZip it all
here~~~~~~
NOTE: I think the RapidShare link is fixed. They reconfigured something that caused me to have to reload the file and save it a different way so more than 10 people could access it. Lame!
Puh-leeze let me know if there are any other problems. Thanks to everyone who left a comment!!!
Labels: classic rock, demos, guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin
Untitled Zeppelin post (take 9)
Welcome to the Columbus Day weekend installment of my temporarily recurring feature here at the Licorice Pizza: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Sessions disks.
Back to the entire band with this post: Music dating from the January and February 1974
Physical Graffiti sessions. As I mentioned in
Zep post number eight, recording for
Physical Graffiti began in November 1973. However, according to Dave Marsh’s “The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin,” John Paul Jones “had wanted to quit the band and take up a position as choirmaster at Winchester Cathedral.” Ultimately Jones would return after the holidays and the band would reconvene in January at Headley Grange Studios.
At Headley Grange, the band recorded eight new songs. Robert Plant later referred to these eight tracks as “the belters.” “We got eight tracks off,” Plant said, “and a lot of them were really raunchy. We did some real belters with live vocals, off-the-wall stuff that turned out really nice.”
The decision to record at the informal surroundings of Headley Grange provided an opportunity for Zeppelin to improvise and develop material along the way. Plant is quoted in Marsh’s book as saying, “Some of the tracks we assembled in our...way of running through a track and realizing before we knew it that we had stumbled on something completely different.”
You’ll notice this in the song titled “In the Morning,” which would evolve into “In the Light.” Some other notes: Check out track 7, which is mainly studio chatter and noodling, but at about the 1:01 mark, Bonzo plays around with starting “Trampled Underfoot” with the “Rock and Roll” intro. Zeppelin also exeriment with a version (track 11) of the song that’s much funkier than what would finally appear on the album.
This disk (number nine of 12 if you’re keeping score) is right up there with the best of what I’ve posted so far. With that in mind, I’ve pulled more songs to post, but, for your listening convenience, I’ve also zipped up the whole thing for you.
Track List1.
The Wanton Song.mp3 2. The Wanton Song
3. Take Me Home
4.
Take Me Home.mp3 5.
In the Morning.mp36. Trampled Under Foot
7.
Trampled Under Foot.mp38-10. Trampled Under Foot
11.
Trampled Under Foot.mp312-14. Trampled Under Foot
15. In The Light
16. Sick Again
17. The Rover
18. untitled instrumental
19-25. In My Time of Dying
26.
The Wanton Song.mp3 (w/count-in)
27.
Trampled Underfoot.mp3 (w/long ending)
Unzip it all
hereLabels: classic rock, guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin, outtakes
Untitled Zeppelin post (take 8)
I suppose this would be the “oops-two-weeks-have-slid-by-since-the-last-installment” of my temporarily recurring feature here at the Licorice Pizza: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Sessions disks. Apparently 12 parts of any one thing is too much for me to stay on top of.
Much like
Part 7, this is all Jimmy Page. And, like the recordings Page did for Lucifer Rising, these tracks were recorded during October – November 1973 at Boleskine House in Loch Ness, Scotland, and at Headley Grange Studios in Hampshire, England, during November 1973 and January – February 1974. This is also the time when Zeppelin began recording
Physical Graffiti.
As these sessions began, the band almost lost John Paul Jones. According to Dave Marsh’s “The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin,” Jones “had wanted to quit the band and take up a position as choirmaster at Winchester Cathedral.” Fortunately, Jones was convinced all he needed was a break, and he returned after the holidays.
While there are 41 tracks in this set, there are only three different songs. The first one, “untitled instrumental,” sounds like the same type of thing Page was working on for Lucifer Rising. Listening to it, though, it also sounded like I was picking up some “Stairway to Heaven”-type chords. But that may have been my imagination.
The 12 short “Ten Years Gone” takes are all mostly recognizable as the song that would appear in its final form on Side 3 of
Physical Graffiti. This song may have been a reworking of an unreleased Zeppelin song called “Swan Song,” according to Dave Marsh.
The final 27 tracks are something called “Midnight Moonlight.” This track may have also started life as “Swan Song.” (Or may have grown out of whatever else Page was working on under that title.) Zeppelin never recorded this song, although a decade later, Page would record it while he was a member of The Firm. I don’t have a recorded version, but you can see a live version
here.
Once again, I’ve pulled a couple of the more interesting tracks, and then zipped the rest up for you.
Track1: untitled instrumental
Tracks 2-13: Ten Years Gone
Tracks 14-41: Midnight Moonlight
1.
untitled instrumental.mp3 13.
Ten Years Gone.mp3 14.
Midnight Moonlight.mp3 36.
Midnight Moonlight.mp3 41.
Midnight Moonlight.mp3 Unzip it all
here.
Labels: classic rock, guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin, outtakes
Untitled Zeppelin post (take 7)
Consider this the Jimmy Page edition of my temporarily recurring feature here at the Licorice Pizza: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Sessions disks.
There’s nothing on these recordings but Page, and while there are a couple of tracks with piano or keyboard in the background, primarily you’ve got the erstwhile Zeppelin axe-meister strumming away on an acoustic guitar.
The notes that came with the recordings indicate that the first three tracks, all titled “Lucifer Rising,” were recorded at Boleskine House, in Loch Ness, Scotland, during October and November 1973. The remaining 28 “untitled instrumentals” were recorded either in 1971 at Jimmy Page's home studio in the U.K., or at Headley Grange Studios during November 1973.
Here’s some additional information I found about the origin of the Lucifer Rising tracks: For a one-year period, starting in mid-1973, Page worked on the soundtrack of a film called Lucifer Rising. The film's director, Kenneth Anger, premiered the initial film rushes (accompanied by Page's score) at a movie theater in Los Angeles during September 1976.
Anger, who had a falling-out with Page before the film's completion, eventually commissioned a new soundtrack from an early protégé with whom he'd reconciled, Bobby Beausoleil. (You may recognize Beausoleil as also being one of Charles Manson’s protégés.) It was Beausoleil’s soundtrack that appeared in the commercially released version of the film. An audio recording from Page's score was later released as a bootleg titled
Solo Performances.
In the early 1980’s, Anger sold one of the early prints to a collector, who proceeded to copyright both the film and soundtrack. He had the audio from the soundtrack transferred and digitally enhanced before releasing it on his own Boleskine House Records label. The 23 minutes of audio was split in two, and pressed onto a clear blue vinyl 12-inch 45 RPM EP, in an edition of 1,000 copies.
The remaining tracks, may have come from 1971, as many of them bring to mind the riffs from The Rain Song, which was released in 1973 on
Houses of the Holy.
Bottom line – much of this is only going to appeal to the serious Zeppelin die-hards. I’m a huge fan and even I got a little tired of hearing Page just riffing on the guitar. No pyrotechnics here. Per usual, I’ve pulled a couple of the more interesting tracks, and then zipped the rest up for you.
Tracks 1-3: Lucifer Rising
Tracks 4-32: untitled instrumentals
1.
Lucifer Rising.mp3 9.
untitled instrumental.mp3 10.
untitled instrumental.mp3 22.
untitled instrumental.mp3 30.
untitled instrumental.mp3 32.
untitled instrumental.mp3 Unzip ‘em all right
here.
Labels: classic rock, Led Zeppelin, outtakes
Untitled Zeppelin post (take 6)
At long last, it’s the long-delayed, finally got home, waiting on Ike to flatten Miami edition of my temporarily recurring feature here at the Licorice Pizza: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Sessions disks.
Of the disks I’ve posted so far, this sixth disk is the most fun to listen to. Zeppelin sounds like a garage band, running through loose versions of old fifties songs and trying out songs that would appear on
Physical Graffiti.
According to the notes that came with these files, these tracks come from two different sound checks: 1-4 were recorded at the Gaumont Theatre in Southampton, England, on Jan. 21 1973. The note on the remaining tracks is unclear. It says, “Sound check, unknown venue May 3 '73 - not Chicago Auditorium, Chicago, Ill. July 6 '73.” If this means the recordings come from May 3, that would have been the day before Zep’s North American tour started at Fulton County Arena in Atlanta, so they may have been recorded there.
This 1973 tour was Zeppelin’s biggest to date, ultimately grossing more than $4 million. At the same time, the marathon performances were draining to the band, as Jimmy Page noted in a 1975 interview with William Burroughs for
Crawdaddy magazine: [W]e were playing [sets] for three hours solid, and physically that was a real...I mean, when I came back from the last tour I didn't know where I was,” he said. “I didn't even know where I was going. We ended up in New York and the only thing that I could relate to was the instrument onstage. I just couldn't...I was just totally and completely spaced out.”
Like usual, I’ve pulled some of the more interesting tracks, and then zipped the whole thing up for you.
Complete Track List:1. Drums and Mellotron Tuning/Love Me
2. Frankfurt Special
3.
King Creole.mp3 4. Love Me (reprise)
5.
Sugar Baby (aka Strawberry Jam).mp3 6-7. Sugar Baby (aka Strawberry Jam)
8. The Wanton Song
9-12. The Rover
13-16. Night Flight
17.
School Days.mp3 18.
Nadine.mp3 19.
Round and Round.mp3 20.
Move On Down the Line.mp3 21.
Please Don’t Tease.mp3 22-23. Move It
24. Dynamite
25.
Shakin’ All Over.mp3 26. Hungry For Love
27. I'll Never Get Over You
28.
Reelin’ and Rockin’.mp329. Drums and Mellotron Tuning
Unzip it all hereLabels: guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin, outtakes
Untitled Zeppelin post (take 5)
We’ve got today the Tropical Storm Fay edition of my temporarily recurring feature here at the Licorice Pizza: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Sessions disks.
This is a particularly different group of recordings. While I was listening to these tracks, something came to light that I had not known before. Apparently, during the
Houses of the Holy sessions in 1972, Page and Plant made some recordings with the Bombay Symphony Orchestra.
The first 18 tracks of today’s post are from those sessions, which were never officially released. The songs are heavy with tabla drums and sitars. When I listened to them for the first time, I thought someone had pranked me and those were actually outtakes from the
No Quarter album. It turned out the recordings were never used because Page was unhappy with the results. He reportedly complained that the orchestra didn't keep time in the Western style and some of them drank a lot.
What is interesting about these takes is the markedly different version of “Friends.” A lot of the takes are just the orchestra noodling around, trying to get the song down. You can also hear a lot of back and forth in Hindi. But the introduction of an Indian symphony changes the song in a dramatic way.
Page and Plant also worked on a version of “Four Sticks” with the orchestra. There is a take here that includes Plant’s vocals.
Of the remaining tracks, the seven versions of “No Quarter” come from June 1972 sessions at Electric Lady studios in New York, where Zeppelin went to complete recording the
Houses of the Holy album. Take a listen to track 26 and you can hear some slight differences from what would be the final version of the song.
“Walter’s Walk” was recorded May 1972 at Stargroves in England. It remained unreleased until 1982 when it was included on
Coda. The date of Plant’s performance on the song is debatable, according to Dave Lewis’ The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin. Plant's tone in this track is far more reminiscent of
In Through the Out Door than the rest of the material recorded during the
Houses of the Holy era, Lewis says. He further suggests Plant's vocals may have been recorded at Jimmy Page's Sol Studios in 1982. It is quite possible that the song existed only as a basic backing track until
Coda was assembled.
Again, because of the number of tracks and the amount of just tuning up and fooling around, I’ve posted just a few individual songs then made the entire disk available via the magic of zip.
Complete Track List:1-11. Friends
12. Four Sticks
13-14. Friends
15.
Friends.mp3 16. Four Sticks (Take 1)
17.
Four Sticks (take 2).mp3 18. Four Sticks (Take 3)
19.
Walter’s Walk.mp3 20-25. No Quarter
26.
No Quarter.mp3 Unzip the whole thing
hereLabels: guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin, outtakes
Untitled Zeppelin post (take 4)
On with the Olympic edition of my temporarily recurring feature here at the Licorice Pizza: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Sessions disks.
Of the four disks posted so far, this is right up there with the best. There are limited “untitled instrumentals,” and you get to hear the band working through early versions of some classics. The versions of “Stairway to Heaven” alone are worth the price of admission: Listen close and you can hear alternate lyrics as Zeppelin puts the song together. Classic stuff.
These tracks all come from sessions at Headley Grange Studios in England, during January and February 1971, while Zeppelin was recording the fourth album. These songs are all so well known they really need no introduction or additional information. I did, however, come across some interesting trivia about the album itself:
• The painting on the front of the album, showing an old man carrying a bundle of sticks, was supposedly purchased by a Led Zeppelin roadie from a junk shop in Reading, Berkshire, (although Jimmy Page has said it was actually Robert Plant who bought it). The painting was affixed to the internal, papered wall of a partly demolished house for the photograph to be taken.
• At one time, Led Zeppelin had considered releasing the fourth album as four EPs, but because of various delays, they ultimately decided to release the single album.
Stairway to Heaven.mp3 untitled instrumental.mp3 Black Dog.mp3 Black Dog.mp3 Black Dog.mp3 Black Dog.mp3 Black Dog.mp3 Black Dog.mp3 Black Dog.mp3 No Quarter.mp3 Stairway to Heaven.mp3 Stairway to Heaven.mp3 Stairway to Heaven.mp3 Stairway to Heaven.mp3 untitled instrumental.mp3 Stairway to Heaven.mp3 Stairway to Heaven.mp3 The Battle of Evermore.mp3 When the Levee Breaks.mp3 Four Sticks.mp3 Black Dog.mp3 UnZip 'em all
here.
Labels: classic rock, guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin, outtakes
Untitled Zeppelin post (take 3)
Live from Arizona, my temporarily recurring feature here at the Licorice Pizza: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Sessions disks.
I’ll be honest with you here: This set is probably going to appeal mainly to the hardcore Zeppelin fans. There are 45 tracks, of which 39 are named either “untitled instrumental” or “unknown song.” Of the instrumental tracks, the majority are less than a minute in length and consist of Jimmy Page playing and expanding on various riffs or just noodling. There are no songs here with the full band. The “unknown song” tracks are mainly Robert Plant working out some vocals alongside Page’s guitar playing. Unfortunately, there are no hidden treasures here.
In some respects it is interesting to hear a guitar genius like Page working out a riff and hearing some familiar chords in different contexts. Particularly interesting is hearing the evolution of "That's the Way." On the other hand, you truly have to be a Zeppelin fanatic to listen to Page strum the same few chords over and over. I’ll leave it to you to decide what group you’re in.
To help you out, what I’ve done is pull the tracks I feel are the most interesting and post those individually. I’ve dropped the entire thing into a zip file if you’re interested in hearing the recordings in their entirety.
According to the notes that came with the file, these were recorded at Bron-Yr-Aur Cottage, Machynlleth Gwynedd, Wales and Headley Grange Studios, Hampshire, England, in May and June 1970. That would put this as part of the
Led Zeppelin III sessions, probably early on, before John Bonham and John Paul Jones joined Plant and Page at Headley Grange.
Complete Track List1. I Wanna Be Her Man
2-19. untitled instrumentals
20. Hey Hey What Can I Do?
21-26. untitled instrumentals
27. Down By The Sea Side
28. unknown song
29. untitled instrumental
30-32. unknown songs
33-34. untitled instrumentals
35. Poor Tom
36-37. untitled instrumentals
38-41. That's The Way (four versions)
42. Bron-Yr-Aur
43-45. untitled instrumentals
Selected Track ListI Wanna Be Her Man.mp3 10. untitled instrumental.mp3 11. untitled instrumental.mp3 17. untitled instrumental.mp3 Hey Hey What Can I Do (inst).mp3 21. untitled instrumental.mp3 Down by the Sea Side.mp3 Down by the Sea Side.mp3 Poor Tom.mp3 That’s the Way.mp3 That’s the Way.mp3 That’s the Way.mp3 That’s the Way.mp3 Bron-Yr-Aur.mp3 43. untitled instrumental.mp3 44 untitled instrumental.mp3 Un"Zep" it all hereLabels: classic rock, demos, guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin, outtakes
Untitled Zeppelin post (take 1)
I’m going to introduce a new, recurring, yet limited run feature here at the Licorice Pizza: I just got my hands on a 12-disk set of Led Zeppelin session recordings/outtakes/alternate takes/etc., and I think the historical rock ‘n’ roll value demands I post the entire set.
What I plan to do is post a new disk at least once a week. That way I can fit in other stuff and I won’t get bored with just posting the Zeppelin recordings. Besides, I got them in a FLAC format, which means I have to go through the tedious process of converting them to MP3, otherwise they take up huge chunks of space.
Like most everything else I find that I think is new and cool, it’s only really new to me; I’m usually among the last to get to the party. According to the info that came with these files, this boot box set was released in May 2007. It combines some previous Japanese releases with Midas Touch's
Brutal Artistry and
Brutal Artistry II, and Empress Valley's
The Lost Mixes EP Volume 1. There is some minor material making its debut. The end of track 13 from the first disc has an extra half-minute over prior releases. Disc 10’s tracks 7-14 provide an extra 17 minutes of studio room floor edit pieces for “Ten Years Gone” and “Boogie With Stu.”
The 12 disks cover most of Zeppelin’s studio history, beginning with sessions for
Led Zeppelin and running through tracks recorded in 1980 at the New Victoria Theatre in London. Although I’m sure this collection is far from comprehensive, it is the first I’ve found that gathered all of this in one place. It is also excellent sound-wise. There is a little hiss, but not enough to be distracting, and of the tracks I’ve listened to so far, only one was of so-so quality. It was still very listenable.
I’m going to kick this off with Disk 1, appropriately enough. Two tracks here are stand outs: “You Shook Me,” which, at a little more than a minute longer than the final version, really showcases Robert Plant’s harp skills. It also reminded me that Zeppelin started as blues band – this song is a much rougher, bluesier take than what would ultimately end up on Zeppelin’s debut. The other stand out track is “Babe Come on Home (take 3).” After some research, I learned that a version of this song surfaced on the commercially released box set version of
Coda. I didn’t buy that set and had never before heard this song. To me, it was like finding a long-lost Led Zeppelin treasure.
(Tracks 1-13: Olympic Sound Studios, Barnes, London, England Oct. 1968)
Babe I’m Gonna Leave You (take 8).mp3 Babe I’m Gonna Leave You (take 9).mp3 You Shook me (take 1).mp3 Babe Come On Home (aka Tribute to Bert Berns) (take 1).mp3 Babe Come On Home (aka Tribute to Bert Berns) (take 2).mp3 Babe Come On Home (aka Tribute to Bert Berns) (take 3).mp3 Untitled Instrumental (take 1).mp3 Untitled Instrumental (take 2).mp3 Untitled Instrumental (take 3).mp3 Untitled Instrumental.mp3 Untitled Instrumental (take 4).mp3 Untitled Instrumental.mp3 Untitled Instrumental (take 7).mp3 (Tracks 14-15: Mirror Sound Studios, Los Angeles, Calif. May 1969)
Moby Dick (intro and outro).mp3 Moby Dick (drum solo).mp3 (Track 16: Morgan Studios, Willesdon, London, England June 1969)
Sugar Mama.mp3Labels: classic rock, guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin, outtakes
The Song... is somewhat changed
Quite a football night here in Apt. 104. Texas A&M in the Alamo Bowl and New England trying to end their season undefeated, playing the New York Giants. The remote is getting a serious workout as I bounce between channels.
On to some music, though....
I had no real intention of buying the re-released version of
The Song Remains the Same, the album version of Led Zeppelin’s July 1973 shows at Madison Square Garden. I really didn’t even have any intent of getting the DVD reissue. I’ve owned the vinyl, the original CD release, and have seen the movie probably dozens of times. Back in my military days, we would regularly get together for late night, high-volume video screenings.
But the office gift exchange comes around and, even though we work together every day, no one really knows what to get anyone, so most of us ended with gift cards. My “Christmas Buddy” gifted me with a Best Buy gift card. I was going to use it to just buy some CD-R disks, but this morning I thought, “I oughta get that new version of
The Song Remains the Same.” I thought there was some sort of a box set, with the new versions of the movie and the disk. I head over to Best Buy, gift card in hand, hopes high as I entered the store. I searched the music section; no box sets. I searched movies; nothing. “WTF?” I’m thinking.
I finally found some kid with a name tag and asked, “Do you have a box set of
The Song Remains the Same?”
“What’s that?” he asked me. The blank stare told me he wouldn’t know even if I told him.
“Never mind,” I said, and set off to recheck the aisles on my own.
I never found a box set (I’m still not sure there is one), but I did find the re-released version of the CD. I checked it and saw that it contains six songs not on the original release: “Black Dog,” “Over the Hills and Far Away,” “Misty Mountain Hop,” “Since I’ve Been Loving You,” “The Ocean,” and “Heartbreaker.”
Even though I’ve heard this album probably hundreds of times, it’s still a joy to put it on and hear one of rock's greatest bands during the time they were arguably at their peak. Cameron Crowe, who wrote the original liner notes for the album, gets a 2007 update as well: “Page’s one-man guitar orchestra, swooping and careening, taking no prisoners, Jones and Bonham holding the brilliant center, and the high stakes passion of Plant, coaxing magic at every turn ... it’s a breathtaking statement of ownership.”
Over the Hills and Far Away.mp3 Heartbreaker.mp3While looking for a couple of pictures for this post, I found a site called
The Garden Tapes, which is a “study of the Led Zeppelin film and album
The Song Remains the Same.” This site takes a very comprehensive look at what songs – and what
parts of the songs – come from which nights of the Madison Square Garden shows. It really breaks the songs down second-by-second and sometimes note-by-note in explaining how they were assembled into the final commercial releases.
Labels: classic rock, guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin, live albums
This Blog Kills
Jimmy Page got his first guitar, a Spanish-style acoustic, when he was about 12 years old. Within a year, he was playing in bands around the Epsom, Surrey, area where he grew up. He was barely 14 when he appeared on a televised talent show, playing guitar in a skiffle band.
In the years between that first appearance and 1965, when he joined the Yardbirds, Page played on what has been estimated as “hundreds” of recordings. Stephen Davis, in “Hammer of the Gods,” wrote that Page “was the wise hack of the pop world, a consummate pro, making a fortune while the rest of his generation of English musicians toiled in bands for lots of fame...but little money. Outside the insular world of the London recording studios, Page was unknown.”
When questioned about which songs he played on, Page often points out that it is hard to remember exactly what he did, given the huge amount of sessions he was playing at the time. Various estimates have him playing on anything from 50 percent to 90 percent of the records that were produced in England between 1963 and 1965.
A double album set titled
This Guitar Kills: More 60s Groups & Sessions captures Page’s early recording history, with songs from, among others, Neil Christian, Mickey Finn & the Blue Men, and Peggy Lee. The album was released as an import in 2003 and has been recently re-mastered and re-released, but is still – I believe – available in the U.S. only as an import.
“The two discs are just the tip of the whirlwind that was Page in the '60’s,” writes Tim Sendra, for the
All Music Guide. “It is a very fun listen because even if a song or singer is pretty rotten Page can save the song with his fleet-fingered, wildly imaginative approach. Not quite an essential listen, but Page fans and fans of the '60s British scene should be quite happy.”
I’m pulling a few tracks from the first disk for today’s post. I’ll try to get some stuff up from disk number two in a couple of days. I’m being a little more generous than usual with the songs from this release because it’s an import.
Somebody Told My Girl.mp3 Carter-Lewis & The SouthernersMy Baby Left Me.mp3 Dave BerryPills.mp3 Mickey Finn & the Blue MenIs It True.mp3 Brenda LeeSweet and Tender Romance.mp3 The McKinleysLabels: classic rock, guitar heroes, Led Zeppelin
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. 
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. 
