Led Zeppelin - How the West Was Won
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Free Music Notes for How the West Was Won
Free Music Review: How do I title this review with words???
Hit: 5 Stars
These live recordings from the days when Led Zeppelin were the unchallenged kings of Rock and Roll are amazing.Today, bands who achieve a big sound in the studio - like Led Zep did in the 70's - regularly augment their live performances by adding musicians and/or sampling keyboard parts to no end. Well, these guys went up there and did it with only the band members - of which only three played instruments.
Still, Led Zep's sound was big without adding anything extra to their live shows. The thunder of John Bonham's drumming, the musical prowess of John Paul Jones on keyboard and bass, Robert Plant's high-pitched whails, and of course the six-string wizardry of Jimmy Page made for a formidable live experience.... as is evident in these recordings.
One of my favorite things about Led Zeppelin was their ability to rock hard and then unplug and kick back into a folky-bluesy band (Led Zeppelin III is my all-time fave Zep album). The acoustic set represented on disc 1 is just fabulous. John Paul Jones' mandolin has an almost steal-guitar quality to it on "Going To California"... and I still can't figure out who is doing back-up vocals on "Bron Yr-Aur Stomp". Many heavy metal bands, who followed in Led Zep's wake, have attempted to achieve this acoustical "gear change" , but never quite could do through effort what Led Zep did effortlessly.
After listening to these CD's, I regret even more than I thought I already did that I never got to see Led Zeppelin preform live. Born too late!
A must-have for all Led Zep fans... and those who want to see what the word "heavy" really means in musical terms.
Free Music Review: Peerless Live Album
Hit: 5 Stars
I can't for the life of me understand some of the negative reviews for this fantastic 3CD set. This is simply the best live album i have ever heard or ever will hear. No live CD I have listened to comes close to this in terms of quality of performance and, perhaps more importantly, sound quality. Some people here have complained about the poor sound but they must be listening to a different CD. The sound is crisp and clear, especially on Page's guitar, which crunches way up in the mix. This sound gives these oft-heard songs new life. The studio versions of the Houses of the Holy tracks in particular - Over The Hills and Far Away, The Ocean and Dancing Days - only hint at what these songs have become here. There is a power and muscle to these songs that is missing on the studio album. In fact, that goes for all of the material here. These songs just rock so much harder than their studio counterparts. In my opinion, the current Zeppelin remasters from 1995 (with the exception of IV) are hampered by very muddy remastering. Zeppelin II and III seem to suffer the most from this problem. This is a chance to hear these songs truly blast out of the speakers like they should. And I have to admit that I thought Jimmy Page was overrated before I heard this album....let's just say that I have revised my opinion! He is truly amazing on this and shows tremendous skill and versatility (and subtlety for that matter). Simply put, this album provides compelling evidence that Zeppelin are the best band in rock history. Period. This is a must have for any fan of rock music, whether you are a Zeppelin diehard or not.Free Music Review: Three Hours of Power
Hit: 5 Stars
When I first heard about this live album, I was more than a little skeptical. After all, if the performances were so great why weren't they used for a live album earlier?Well, it seems as if Mr. Page has been cleaning up these dirty bootlegs for the past two years and the result is a glimpse of one of the most influential bands in history at the very apex of their power. Stripped of all studio trickery, Page and his mates manage to thoroughly entertain an audience (two, actually) from opening note to final encore. I'm 43 and this album recalls my early concert-going days when bands (the good ones) really did try something new every night. The album also reveals how special American blues was to Page's development at this stage in his career. Recorded live right after the release of Houses of the Holy, this is a transitional period for the band...they are exploring the blues live a year before starting their more experimental studio album Physical Graffiti (an album that took 18 months of studio work).
How the West Was Won is also notable for great acoustic songs like Bron Yr Aur Stomp, That's The Way and Over the Hills and Far Away. John Paul Jones plays some great keyboards and mandolin and John Bonham's drum playing easily shows why the band disbanded shortly after his death.
This is a great live album in the tradition of the Allman's Filmore East, Zappa's Roxy & Elsewhere, and other good experimental electric blues discs from the early 70s.
The 17-minute drum solo on Moby Dick is a little much but is necessary to put you in the 70s concert frame of of mind.
Free Music Review: It's been a long, lonely time
Hit: 5 Stars
June 25, 1972 is one source of "How the West Won" and is known to bootleg collectors as "Burn Like a Candle." It's one of the group's best shows and was, along with the June 27 show, an ideal choice for this set. With much more spark than "The Song Remains the Same," and more atmosphere than "BBC Sessions," "How the West Won" is destined to become Zeppelin's definitive live set (until Page releases a set with one of the Earl's Court shows from 1975!).The floodgates open with the hammer of the gods, "Immigrant Song", and there's no chance for the audience or listener to catch their breath with a jump right into "Heartbreaker". The stage is set for a no-holds barred show. The tracks from "Houses of the Holy" that the band added to the set list just days earlier sound fresh out of the box, especially "Dancing Days."
"Dazed and Confused" live was never the same twice and this edition is proof of that. Page always knew how to stretch this workhorse and Jones and Bonham follow along for the ride.
Really, it's all here. You can tell that barely seven months after it's release, "Stairway to Heaven" was already a fan favorite. The "Whole Lotta Love" medly allows the band to delve into their favorites. "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp" and "That's the Way" show the band's accoustic side, and " "The Ocean" and "Bring it on Home" close out a show (two shows, really) that shouldn't have been under wraps for 31 years.
Free Music Review: A definitive classics collection.
Hit: 5 Stars
This incredible 3-CD set, the first CD alone worth the money, encompasses the greatness of the band in their prime. It's release, although a bit late, will doubtless excite old fans and inspire new ones. This compilation delivers everything you could ask for in a live Led Zep set - it captures nearly all of their best songs from that time and shows how British rock gained tremendous popularity in the "west" - the US. You might notice that despite the three-disc package, there are only 16 tracks total - can it really do justice to this legend's repertoire? The answer is most certainly yes. The length is compensated by three 20-minute tracks, which are what live rock acts are all about - jamming, improvisation, and solos.As a measure for comparison, one might look to the band Deep Purple, another great and highly influential British rock act. In their prime, with the Mark II lineup (easliy the best of the band's many permutations), they released a live set titled "Made In Japan," a double-record package that included all of their best songs in a live set, featuring several extended versions of the songs. Coincidentally, it was recorded in the same year - 1972 - as this set and it did exactly for that band as "How The West Was Won" now does for Led Zeppelin - it recorded the best of their songs, when the band was at it's best, in the best music enviroment, onstage. This is the reason bands like this have longevity. A classics collection such as this immortalizes the band in the annals of rock history.