This post is dedicated in memory of my brother-in-law Brian Bluhm, who died tragically in the Virginia Tech massacre that led to 32 innocent lives lost and many questions about how it happened and how the event could have been prevented. I am not here to go on about these questions, however. Brian was a wonderful guy with a big heart and a big love for many things, including baseball and music. I’ll always remember him for his kind heart and for being a good friend and for his support when I needed it.
One of the bands that we shared a common interest in was Led Zeppelin. A couple of years after I met his sister I was living with his parents while I was moving up to the D.C.-Metro area. At the time there was a resurgence of interest in Zeppelin’s music because the band (or the remaining members of the band) had released a new DVD featuring concert footage from early in the band’s life and a three-disc CD set of a series of concerts in California around the time Houses of the Holy came out (1973). Brian and I both were anxious to hear the material because it was new live material that hadn’t seen the light of day (at least not officially) and because of the mystique surrounding their first four albums.
Led Zeppelins I, II, III, & IV are all classic rock albums, and when I say “classic”, I mean monumental moments of epic achievement in recorded rock and roll. Led Zeppelin II in particular for me is an album that will always make an impression on me as a listener and guitarist. Rock music in general was undergoing a glacial shift at the time I was released in 1969. While the rock music of the previous three years was already loud and irreverent, in 1969 new equipment and recording techniques pushed the volume to eleven, to pay homage to the classic This is Spinal Tap. There was also the dawn of what would become heavy metal with bands like Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and many others releasing records that featured heavy distortion, dark lyrics, and heavy sounds. I never really considered Zeppelin heavy metal, but it was obvious their sound was quite different from that of Derek & the Dominos or Traffic or The Who.
What you get from Led Zeppelin first and foremost is superior musicianship. Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham created such a formidable sound with their guitars, bass guitars, drums and countless other instruments when they recorded and when they performed live. Both Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones had been session musicians in addition to members of bands; session musicians generally must know a lot of different styles of music and playing and must be beyond proficient in their playing. John Bonham, quite honestly, was the best rock n’ roll drummer of all time. There was nor has there been another drummer that has quite measured up to his strength and inventiveness behind the kit. Throw into the mix Robert Plant, a singer with an extraordinary vocal range and excellent lyrical abilities, and you had a band that would influence generations of musicians, singers and bands for a long, long time.
Today’s entry is regarding the #3 record on my list, How the West Was Won, a three-disc live set that was released in 2003. The Metascore for this record was a near-perfect 97, which tied it with SMiLE by Brian Wilson and Van Lear Rose by Loretta Lynn. This record is fantastic!
I feel I should provide a little background on these discs. Prior to their official release, these concerts existed in bootleg form, and even then to a limited degree. Neither audience members nor crew members had full concerts. A lot of the bootlegs from that period were limited in what they had. Some concerts recorded on soundboards were stolen from Jimmy Page’s personal archive, but most of those were in the band’s later years when they were less of band and more individual parts playing together. These concerts were direct from a soundboard and were the first from that period to be released, raising the intrigue around them.
The first disc features most of their biggest studio hits performed live. There is not a single song on this disc save for maybe “LA Drone” (which is really just a noisy introduction) that is bad. Not one. Of the following songs, which one is bad: “Immigrant Song”, “Heartbreaker”, “Black Dog”, “Over the Hills and Far Away”, “Since I’ve Been Loving You”, “Stairway to Heaven”, “Going to California”, “That’s the Way”, or “Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp”? The answer is none. I have a hard time narrowing down to one favorite song here; perhaps “Since I’ve Been Loving You” since everything about that song—from the opening notes by Jimmy Page to the perfectly-timed drumming of John Bonham—is amazing to me.
Disc two opens with an epic version of “Dazed and Confused”. “Epic” meaning 25 minutes long. Generally during this time period “Dazed and Confused” was played out over a greater-than-ten-minutes period. This disc best captures the musical jamming the band would partake in, particularly with “Dazed and Confused”. Around the 7 minute mark the vocals stop and Jimmy begins his violin bow strumming that he became famous for. Plant reenters the fray around the 9:30 mark to add in his howls and random words. Then the rhythm kicks into high gear at the 12-minute mark, and the song evolves into two other tunes (“Walters’ Walk” and “The Crunge”) before winding down. “What Is and What Should Never Be” is one of my favorite studio songs they have ever done, but here it feels a little rushed. I guess that would be a flaw for me in this case, but that’s a personal preference over the band’s. “Dancing Days”, in contrast, sounds strong and relaxed. This disc ends with the equally epic “Moby Dick”, John Bonham’s drumming showcase. There is no better song to hear his inventiveness than this one.
Disc three is equally as long as disc two. Disc three opens with the classic “Whole Lotta Love” off of II. The version here is twenty-three minutes long and contains snippets of four other songs: “Boogie Chillun”, “Let’s Have a Party”, “Hello Marylou”, and “Going Down Slow”. Following “Whole Lotta Love” are two awesome-sounding live tracks: “Rock and Roll” and “The Ocean”. Like the album version, “Rock and Roll” thrives on the energy created by Bonham’s furious drum beat, Jones’ nimble bass playing, and Page’s chugging guitar riff. “The Ocean” is another crowd pleaser with a lot of energy pumped into the performance. The disc and album are rounded off by the nine-plus finale “Bring It on Home/Bring It on Back”, which roars until the quiet final notes “bringing it on home.”
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