Led Zeppelin - How the West Was Won
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Free Music Notes for How the West Was Won
Free Music Review: Amazing live Led Zeppelin extravaganza.
Hit: 5 Stars
I was fortunate enough to get this from a local independent record store 3 days before its release. Immediately after hearing it, I knew that the planet was in for a treat. This, and the accompanying DVD, were hyped up among Zeppelin fans. After listening to this CD, I can safely say it is getting all the hype it deserves, maybe even not enough.Though I enjoyed The Song Remains the Same album and film, this blows that out of the water. The sound quality is excellent, this has more to offer, and is just better in every way.
This collection of performances from 2 shows in 1972 (June 25th at LA Forum, June 27th at Long Beach Arena) represent Led Zeppelin at their live best. Listening to it makes me wish I had been born early enough to witness Led Zeppelin in concert, and I envy those who were there at those shows, witnessing a night of history. The versions of "Whole Lotta Love," "Dazed & Confused," and "Bring It On Home" are all at least 10 minutes and are sure to please every Zeppelin fan out there. "Whole Lotta Love" is here in all its live glory, containing the medley of covers that extended it to 23+ minutes, pure Zeppelin bliss. As expected, "Dazed & Confused" features Jimmy Page playing his guitar with the violin bow, and is yet another stellar version of this song to add to our CD collections. The acoustic set here is also present, featuring excellent versions of "Going to California," "That's The Way," and "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp." The latter was a personal highlight for me, as the song is a tribute to Robert Plant's dog, he calls out the dog's name, Strider, at the end. I also have a dog named Strider, so it's cool that my dog has the same name as the dog of one of my favorite singers (for the same reason too, Plant loved JRR Tolkien, and my dog's name was thought of after seeing Lord of the Rings). The medley of "La Drone"/"Immigrant Song" kicks the set off with a bang, and an excellent version of "Heartbreaker" follows, with Page totally kicking but during his solo, incorporating Bach's "Bouree in E Minor" into it. There are stellar versions of "Stairway to Heaven," "Since I've Been Loving You," and "What Is and What Should Never Be" on here as well. As expected, the 23-minute "Whole Lotta Love" medley is a definite highlight, as is "Dazed and Confused." Drummers are bound to be impressed by the late, great John Bonham's extended drum solo on "Moby Dick."
Although the Houses of the Holy album had yet to be released, those in attendence were treated to previews of some of the songs, and the versions of "Over the Hills and Far Away," "Dancing Days," and "The Ocean" all kick massive behind. A just-under-10-minute version of "Bring It On Home" closes off this CD with a bang, and leaving the listener in awe.
Also when listening to it, one cannot help but notice how good the sound quality is. Any Zeppelin fan knows that Jimmy Page, producer for all the albums and a key songwriter, settles for nothing but the best, and only that. When Led Zeppelin's catalogue was first released on CD, the sound quality was inferior, so Jimmy Page himself remastered the CDs, showing that he not only cares about the old fans, but the young fans growing in the 90s discovering the group (like this one). With BBC Sessions, Jimmy was in charge of that, and gave us a great sounding album of BBC material. And once again, he has proven his loyalty to the fans (and to himself and his band) and given us an amazing-sounding live record with great material on it. THANKS, JIMMY!!!!!
All that said, How the West Was Won is an absolute must-own for any Led Zeppelin fan, no questions asked. If you like Led Zeppelin, you are GUARANTEED to enjoy this. Don't worry about price, because when you hear it, you will know for yourself that this CD is worth its weight in gold. Buy it and enjoy it for a long time to come.
5/5
Free Music Review: simply amazing
Hit: 5 Stars
A live album should not be a haphazzard greatest hits collection with some crowd noise and witty "stage raps." It should be a historical document. A slice out of time that illustrates a band's musical and mental state at a certain point in their history. Too many live albums suffer from the band's refusal to put out an actual show. Deep Purple's woefully short Made in Japan--while excelent--plays up the bands jamming over their songs. It's bloated and often lacking in charm. Guns N Roses' Live Era is the opposite end of the spectrum. It capitalizes on the songs--but sometimes the wrong ones. It tries to arrange the songs as they would have appeared during the mid to late 1992 leg of the Use Your Illusion tour, but being recorded "all across the universe from 1987 to 1993" does't help much in the continuity deprartment. Althoug it tries to get in all the songs, you need more than two discs to do so (see their final night at the LA Forum from 1991 where they play EVERYTHING). How the West Was Won is not a full show in the stictest sense--it takes the best moments of Zeppelin's Long Beach Arena and LA Forum shows from the summer tour on 1972--arguably the best time to have seen the band--and crafts a single performance. There's areal sense of continuity here and energy by the truckload. Although it's missing classics like The Song Remains the Same, Kashmir and Achilles Last Stand fans should not be dissappointed. A show where these songs would have been performed would most likely have come from the 1977 US tour where Plant's voice was harsh and strained and Page was too stoned to play coherently. This album succeeds so briliantly because it sums up in three hours the zeppelin live experience at the crucial turning point where the band's live show steered away from the free form improvisation we see here to shows more oriented towards individual solos and individual songs.
Furthermore, the performances are just amazing. Although John Paul Jones's organ had not yet taken center stage at this point in the band's career (it would have to wait until the 1973 US tour for No Quarter) the meastro bassist and arranger can be felt here holding it all together. John Bonham's drums ring like a barrage of gunfire--their earth-shattering power makes them easily the most impressive element of the mix. Robert Plant's voice rings true and clear--he hits all the high notes (see later performances of Over the Hills and Far Away); he is indeed the norse god of rock and roll. Finally, Jimmy Page, the original speed-fingered metal virtuoso is in fine form here. Indeed, his playing is so smooth and energetic it is mind boggling to wonder how it got so sloppy and stunted during Led Zeppelin's latter days. HTWWW has two shortcomings. Guitar tone is the first. If you listen to bootlegs from this era Jimmy's guitar is raunchy, crunchy, full of sustain--in all, very "square" and filled with Marshall metal ballsiness. For some reason it has lost some of that here. It is compressed and very "round"-sounding. The final shortcoming is the lack of a sufficiant encore. HTWWW only supplies Rock and Roll, The Ocean and Bring it on Home. Anyone who has some familiarity with the bootleg version of the LA Forum show from which parts of this album were culled knows that Thank You and Communication Breakdown were also played. A small fan's gripe--it would have been nice to see them here.
It's miniscule shortcomings notwithstanding, How the West Was Won is a landmark because it simply rocks--it prevents the greatest live band of all time in their greatest era and doesn't attempting to distort or dilute their musical message.
Free Music Review: Best live album ever!
Hit: 5 Stars
About six months ago, I heard the news that Led Zeppelin was coming out with this live CD set as well as a DVD of live performances. At the time, I was a pretty big Zeppelin fan, not a huge fan, but more than the casual listener. Anyway, I began to hear people talk about how great of a live act Zeppelin was, and I began to eagerly anticipate these realeses. I went back to my Led Zeppelin albums and gave some of them a real listen, which I had never done before, and I loved it. In the studio, Zeppelin was amazing, and if what people were saying about Zeppelin being better live than in the studio was true, this CD set was bound to be something amazing. Needless to say, my expectations for this CD were off the charts. I will admit, however, that I was slightly skeptical they could exceed their studio material with their live performances. When my package arrived with this CD (as well as the DVD) enclosed, I eagerly rushed to my stereo and popped in disc one, a smile on my face in anticipation of what I was about to experience.That smile quickly turned to a gape of amazement: this CD was probably the biggest surprise of my listening experience. I mean, my expecatations were high, but they were just blown away when I excitedly played this 3-CD set. It was incredible to hear a band I loved take their studio songs and just transform them into completely new masterpieces, it brought back all the freshness and amazement at hearing the studio version for the first time. I remember hearing Stairway to Heaven and just being amazed at how fresh and new it sounded... it was like going back in time to when I first heard the studio version. The whole album was just... awesome, from the thunderous opening of the Immigrant song to the amazing closer, Bring it On Home. Every song, except Moby Dick which is a wasted 20 minutes, is great. Not just "really good," but Great with a capital "G." Zeppelin has the uncanny ability to take a song, and just jam it, keeping it roughly the same length, but making it sound so different. Most "jam bands" play their songs pretty close to the studio version, but with a live "jam" in the middle where individual members of the group go off and solo. While Zeppelin does some of this, their jamming is present all the way through the song; that is, they just play the song different, but with the same basic concept as the studio version. I really can't describe just how good this album is. I'm being completely honest when I say every track is phenomenal. The only real downfall to this album is Moby Dick Yes, John Bonham is amazing, but a 20 minute drum solo... who has the patience to listen to that? Well, I don't want to end this paragraph on a bad note, so I'll just reiterate what I previously stated: this album is amazing!
The thing that makes Zeppelin so great is that all the members in the band or EXTREMELY talented at what they do. To say Jimmy Page isn't a top-class guitarist is downright blashphemey, and to say that John Bonham isn't one of the best drummers means you're just ignorant and/or stupid. Same with Jonesy and the bass. Whether you like Robert Plant or not is an opinion... but you can't argue with the musical talent of Page, Jones, and Bonham! Just to give an example of this: in a recent poll of top ten bassists, guitarists, lead singers, and drummers, all the Zeppelin members took place in the charts. You know what the lowest rank was of a Zeppelin member was? #2. Well, you can't always be perfect, but this album is as close as it gets.
Free Music Review: NaySayers... DON'T BELIEVE A WORD THEY SAY !!
Hit: 5 Stars
Yes, I am a Zep fan, and, yes, I DO like the incredible How the West Was Won CD set an awful lot. This deserves far more than ten stars, but that number isn't available. I DO, however, have a word or two to say about the negative reviews!! LISTEN FOR YOURSELF! Don't depend on others to form YOUR opinions!!...
This is one of the finest examples of Jimmy Page, at his very, very most clean, fast, innovative, brilliant, and the band at the top of their form. The entire band is very tight, there is very little audience noise, the stereo is very well defined, and, in fact, I found much of the claims of the above to be without merit, if not totally fictitious. Page literally SCORCHES the fretboard on Since I Been Lovin' You. He is devastatingly great. How anyone in good conscience, can say THIS is out of tune, sloppy guitar work, or dull, strikes me as sheer mean-ness and vituperative jealousy.
HOW do I know this? I used to be a guitarist. A fairly good one, too. Two of my bands toured. My whole family is musically inclined. I KNOW music. Inside and outside. I KNOW guitar, and how difficult it is to play, especially when you're not watching every note you play. It's REAL EASY to get every note perfect when you watch. Heck, I can STILL do that. It's how much incredible stuff you can do when you AREN'T watching your frets that really matters, if you're a pro. Page doesn't bother to look 3/4 of the time. And he still hits 98% of his licks. THAT is incredible.
My favorites? How The West's Highlights are MANY. Besides the whole work, I highly recommend Immigrant Song, a blisteringly good version of it too, combined with Sir Robert's amazing voice at the top of his form. Dancin' Days is just plain great. A WAY- reworked version from the album song. You get the impression it was just thrown together for fun, and is it fun.
Black Dog is great, as usual, as is Dazed and Confused, and The Ocean. But, my overwhelming favorites are the absolutely genius level - brilliant S.I.B.L.You, perhaps the cleanest version of Moby Dick in existence, a great acoustic set, and the piec' de resistanc', Whole Lotta Love, with Jimmy playing an exotic, very, very wierd, but wonderful guitar chord-lead, while he exits to another dimension on the theremin. Meanwhile, magician mixer/engineer/recordist Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix ... Are You Experienced, Electric Ladyland, Led Zep II, etc.) is doing some extraordinary mixing, throwing Pagey's theremin into 3D stereo, knocking it around the sound palette like a frizbee, then kicking one particular sequence into an echoplex, and bouncing it around like a celestial laser fest, the likes of which no one has heard before, or since. Absolutely the best version of W.L.Love I ever heard anywhere, live or otherwise.
A real rocker will NOT take naysayers advice about this album. Nonsense. This is the closest many of you will come to BEING at a classic Zep concert in your lifetimes!! Don't pass it up, because some wisecracks have to heap their negative derision on someone this week!! Give this dazzling work a listen. You WILL be rewarded greatly for your effort. Believe me!
This album would be memorable for having just ONE OR TWO of these phenomenal jewels exhibiting the execution of unbelievable talent. But to have this many superlatives, in just two shows in little over a week, on ONE CD set. Well, that's amazing, even for Zeppelin!
...
Free Music Review: 4.5 stars
Hit: 5 Stars
Only at the end of a legendary career, long after the release of their last studio album, can a band just sort of shrug and say, "Yeah...why not put out a triple live?"
Early, it would be seen as arrogance. A triple live album? For most bands, it would still remain a daunting task. But this is Zeppelin. The normal rules, and quite possibly the laws of physics, just don't apply.
Disc one is just great. The opening notes of "Immigrant Song" seem SOOO heavy, when compared to the studio track, and Robert Plant's vocals take on an almost haunting quality over the heaviness of the riffs. And then comes "Heartbreaker," which might as well be labeled "The Jimmy Page Show." "Black Dog" really highlights Plant's stage presence (yes, even on an audio album), in that he constantly changes the vocal melodies from those found on Led Zeppelin IV, taking the performance from audience sing-a-long to one in which he is a captivating performer, teasing the audience with a silent break in the music, followed by a soaring high vocal line that contrasts nicely with the lower tones used in this performance of the song.
It is only then, after a heavy, full scale rock n' roll start that things slow down a bit, with the subdued opening of "Over the Hills and Far Away," before the groove infused riffs burst forth, as if they just can't be contained. The deliciously slow blues of "Since I've Been Loving You" plays well, live, and once again lets Page's playing shine ever so brightly...and so continues the first disc, with great performances of what have become classic Zeppelin songs.
The second disc is remarkably different. "Dazed and Confused," initially stretched out to a tortuously slow pace, seems all the heavier for it, taking on a sinister, almost Sabbath-esque quality. When the song bleeds into an extended jam, Page's use of a bow on his guitar strings lends a great atmospheric quality to the music, creating a dark, eerie sound, before leading back into a reprise of "Dazed and Confused," all told, clocking in at an impressive 25 minutes in length. The crowd is then treated to a playful rendition of "What Is and What Should Never Be" and a pretty by-the-book rendition of "Dancing Days," before another incredibly long performance, this time of "Moby Dick." While there's no question that John Bonham is an incredible drummer, the solo here is excessive, and takes away from a song that had such a cool back and forth between a great riff and killer rhythm section. If you really dig a drum solo (which I do not), then you'll love this track. If you don't...well, it drags on a bit too long.
Disc three begins with an incredible "Whole Lotta Love" medley, going from heavy to bluesy to an oldies feel to slow blues, and then back to "Whole Lotta Love." After another such incredibly long track, the album closes off in fairly straight forward fashion. "Rock and Roll" is played pretty much by the book, as is "The Ocean." "Bring It on Home" is a great closer for both the disc and the album, and is played with a lot of energy and soul.
All together, this is a great live set. It captures the energy and talent of what I think may have been the best band ever to play. Excellent!