nothing of any in studio original material. Or what he considered worthy of release, at the time. Its possible that modern technology has made some of that previously-considered unworkable, now workable. Or perhaps afterwards, searching for something else, he/they found additional well-recorded material, concerts etc, that he didnt know they had.
Love em or hate em, as bootleg collector myself, I give them credit as one of the few remaining silver disc bootleg labels that still pony's up money to buy unreleased concerts instead of just copying what shows up on DIME. When I started collecting bootleg CD's back in the 80's there were few SB quality Led Zeppelin shows available in any format. EV has been releasing SB's from the LZ 1975 and 1977 tours on a regular basis for close to 20 years now and I for one appreciate being able to hear these recordings that have not been stepped on and edited by Jimmy Page. The challenge for EV now is, with the advent of downloading, their product is available for free days after someone buys a silver disc copy and uploads it to DIME so they get stuck with unsold inventory to recoup their investment. There is also an EU knock off label, Eelgrass, that copies their releases and offers them at 1/2 the price further cutting into their sales. Just speculating but I think the leak of the EV SB release of the Legendary 3/21/75 Seattle show was the last straw for them and they decided to offer the 9/29/71 a song at a time to try to recoup their investment. Probably the same reason they are releasing the Japan show incomplete so they can offer out the remaining unreleased songs later to maximize their return. Personally I can't blame them as I bet they pay good $$$ for these SB tapes and need to make their money back. We can bitch all we want about the cost of their product but IMHO without EV paying for these tapes they most likely would never see the light of day as we know Jimmy would never release them.
I wonder why Empress Valley don't offer budget versions of their product themselves. There's supposedly a much bigger market for such releases as the proliferation of EU grey/bootleg (budget) labels attests.
They do actually, but several years after the original release. I have bought some of their budget re-releases at very reasonable prices relatively speaking of course. Just speculating but I think they pay a hefty price for the tapes so need to charge big $$$ to recoup their investment. Not sure they could ever make their money back with a budget release when they initially release a tape on silver disc. Interesting comment on the EU grey market as I never thought about this. I have bought a ton of excellent live CD's from Amazon UK but I thought the loophole in the law was only for radio shows that had been broadcast so were in the public domain. I am not sure if the SB's EV releases would meet the letter of the law? Would be interesting if anyone else on the forum knows the actual laws for the grey market releases flooding Amazon UK could comment on this.
Those grey market releases are not always working within the legal framework (e.g Broadcasts). At least two of recent Cream live cd's (Detroit 67, San Diego 68) are definitely not broadcast recordings. The Detroit Grande Ballroom 67 recording was a Soundboard recording (made with the consent of the band and venue owner, the so called lost broadcast tapes from 68 are in fact dubs from multi tracks.
I started collecting Zeppelin boots way back in the early 1990's trading tapes and buying cds from Japan when I could afford them. I never dreamed a true soundboard (I'm still not 100% convinced the infamous stage recording of the show is a soundboard) of any of the '71 Japanese shows would be released. I am enjoying the hell out of this incomplete mono soundboard. Someone did a 3 source merge of this show right after EV's new release was available and for now it's my go to copy of this amazing show.
I expect it is only a matter of time before a matrix version pops up somewhere. Wouldn't be surprised if EV has this in stereo and will relase this later to maximize profits.
I'm convinced Empress is still holding back other tracks from the mono soundboard. The cuts in Dazed and Moby Dick occur in the typical places compared to the few other 1971 Zeppelin boards. Maybe an edit in the Whole Lotta Love medley, but I'm pretty sure Celebration Day, the acoustic set, Thank you will arrive at a later stage. A matrix would be the next best thing next to an official release; the old stereo source has great ambience, the hilarious chatter and a nice stereo separation, but drowned vocals in the louder parts and piercing cymbals. The soundboard has detail and good balance, but no audience ...and it's mono. I would definetly put the emphasis on the mono board, but the old source would liven things up to almost official grade quality.
Well, I'll be waiting then for a full show edition in a reasonable price (< $40). If EV offers it, I'll happily pick it over any cheap and shoddy clone. And BTW, how can EV blame folks for downloading or fetching the Eelgrass title, if they did not include their earlier "singles" in their newest "super-premium" release? Led Zeppelin’s ‘How The East Was Won’ on Empress Valley and Eelgrass
Jimmy is a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to bootlegs as he is a collector yet has gone to court to prosecute bootleggers. I have never seen a Led Zeppelin grey market release on Amazon UK so I am speculating Jimmy and Atlantic would shut down anyone trying to peddle an unofficial release on Amazon or other legit retailer if they were aware of it.
Maybe not as there is a Japanese boot label, Moonchild, that clones popular boot titles and sells them for half the price jay.bee mentioned. I would not be surprised to see them do something with this EV title or possibly copy the Eelgrass titles as it splices in the 2 singles EV left out of their 2CD set. They have done clones of Led Zep, Stones, Cream, Clapton, Eagles, Dylan, U2, Guns N Roses, Toto, and Prince titles that I have seen being sold. They put the LZ Winston Remasters out on silver disc so maybe if he works his magic on this title, a matrix with the old stage/ audience recording maybe?, they would most likely copy that if they still exist at the point in time.
If EV did one flat from the tapes and one with their typical mastering I would certainly buy the former instead of looking for "alternatives".
I like Moonchild's (and many EU greyzone/bootleg labels') approach. Instead of whining about the Internet's sharing culture they thrive on it, picking some of the best of the sources available online, frequently mastered for free by passionate fans, and re-introducing them into wider physical circulation on silver discs (or even vinyl), with nice packaging and at a reasonable price. As Grateful Dead's example demonstrates there is a place for free sharing, budget editions and lavish boxes, all co-existing in parallel. But those guys did not try to sell us two singles and then half of the Cornell '77 show, previously widely circulating in very good sound quality, asking an arm and a leg for each (partial) release.
I agree with you to some extent but t EV is not putting out a widely circulating source they are trying to sell a new mono SB source only privileged collectors may have owned and was being hoarded. Like I said earlier many of the new LZ SB recordings from the 1975 and 1977 tour might not have seen the light of day without EV spending the money to buy them. They made an investment and IMHO it is only fair they expect to make a profit. The way EV released the 929 SB was most likely a result of them getting burned by people uploading their releases on DIME the day they are released and also the clone labels like Eelgrass copying them and selling them for half price. Maybe they were losing money so took the drastic step to releases this title piecemeal. In any case this release is too rich for me and I am happy with my Wendy label release of the well traveled "stage recording/ audience mix" for now but I also don't blame EV for their sales tactic in this case as they need to recoup their investment.
LZ live tape world is a weird one, isn't it? The acquistion of tapes (& their distribution) is locked in a financial loop that mostly doesn't exist with other bands - it needs the boot labels to buy the tapes, which they then need to sell to recoup their investment, which means that any unreleased tapes have a financial vlaue to the owners, thus preventing their release for free, and so we go on. Even in this internet age, it's amazing that this cycle still exists.
I’m aware of Moonchild. I traded directly with the guy behind Winston Remasters 15 years ago or so. As far as I know they haven’t cloned any EV titles. They seem to stick with fan made sources.
I would bet someone eventually does a mix of sources, or better yet a matrix, and we could see this on a budget label. Just speculating and dreaming.
To be fair, given the smack and coke addled state Jimmy Page was in when he assembled Coda, I'm willing to give him a bit of a pass for fudging the liner notes... Moonchild put out the Winston Remasters without Andy Winston's knowledge or permission. He wasn't happy about it but Andy knows how bootleggers play the game and took it in stride. Moonchild has put out some good stuff but all they really do is download and burn. Not too far removed from TCOLZ or any of those other Zep boot labels who proudly claimed "Not sourced from the internet"
That's exactly the same situation. Grateful Dead bought the original May 5-9, 1977 tapes (of significantly better sound quality than previously circulated) from a private owner and released them in form of a limited (15K copies, $140) 11CD box comprised of four shows as well as a budget single show release, the latter also made available on vinyl. And the boxset's pre-order sold out in a couple of days, even though everyone knew that once out it would be immediately available on all torrent sites and many purchasers had already owned a decent sounding bootleg copy/download. Hence there's a market for physical goodies if one knows how to target it. EV could have got all the money that Eelgrass will now rake (and some more from the folks giving up altogether) if they had offered a range of quality releases for all pockets and dedication levels. By putting out a substandard product they just lost a potential revenue. That's my take on it.
