How the West Was Won

Led Zeppelin

album cover

Zep Live, at Peak

It was, to paraphrase one overused Led Zeppelin lyric, a sound like the hammer of the gods. When Zep played live, the boogie that stomped plenty hard in the studio suddenly took on an air of terrifying menace. Sludgy, torturously slow rock beats were thwacked with bone-crushing power. Even the quiet songs felt like they were designed to rip out the jugular. Delicate acoustic guitar meditations dissolved into pure electric thunder, alternating currents of power and finesse executed for maximum drama.

For much of the last quarter-century, you really did have to have been at a show to fully appreciate Zep: Its lone live album, The Song Remains the Same, is erratic and unsatisfying. The band rectified this in 2003, with a two-disc release culled from two 1972 West Coast shows. Here, guitarist Jimmy Page and frontman Robert Plant, along with bassist John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham, chew up a songbook that, in the decades since Zep's demise, has become a sacred rock and roll text. The version of "Dazed and Confused" lasts twenty-five transfixing minutes; "Whole Lotta Love," which lasts twenty-three minutes, finds Plant linking its refrain with bits of '50s rock classics.

In an interview shortly after West was released, Page said that in compiling the set, he sifted through hours of live shows, reliving many of the band's best nights. "As much as we played them, I don't think we did 'Rock and Roll' or 'Heartbreaker' the same way twice. . . . Robert would just . . . go in crazy directions depending on how everybody was feeling. Each piece kind of acquired multiple personalities."

Page came away from his vault research with one realization about Led Zeppelin, which disbanded after Bonham's death in 1980: The band never peaked, never suffered the usual quality-control lapses that come with middle age. Even the very last shows, he says, were scary. "God, what an urgent machine it was."

Genre: Rock
Released: 2003, Atlantic
Key Tracks: "Whole Lotta Love," "Black Dog," "What Is and What Should Never Be"
Another Interpretation: The two-disc simultaneously released DVD contains footage from several tours and is the best visual account of the band live.
Catalog Choice: IV; Physical Graffiti; BBC Sessions
Next Stop: Cream: Live Cream, Vol. 1
After That: Soundgarden: Superunknown
Book Pages: 443–444

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Comments:

#1 from Robin Solis, Ventura, Ca - 10/17/2008 10:47

You should feature this tune because IT’S LED ZEP!
There really needn’t be any other consideration!

#2 from Tom Moon - 10/24/2008 12:33

Well, actually, the thinking here is not simply that it’s Led Zep, but that it’s a document of the band playing live, at a raging peak.

The folks who know this band only through the studio recordings are in for a mindblowing experience.

While I like just about everything in the Zep discography—particularly Physical Graffiti—I felt this live document was crucial. It opens a window onto the band that you don’t get from the studio work.

Thanks for posting!
TM

#3 from Adam, New Jersey - 11/17/2008 1:45

Call the fire department before you put this one on cause itll burn down the house.

#4 from Robin Solis, Ventura, CA - 11/17/2008 2:36

And I thank God every day that I saw Zepplin live at the San Diego Sports Arena at a good point in their carreer; after Led 3 while they were getting ready to turn out Zoso (IV). I’ll never forget how young and pretty Jimmy and shirtless Bobby were and how crazed Bonzo John was. These memories defy catagorazation.

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