Led Zeppelin continue their reissue campaign with a new edition of their celebrated live album ‘How The West Was Won’, originally released in 2003, featuring newly remastered audio supervised by Jimmy Page. How the West Was Won has been a long time coming. For a band with such an overarching legacy, the official record of Led Zeppelin’s legendary and unpredictable live act has previously been poorly represented by the disappointing, scattershot soundtrack to The Song Remains the Same. But this triple-disc live set (culled from 1972 Long Beach/LA shows in advance of Houses of the Holy) addresses history with a vengeance, if a few decades late. These shows have rightfully assumed cult status in the bootleg market, showcasing a band at the peak of its creative and performing powers.
The Zep faithful will welcome this belated release as evidence for enduring loyalty, but younger fans may find its diversity and dynamics even more enlightening indeed, whole careers have since been built on the musical ideas Jimmy Page and company throw out here as decorative filler. Crucially rooted in the amped-and-hammered American blues of the guitarist’s former band, the Yardbirds, the marathon work-outs of “Dazed and Confused” and “Whole Lot a Love” (which consume nearly an hour all by themselves) somehow encompass Ricky Nelson, Morocco, James Brown, Holst, Elvis Presley and Muddy Waters amidst their trademark sturm und drang, while the acoustic set that closes out Disc One showcases the band’s and particularly Robert Plant’s good-natured, crypto-Celtic folk appeal with energetic aplomb. Bigger and brasher than just about any rock act that followed in its historic wake, yet ever fan-loyal to its myriad influences, Led Zeppelin’s live juggernaut finally gets the monument it deserves.
For years, Led Zeppelin fans complained that there was one missing item in the group’s catalog: a good live album. It’s not that there weren’t live albums to be had. The Song Remains the Same, of course, was a soundtrack of a live performance, but it was a choppy, uneven performance, lacking the majesty of the group at its peak. BBC Sessions was an excellent, comprehensive double-disc set of their live radio sessions, necessary for any Zeppelin collection (particularly because it contained three songs, all covers, never recorded anywhere else), but some carped that the music suffered from not being taped in front of a large audience, which is how they built their legacy — or, in the parlance of this triple-disc collection of previously unreleased live recordings compiled by Jimmy Page, How the West Was Won. The West in this case is the West Coast of California, since this contains selections from two 1972 concerts in Los Angeles: a show at the LA Forum on June 25, and one two days later at Long Beach Arena. This is the first archival release of live recordings of Zeppelin at their peak and while the wait has been nigh on interminable, the end result is certainly worth the wait. Both of these shows have been heavily bootlegged for years and while those same bootleggers may be frustrated by the sequencing that swaps the two shows interchangeably (they always prefer full shows wherever possible), by picking the best of the two nights, Page has assembled a killer live album that captures the full, majestic sweep of Zeppelin at their glorious peak. And, make no mistake, he tries to shove everything into these three discs — tight, furious blasts of energy; gonzo freak-outs; blues; and rock, a sparkling acoustic set. Like always, the very long numbers — the 25-minute “Dazed and Confused,” the 23-minute “Whole Lotta Love,” the 19-minute “Moby Dick” — are alternately fascinating and indulgent, yet even when they meander, there is a real sense of grandeur, achieving a cinematic scale attempted by few of their peers (certainly no other hard rock or metal band could be this grand; only Queen or David Bowie truly attempted this). But the real power of the band comes through on the shorter songs, where their sound is distilled to its essence. In the studio, Zeppelin was all about subtle colors, textures, and shifts in the arrangement. On-stage, they were similarly epic, but they were looser, wilder, and hit harder; witness how “Black Dog” goes straight for the gut here, while the studio version escalates into a veritable guitar army — it’s the same song, but the song has not remained the same. That’s the case throughout How the West Was Won, where songs that have grown overly familiar through years of play seem fresh and new because of these vigorous, muscular performances. For those who never got to see Zeppelin live, this — or its accompanying two-DVD video set — is as close as they’ll ever get. For those who did see them live, this is a priceless souvenir. For either group, this is absolutely essential, as it is for anybody who really loves hard rock & roll. It doesn’t get much better than this.
Tracklist:
01. LA Drone (Live) [Remastered]
02. Immigrant Song (Live) [Remastered]
03. Heartbreaker (Live) [Remastered]
04. Black Dog (Live) [Remastered]
05. Over The Hills And Far Away (Live) [Remastered]
06. Since I’ve Been Loving You (Live) [Remastered]
07. Stairway To Heaven (Live) [Remastered]
08. Going to California (Live) [Remastered]
09. That’s The Way (Live) [Remastered]
10. Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp (Live) [Remastered]
11. Dazed And Confused (Live) [Remastered]
12. What Is And What Should Never Be (Live) [Remastered]
13. Dancing Days (Live) [Remastered]
14. Moby Dick (Live) [Remastered]
15. Whole Lotta Love (Live) [Remastered]
16. Rock And Roll (Live) [Remastered]
17. The Ocean (Live) [Remastered]
18. Bring It On Home (Live) [Remastered]
Personnel:
John Bonham – drums, percussion, backing vocals, co-lead vocals on “Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp”
John Paul Jones – bass, double bass, bass pedals, keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals
Jimmy Page – acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin, backing vocals
Robert Plant – vocals, harmonica
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