After all these years, has Led Zeppelin officially released their best live recordings, or are they holding stuff back? Why are there not more live recordings?
I have the official live releases, which are pretty awesome. And I’ve heard a ton of bootlegs. You can hear any of them online and they vary in sound quality. But given the number of shows they did in the 1970s, one would think they could be releasing more archival recordings.
Kinda been waiting for the audio only remaster of the led zeppelin dvd.
Yes. Give me the whole RAH concert. Specifically the final song.
I saw the full movie at the Aero theater in Santa Monica at near deafening volume level. Pretty awesome. Double feature w Ziggy Stardust.
Now THAT is an awesome double feature!
Groovy.
Hot DAMN what a show. Imagine the cocaine budget! Lol.
Danish Radio too!
You can find most of the RAH concert on various sites for free under the name 'Jimmy's Birthday Bash', with the sound quality being almost identical to the one on the 2003 DVD, including about 4 minutes of Heartbreaker and Long Tall Sally, the final encore.
I made my own with a DVD audio ripper :)
Page made Jason Bonham give up the use of the name Led Zeppelin Experience for his tribute band because Page wanted that name for an archival live project. Jason switched it to Led Zeppelin Evening instead. I would love a release of the Japan shows and call it How the East Was Won if Jimmy ever does it.
Page is a perfectionist and refuses to release anything that doesn’t sound perfect. Notice how the deluxe remasters for a few years ago had bonus tracks that were mostly indistinguishable from the originals?
I’d love a 1977 show but even the best ones have a few flubs here and there and Jimmy won’t allow that unless he can somehow fix it in the studio.
The perfectionist part from Page and then Robert’s not wanting to dwell on the past prolly are the drivers there.
Remember, how the west was won is NOT a single show and has a bunch of cutting and pasting to it. Ditto to TSRTS. The zeppelin dvd also had its fair amount of fairy dust sprinkled on it. Don’t get me wrong - it’s nowhere near the level of the vast vast majority of bands in terms of fixes, but is plenty evidence Page wants to tinker with and perfect anything for release. The myth building business I suppose.
The hope is the multi night runs like Earls Court ‘75 could see the light of day as he could mix and match from multiple nights, but given he hasn’t done it yet…..slim chance. Is what it is.
Last year a quarter of Plant and Allison Krause's set were Zeppelin tunes. I think Robert is now very comfortable with his past.
And seeing those 2 in July at bethel woods as part of outlaw country festival blows my mind (willie and dylan part of that)
I'm seeing them next month - cannot wait
I really wish Page would just release a fully mixed and mastered edition of their 25 June 1972 show at the LA Forum, one of the shows used for How The West Was Won. That show is absolute perfection and Page wouldn't have to alter a single note in it.
Clearly the big boss isn’t comfortable with it given the various patches used! Think page isn’t much a fan of the warts and all approach.
Exceptions being BBC sessions and the concert that came with the zeppelin 1 reissue.
You’re correct but the perfectionist part from him always confuses me a bit since he’s known for being a sloppy player. Not meaning that bit as a knock as he’s my favorite guitar player and his sloppiness is part of what makes him sound so unique. It just seems strange that a guy so loose with his playing is such a perfectionist behind the boards.
"Tight but loose," as they called it.
Indeed. There’s an online Zeppelin magazine called that as well.
The 1977 tour has no Multi Track recordings*, so an officially released live album for that tour is impossible
*That we know of
Ugh. That’s supposedly the same reason Pink Floyd didn’t release any live stuff from 1977 on their recent Animals rerelease.
It's hard to pin down exactly why they haven't released any live recordings post 73. Some say it's Page being a perfectionist, Plant not liking his vocal performance or if there is even proper multi tracked recordings available. There are some outstanding bootlegs covering 75-80 but I could only list a handful that could be official release worthy really, Seattle/ Earls Court from 75, LA or NY from 77 and the Copenhagen shows from 79 would be fantastic.
Most baffling to me is that they haven't released the DVD material in audio only format. They surely must have a full Earls Court/ Royal Albert Hall and or Knebworth set they could release on vinyl/ streaming but it's been over 20 years since the original release.
TLdr , who the feck knows why
Apparently, Page has a ton of stuff he wants to release but Plant feels it would distract from his solo career so he’s apparently working against it.
I don’t know how true or not that is but it’s what I’ve read…
I think Robert knows releasing any new Zeppelin stuff will be a boon to his solo career. Plant, Page and Jones are very astute. They know that scarcity = $$$. What's in those vaults will provide for their families for decades, to come...
What solo career?
Plant's had a successful solo career since 1982
Plant has probably had the most solo success out of the entire band. He’s consistently released music and toured since Led Zeppelin finished and his last few solo albums and his collaborations with Allison Krauss have been very well-regarded
You’ve gotta be kidding
No...I'm not.
Berkeley 9/14/71
Anyone reading this who hasn’t heard that date needs to listen to it immediately.
How the West Was Won
Their best was “Listen to this Eddie” 1977 in Los Angeles. Set list was awesome and they sounded about as good as it gets for 1977
It’s a great concert. But it’s mono, isn’t it? Or whatever it is, it just doesn’t have much of a wide spectrum. It’s clear sounding but also kind of limited too.
It’s an audience recording. Just a really good one.
If you listen to the Winston remaster, it almost sounds like a professionally mixed live album.
In my opinion, Page (and eventually his estate) is holding on to numerous soundboard recordings and just waiting for the right time to release them.
How would waiting until what is almost certainly the last 5-10 years of his life be “the right time”?
The unreleased material will provide an revenue stream for his, Plant's and Jones' children and their descendants for a long time to come.
Do you really think that’s his priority? Creating an endless line of idle rich to live off of his talent for generations to come?
Quite a lot of old wealthy people do like the idea of ensuring that future generations of their family are as secure as possible financially, yes
Here we go...oh no...rich people...soak them, eat them!!
No, his priority is not creating an endless line of idle rich to live off his talent for generations to come. Being a parent, his priority is making sure the people he loves are taken care of.
I for one am happy and proud that Bonzo, Robert, JPJ and Jimmy and their kin are filthy rich in part because of the hundreds of dollars I've shelled out on them over the decades. Robert's great great great grandchildren water skiing behind the yacht I helped buy? More power to em.
It may not be for him but his estate (kids, relatives, etc).
My suspicion is that Page is too much of a perfectionist to be willing to release a lot of stuff, but even more than that I think any time they try to do anything zeppelin related Robert vetos because he doesn't want it to interfere with his solo career. This might be a little cynical, but I think once Robert passes we'll start seeing stuff getting released
If anything, releasing material does wonders for Robert's solo career. This isn't 1970 where the Beatles are trying to get Paul not to release his solo album the same time as Let It Be. I think Robert is comfortable enough (and has been for decades) in his own skin to embrace his legacy.
I'm not saying I agree with the logic that zeppelin releases would interfere with Robert's career, in fact I think it would boost him, but he doesn't seem to think that
You find a lot of good bootlegs on vinyl. I’ve been picking some up
Look for the Texas International Pop Festival show from 1969. It's as good as 1969 Live Led Zeppelin ever got, which is saying alot.
I’ve seen a couple different pressings of that one. I have ONE
Look for 2/12/75 Madison Square Garden and 5/24/75 Earl’s Court
Will do, thanks
edit: any particular pressing?
Mine are on CD. Traded for them years ago. You could dig around on some torrent sites. Look for “Silver Bootleg”. Other really good ones are 6/27/69 London and 4/27/77 Richfield Ohio.
Ok I’m not that cool. I’ve found a couple festival and radio performances, nothing rare
How the West Was Won is a great live album. My favorite.
RAH, Earl’s Court, and something from 77 would be great. You’d have just about everything documented then…
Priority to Earls Court, Royal Albert Hall and Osaka please
Supposedly Jimmy has lots of stuff stashed away.
earls court,knebworth,rah please
I doubt money is a factor. If any of them needed (or wanted more) money they could do things that would bring in more than something like this. Sure, it would sell a certain number of physical copies and make a few bucks from streaming, but they may not see that as being worth the time and effort to really do it right.
There's gotta be some sweet stuff in Page's vault from 1975 and maybe from 70 into 71 too when they already released the fourth record so there would be a good set list.
There are projects on YouTube Like Led Zeppelin Boots that take croud sources of recordings and soundboards, then mix them together to get a full sounding recording. There are several high quality performances out there as a result, but nothing official. The thing is most of these performances have a lot of "warts"....mistakes, bad notes, etc. No way Jimmy would release those without overdubs, edits, or cuts. Some of those concerts in '77 and '80 sound like those "Shreds" videos LOL
Nassau Coliseum February 1975 - that’s peak!
i really dont think there's a point, everything's been bootlegged
Peter Grant had a lot of control over the Zeppelin brand; he also controlled concerts pretty tightly so bootlegs are more rare.
I guess you’re wrong there. Led Zeppelin is in fact the most bootlegged band in history, but I guess we could have had more if it wasn’t for Grant. There is about 300 shows bootlegged. More than 100 of them with very good sound. Personally I have about 130 shows in listening rotation.
I think tbh we are going to get what has happened to the Beatles at the moment. AI is going to be able to make a lot of live shows sound really good.
Check out “in celebration for a king” on YouTube. AI was used in some capacity to enhance the recording. It’s as close to an official release sounding bootleg of 77 show.
Two words: revenue stream