How Many More Times? Led Zeppelin Remastered….again
Written by Johnny H
Sunday, 06 July 2014 04:00
It’s taken me longer than I initially expected to get around to listening to these first three deluxe remasters of the Led Zeppelin back catalogue mainly because I’ve had the new Rival Sons album on almost non-stop since it was released a few weeks back. Now there ladies and gents is either a fine example of irony – or perhaps musical natural selection – if ever there was one eh?
I’m also not a huge fan of remastered versions of albums, especially not ones that have become the blueprint by which bands like Rival Sons have taken their fledgling steps. I see it as kind of like the musical equivalent of what George Lucas did to the original Star Wars and Steven Spielberg did to ET. You just don’t mess with something that is already considered untouchable. There are some exceptions though, which brings me rather neatly to the first trio of albums by Led Zeppelin. All three recently being given yet another digital makeover by guitarist Jimmy Page, however this time unlike the 1990 facelift he did of the band’s back catalogue this time around each of the albums are presented in multiple expanded formats that includes for the first time in yonks…. vinyl.
It is the latter format that made me take the plunge as my original LPs had long since been lost to the ravages of time, or more specifically sold to pay off debts I had after failing in my attempt to take over the rock ‘n’ roll world.
Those records had been with me since my early teenage years, my collection having started with ‘In Through The Out Door’ which I picked up after hearing ‘In The Evening’ in all its pompous glory on Radio 1’s Album Show one Saturday afternoon in gloriously hissing FM stereo. However with the bands then untimely demise I never really fully explored the band’s back catalogue any further. Well not until I picked up the band’s second LP after hearing the guitar solo to ‘Heartbreaker’ on some headbanging competition (for that read piss take of heavy metal fans) on Channel 4’s long since departed The Tube one Friday afternoon. Up to that point I’d always steered clear of owning any more Zeppelin album for fear or being branded a “hippy” or maybe even a “bummer” by my gang of mates who were all into stuff like Saxon, Iron Maiden, AC/DC and Judas Priest. Now with the band getting a slot on The Tube suddenly it was cool to listen to their music again so for the next few weeks my meagre wages gained as an apprentice engineer went on acquiring what LPs I could find by the band. ‘Led Zeppelin II’ was quickly followed by ‘IV’, a record I had heard many times at a mates house and a record still to this day seen by many to be the band’s defining moment. However the record that for me ifs their crowning glory was acquired just a week or so later when I finally pick up a copy ‘III’ complete with rotating sleeve. Suddenly with this purchase my Zeppelin journey of discovery seemed to come full circle, and the rockabilly/pop sensibilities of ‘In Through The Out Door’ now sounding just perfect set against the folk rock of the band’s third self titled record. So after the initial shock of that album being largely acoustic had finally worn off it became the record I always went back to first….. not least for the simply organismic ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’ a song so perfect that only a total moron would hear it and complain about John Bonham’s squeaking bass drum pedal.
So let me start my overview of these remasters with that third record as it has long since been engrained on my psyche, and first up I can confirm that yes that squeak is thankfully still there….back of the net. I mean how could it not be? But in all seriousness you never know what is likely to change when these types of things happen. Here Jimmy Page thankfully doesn’t mess with (im)perfection well not unless a few backing vocals at the end of ‘Gallows Pole’ and a false start to ‘Tangerine’ don’t grind your gears too much. What do mean they were always there? Were they? Good God, but I suppose that’s what’s also great about these things too, because they make you go back and listen to the records all over again. Albeit here I do have the privilege of hearing them all pressed on glorious 180 gram vinyl and including a second disc of extras which come housed in their own unique cover art.
It is these extras or rather the lack of them especially here on ‘III’ that for me lets the overall package down. Here we get rough mixes of tracks rather than the plethora of unreleased live tracks we all know exists, thankfully due to the glory days of (ahem) Blogspot and such like platforms at least we got a chance to acquire these songs. I mean c’mon how is the backing track to ‘Thank You’ anything other than a glorious karaoke opportunity. And us such this doesn’t really feel like long lost material.
In saying that the album from which said track is taken (‘ Led Zeppelin II’) probably has never sounded as gutsy as it does here. The guitar album that every guitarist would have loved to have written is presented here overdriven to perfection and ‘Whole Lotta Love’ in particular receives a mix that will leave your brain spinning for hours after. You seriously have to give this one a spin on the old headphones I tell you. Side two of ‘II’ also delivers via the aforementioned ‘Heartbreaker’, here with John Paul Jones’s bass noticeably double tracking Page’s snaking guitar riff in what must surely have been the invention of what later became known as grunge. Also on this side is the poptastic ‘Living Loving Maid’ a song I never grow tired of hearing especially when it sounds as fresh as the version here.
Which just leaves the band’s debut album, the one most Zeppelin collectors are jizzing their flared jeans over (and quite rightly so) due to the additional live disc recorded in Paris in 1969. Of the main album on ‘Babe I’m Gonna Leave You’ I noticed some slight touches to the songs ending, and there’s some laughter on ‘You Shook Me’ and what feels like an extended organ intro to ‘Your Time Is Gonna Come’. ‘But again what do you mean there is no difference to the originals surely ‘How Many More Times’ didn’t have that scream at the start? Oh okay…. I’ll get my afghan coat.
Of the live show from Paris in 1969 this really is full of raw energy and as already mentioned is probably the main reason many will want to buy this version of the band’s debut album. ‘Communication Breakdown’ opens things up and almost immediately falls apart under the initial adrenalin rush of the band’s powerhouse rhythm section. Once we are into ‘I Can’t Quit You Baby’ though even Bonham has to slow down and here Plant’s acrobatic vocals go to new levels of daredevilry. ‘Heartbreaker’ is perhaps the highlight here though largely devoid of the solo spotlight that the final recorded version would have the band instead choosing here to thunder through said solo section like they are overrunning a Bill Graham show. Something you never ever risked doing unless you had Peter Grant as your manager that is.
So in summation across the multiple formats these albums are available in, it was the £90 a pop Super Deluxe sets that I went for, simply because they have pretty much everything you could want from a box set (including coffee table photo books, the albums on CD, LP and FLAC all sounding astonishing, art prints et all) celebrating the recording career of one of the most pivotal bands in the evolution of heavy rock music.. well everything that is except some truly exceptional rare extras. And it is that gripe along with the hefty price tag these sets carry that for me mean that not even with the sumptuous packaging and heavyweight vinyl I simply can’t stop from wondering just how many more times Jimmy Page can make us gullible fools buy his old band’s back catalogue? The upside of which though is if I were a teenager in 2014 I now have the chance to go buy the expanded double disc versions of these classic albums (at a fraction of the cost of what I paid), and rejoice in three classic studio albums that really have never sounded better.
