Published on Nov 21, 1997
Who would have believed that seventeen years after their breakup
Led Zeppelin would still be all the rage?
I had a hard time believing it when I first tried to pick their
latest disc,
BBC Sessions, up from my local Best Buy; they were moving so
fast that they had to put them at the registers. The clerk told me
they couldn’t keep them on the shelves.
And while this collection does feature a live performance that
captures the bandmuch better than their previous live effort
The Song Remains The Same, it also is an exercise in
overindulgence that tests the listener’s patience — is there
really any reason there are three different versions of
“Communication Breakdown” on this one — two recorded within
one frickin’ week of each other?
In fact, the 1969 sessions are the ones that take the most
patience to get through. Admittedly, these sessions display a very
young band barely one album old. So, there is a lot of repetition
here — besides the three version of “Communication Breakdown,”
there are two versions of “You Shook Me” and “I Can’t Quit You
Baby” on disc one alone — good grief! (Disc two has repeats of
“Whole Lotta Love” and “Dazed & Confused.”) Yes, I can
appreciate that the band didn’t have a real catalog to choose from,
but this seems to be pushing it.
The cuts taken from “Chris Grant’s Tasty Pop Sundae” sound a
little rough — too sharp in the treble range. One song from these
sessions, “The Girl I Love She Got Long Black Wavy Hair,” is making
the rounds on radio as the first single — though this is hardly a
classic Zeppelin number. Jimmy Page’s guitar work is nothing
special here, nor is Robert Plant’s banshee screaming. And while I
love the song “Travelling Riverside Blues,” the die-hard fans
should rightfully feel cheated here — isn’t this song one of the
reasons we all dropped $70 in 1990 on the
Led Zeppelin box set?
Where disc one fails, disc two makes up for the shortcomings. A
1971 live concert recorded for the BBC, this is where msgrs. Page,
Plant, Jones and Bonham shine. Recorded just before their untitled
fourth album came out, this show served to introduce a London
audience to songs that would soon be embedded in their collective
memories. “Stairway To Heaven” has a fresh, almost hesitant sound
to it — and it’s rarely been performed so lovingly. “Black Dog”
features Plant ad-libbing through some of the stanzas, while “Going
To California” is simply amazing.
I also like the fact that there are a spattering of selections
from
Led Zeppelin III — “Since I’ve Been Loving You” was not
broadcast by the BBC, and this live version makes its debut.
“That’s The Way,” easily one of the most underrated Zeppelin tracks
ever, is a welcome addition to the live repertoire.
As Led Zeppelin was reaching the pinnacle of their fame, some of
the big hits are presented without as much of the musical
masturbation that would burden the tracks in just a few short
years. “Dazed And Confused” — a track that clocked in at around 30
minutes on the movie, but only around 24 on the album — is much
more manageable here at around 19 minutes. Now, this may seem like
a strange statement, but shaving off a dozen or so minutes of
noodling on the instruments boils the track down to a more powerful
result. “Whole Lotta Love” clocks in at just under 14 minutes, but
this is a rawer effort with a little more zing.
The die-hard Zeppelin fans probably aren’t surprised at the
content of
BBC Sessions; the song order is pretty close to the way they
were playing their live sets around this time. Bootlegs I have from
this time back this up. But I would stop at saying that this is the
ultimate live Led Zeppelin album – if only because the bulk of the
1969 sessions aren’t truly “live”. (That is, they’re not performed
in concert — not unless Page figured out how to play rhythm
and lead guitar at the same time that he was playing
dobro.)
The set I purchased cam with a bonus disc containing three
interviews with Led Zeppelin — but I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t
gotten to this disc yet. The drooling collector won’t be able to
live without the three-disc collector’s set; for everyone else, the
“official” two-disc release will do just fine.
BBC Sessions is a welcome addition to the Led Zeppelin
discography, and it is a much better effort than
The Song Remains The Same – but it still leaves something to
be desired as a true live album. It’s still an entertaining way to
spend two hours, and will make an excellent stocking stuffer for
the music lover in your household.