“Jeff Beck’s Truth album did this better” I thought, including Page’s reprise of “Beck’s Bolero”. Some of Plant’s shrieking was too much for me, though of course Page's guitars mesmerized. The question was: could the great studio musician and sideman front a band?
Old timers who grew up on a young Joan Baez’s crystalline, haunting version of “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” from her Joan Baez In Concert (VSD 2122 black label “Stereolab”) album couldn’t help but hear this version as “shtick”—along with much of the rest of the album—especially if you were predisposed to not liking the record.
And can any Traffic fan not hear “Dear Mr. Fantasy” in “Your Time Is Gonna Come”? Even the song’s production sounds Jimmy Miller-y.
Interestingly, if you look at the songwriting credits on the original Led Zeppelin album, “Babe…” was listed as “traditional”. On Baez’s album the “scholarly” annotation so popular at the time makes it seem so as well, crediting one Janet Smith as having taught the song to Baez at Oberlin college.
On this Led Zeppelin reissue you’ll see “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” credited to “Bredon-Page-Plant”. A little web searching around and you get the story: Page heard the Baez version on the LP with no proper credit and carried on the “tradition.” Later copies of the Baez album credited Bredon and eventually so did later copies of Led Zeppelin. Bredon later received “substantial” royalty payments (can you imagine?). I also discovered the “Dazed and Confused” backstory involving the folk singer Jake Holmes. Look it up. These guys were definitely “folkies”: Plant quotes from The Weavers’ “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” on “How Many More Times.” Maybe you knew all of this?
Cut to forty five years later and the album’s hyper-bombast seems tame compared to the outburst of heavy metal, Guns and Roses, Van Halen and the rest of Led Zeppelin’s spawn. The album’s mix of folk and blues seems like downright musical scholarship compared to much of what it inspired and “Communication Breakdown” has lost none of its swagger.
So yes, sitting down and comparing to this new reissue a George Piros cut Atlantic original pressed at Presswell (PR) in Ancora, New Jersey (PR) with a somewhat later one mastered at Atlantic by the mysterious “W” and pressed at Monarch (MO) with a later orange/green UK WEA pressing and with Classic’s Bernie Grundman mastered 200g version with the wrong label (a corporate “W” instead of “1841 Broadway”) was hardly painful.
If you have the Piros master you are all set, less so the “W” cut, which seemed bass shy and less than fully expressed dynamically (my “W” copy jacket has the RIAA gold record award label). In this case the later WEA UK pressing—at least the one I have—is weak on all counts—weaker than the “W” pressing.
The Classic is very much like the Classic Led Zeppelin II: definitely brighter than the original but so much information (not bright information, real information) and spectacular three-dimensional staging and full bore dynamics (such that the recording has—it’s not Glyn Johns’ best). If you have the Classic you too are done.
This reissue from 96/24 files is more successful than the Led Zeppelin II reissue. The drums are more explosive and the somewhat bright tonal balance is actually very similar to the Classic reissue. However, when Bonham pounds the snare it loses some of the “pop” found on both the Classic and the original. It’s really obvious on “Communication Breakdown.” Consider the tape’s age when this reissue was cut compared to even the Classic.
The perspective is definitely flatter than either the original or the Classic and there’s some loss of transparency but more than that, there’s something about the digits that seems to filter out a portion of the emotional content. Can’t measure that (yet!) but play “Communication Breakdown” on an AAA version and then here and your toes will tell you (I know, “stop talking to your toes!”).
Do you need the live 1969 recording at Paris’s Olympia October 10th 1969 (first broadcast on French radio and in mono)? If you’re a hardcore fan, probably otherwise it’s doubtful you’ll play it more than once.
The packaging and artwork reproduction are fine and the German pressings generally quiet, though the studio album on my sample had more occasional “crunchies” than I would have liked to hear.
Looking at the center gatefold photo, the guys look so young and so clean cut—J.P. Jones in a crew neck sweater, Bonham looking regal in a leather jacket, Plant in a big-buttoned cardigan. They all seem so innocent—except for Page: he’s got a look on his face that tells you he knows to where all of this is heading!
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COMMENTS
Funny I don't remember when nor where I bought the copy I currently have... but it doesn't SMELL funny...
I had a look on Discogs but could not quite track down the exact match. Anyway, based on the "TLC-T" on the leadout I gather it's a mid 70s or later re-release.
Hard to think of listening to Led Z critically... but I should do that one day when everyone and the dog are out of the house and I can crank it up... in the name of science of course!
TLC-T=
The Lacquer Channel Toronto
Should sound fine, but won't have the AAA presence of the best US cut from masters not dubbs.
Michael's thought mirrored my own after playing the Classic, Piros and Super Deluxe.
Best bet track down the US George Piros' CC/CC mastering, prices are on the rise so get one before it gets silly.
C
"These guys were definitely “folkies”: Plant quotes from The Weavers’ “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” on “How Many More Times.” Maybe you knew all of this?"
From what I've read about that period in England, everyone knew or knew of everyone else. The inclusion of Sandy Danny in LZ4 (and pix with Robert Plant) were no accident.
I remember hearing an interview with RP some years ago where he was asked how he felt about LZ being "credited" with the invention of heavy metal. His reply was something along the lines of "they miss the beauty."
Exactly!! That's the sign that you've past the analysis barrier and your body has taken the lead. Works for me.
Mike: I was a teen when LZ 1 was released and its mix of distorted rock, blues and folk-inspired acoustics, together with the transitions from light/soft to dark/heavy grabbed me; it still does more than 40 years later. I'm not usually a 'completist' but find that I buy multiple pressings (of records I care about) where the recording just isn't that good to begin with. Much as I love it, I always thought LZ1 sounded muted/canned and pinched in dynamics. (For thie same reason, I have an insane number of copies of Aqualung). Jeff Beck's Truth wasn't on my radar at the time; I only discovered it years later.
Fast forward: agree that the newest LZ1 is a little flat sounding, not the worst I've heard but certainly not the best. Among the various pressings I quickly compared were the SH forum fav Piros/Monarch circa 74 and a Classic Clarity 45.
Last year, an avid collector friend brought over a selection of LZ1 first pressings, including a UK (without the turquiose lettering on the cover), a US first (i think it was a Presswell) and a Monarch. The Monarch was far and away the most punchy (though I haven't had a chance to directly compare that Monarch 'first' to the later Piros/ Monarch.
Judging by the comments on other forums, as well as your review, it seems that the consensus is that none of these will replace the 'grail' pressings, but are a welcome product for those who don't want to go to the trouble and expense of sourcing unmolested early pressings, or the now sorely OOP and pricey Classic versions. (And, even among those who have these more vaunted pressings, there is no clear consensus- some seem to prefer the Classics and others, the old ones).
Thanks for the review.
Best,
Bill Hart
From near the end of this review:
"there’s something about the digits that seems to filter out a portion of the emotional content."
Mr. Fremer, why not just make that the lead - or better yet, the title - of every review you do of vinyl cut from digital masters and be done with it? Why mess around with all the other pressing comparisons and verbiage when your conclusion seems to be a fait accompli?
This is it.
In 1969, Felix Dennis of Oz magazine was selected to write the first ever review of Led Zeppelin’s first album. Felix Dennis gained later fame as a "coked-up, overweight, cigarette smoking, malt whisky swilling idiot with too much money who believe they are built of titanium"
He by his own admission managed to spend $100 Million on drugs, women and high living in the space of 10 years.
He died two weeks ago.
Led Zeppelin – “Led Zeppelin” (1969)
A March 1969 Oz magazine review of Zeppelin’s debut album, written by Felix Dennis…
Very occasionally a long-playing record is released that defies immediate classification or description, simply because it’s so obviously a turning point in rock music that only time proves capable of shifting it into eventual perspective. (Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home, The Byrds’ Younger Than Yesterday, Disraeli Gears, Hendrix’s Are You Experienced? and Sgt. Pepper). This Led Zeppelin album is like that.
Before joining the now sadly defunct Yardbirds Jim Page was acknowledged as one of the best session musicians on either side of the Atlantic. Here it’s clear why. Few rock musicians in the world could hope to parallel the degree of technical assurance and gutsy emotion he displays throughout these nine tracks. Exactly eighty-four seconds after the beginning of ‘Good Times Bad Times’, the first cut, side one, Page does things with an electric guitar that might feebly be described as bewildering. From then on it only gets better.
Lead vocalist Robert Plant is a blue-eyed soul merchant, Farlowe when he isn’t being Winwood, living proof of the YouDon’tHaveToBeBlackToSingTheBlues theory, formerly with Birmingham based group, The Band of Joy, as is the Zeppelin’s drummer John Bonham. Bonham’s technique is interesting. It’s nice to be able to listen to a drummer whose use of the bass pedal and cymbals is intelligent without being studied and contrived and at the other end of the stick, powerful without deteriorating into frenzied, feverish thrashing.
John Paul Jones plays bass and organ for Led Zeppelin. It’s enough to say that of both instruments he is an experienced, resourceful master.
This album makes you feel good. It makes you feel good to hear a band with so much to say and the conspicuous ability to say it as they feel it; to translate what’s in their heads to music. It makes you feel good to hear Bonham and Jones working together, creating those deep, surging, undercurrents of rhythm as Page again and again molests the more vulnerable areas of his Telecaster. Good to listen to Plant with his ugly, angry vocals, bellowing to his woman that he’s leaving her – right after the next fuck. Good to dig completely spontaneous but so, so beautiful breaks is ‘How Many More Times’, or Jones running amok on his Hammond keyboard in Willie Dixon’s ‘You Shook Me’ and to sway, entranced with Page’s droning, mantra-like bow guitar in ‘Dazed and Confused’.
It makes you feel good because it is good; and in places much more than that.
Of course, as a result of this album we’ll lose the group to the States, and almost certainly within the month the MM letters page will headline – ‘Is Page BETTER Than God?!!’ – and then the BBC will begin negotiations on a feature film… but there’s more to it than that. There is a phrase nobody uses anymore, (not since we de-freaked our hair, handed back granny her beads, quietly disposing of kaftans and joss sticks to jumble collections). That phrase exactly sums up Led Zeppelin’s debut album. Remember Good Vibrations?
didn't get favorable reviews, but that didn't stop them from plowing new, ahem, ground in the U.S. with Mr. Grant (another larger than life bloke) at the rudder. It seems that with time, and a burnished legacy, Page is far less reclusive than he used to be with the media. I admire the guy; his session work alone, pre-Zep, would have made for an impressive career, and he was a little more than a child.
thanks. Interesting to see The Byrds' "Younger Than Yesterday" on his list (it's one of my favorites from that time). He spent 100 million dollars on "high living" in a decade and only passed away recently? One tough customer!
One of the great characters of British publishing. Unique.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10919584/Felix-Dennis-obituar...
Jagger was a friend :-)
I have the Classic version.
Which is great. Plus the vinyl is dead quiet.
It's only Rock n' Roll, but I like it :-)
I also have the Classic and the vinyl is very noisy (recently bought it sealed). Just goes to show (something or other).
a lot of that noise you're hearing is static. I recently experienced that with the latest Doug MacLeod record.
They're such a gamble, especially when buying sealed.
I've been starring at my vinyl deluxe copies of LZ I, LZ II and LZ III on the shelve for over a month. It truly has been a test of willpower. LZ finally won the battle.
I agree that these new reissues seem just a tad sanded down (if that makes sense), but for the money they are probably the best reissues of any band I've ever heard. Maybe Fleetwood Mac's Rumours on 45 RPM is better - maybe. My LZ was all bought in the late 1980s in Canada and is flat and sounds like shite, with the exception of LZ II, which, for some reason sounds astounding.
Side two of LZ I is so crazy I can't believe it. The quiet pressing of all three of these records is great. Two thumbs up!
I've never owned any other LZ vinyl, other than used copies of two albums that are of unknown origins (both are US pressings). The only digital version until now has been the 90s mastering.
I have all three of the LZs both on vinyl and 24/96. And to me they do seem to be a bit "muted" here and there. But as has been said, it could be due to the age of the tape. To me it seems like the highs are a bit subdued at times, and the dynamics slightly backed off...and those actually are attributes I notice with tapes that are aged (especially some older reels we've had in the family). One place I really notice this is on the louder portion of "Dazed and Confused". It just seems constricted. With no originals to compare it to, however, I don't have a way of knowing if it was recorded this way.
Still, I don't have a fortune to buy endless copies of so-called preferred or original pressings, all of which are a crap shoot being in "used" condition. Nor do I have the coin to hunt down a Classic pressing either, again taking a gamble in that the record inside is noisy or clean and quiet.
With that in mind, these current LZs are good enough that I won't have to gamble on those others. The vinyl above all is flat and very clean, which certainly isn't the case for other recent records I've purchased. (Don't even get me started on the Dire Straits "On Every Street" I've been trying to rectify! I have a rather scathing blog post of my own that is about to launch regarding this one...)
Yikes, I just invested $$$ in a sealed Classics Zep III for my 60th birthday, so let's hope the vinyl is as dead quiet as the Python Norwegian parrot. The Classics Zep I in my collection is prime vinyl and for someone who likes bright, it delivers on all counts. I also think it may be Zep's best record, just because of its monumental and ingratiatingly crass ("soul of a woman was created below", where did Plant meet up with that vision?) gravitas. I also have David Crosby's terribly underrated "If I Could Only Remember My Name" on a pristine Classic pressing, but their Kind of Blue was noisy as sin--a major bummer, because I have a promo of that album that has nary a whisper of surface snap and crackle. By the way, I always preferred Beck-Ola over Truth--that guitar solo on Plynth is beyond this world.
Sorry if this is in the wrong place. I have trouble with the Ask Mikey blog. I recently bought the album Majikat by Cat Stevens. It is a live album but instead of going smoothly from one song to the next there is a short, abrupt break between songs. Very annoying. Also, Cat Stevens introduces a song at the end of one side only to have the song start on the next side. Very weird. Any reason for this?
Also, a review of the 40th anniversary edition of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road would be appreciated. Perhaps Tom Petty's new album as well. Thanks, Steve Whitcomb
Back when she was a teen in the 70's my gf was given a copy of the rare early (first?) pressing with incorrect purple & brown Atco labels instead of Atlantic ones, which now books for a few hundred bucks in clean shape. Fast forward to the late 80's; the guitarist from a certain retro-garage-punk band (still on the NYC scene today) was partying a bit too hard while visiting her apartment and drunkenly decided to show everyone how 'cool' he was by virture of how much he hated Led Zep and, not realizing its value, proceeded to repeatedly bash the unsleeved record against a wall corner in an unsuccessful bid to break it before he could be stopped. To this day the record has multiple gashes of white paint embedded into the vinyl that have steadfastly resisted my attempts at removal...
I purchased all of the classic re-issues when they came out. I have a good setup and I still don't like the sound quality. Was it the way it was recorded? They sound harsh to me and my setup is not harsh. Benz LPs, Herron tubed phonostage, tubed Pathos Clasic one MkIII and YG Acoustics Carmel speakers. Not much else I can do though, LZ is in my musical DNA.
this is interesting, I found the Barry Diament CD's from the '80's sound much better in the drum & bass dept than the most recent vinyl
have you checked those out? if not, you should!! for CD I think they are amazing
otherwise I am happy with the new vinyl, it's better than anything else I can get for reasonable $$
thanks for your reviews and articles, they are fantastic
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