I actual prefer the bonus material to most of the proper albums - especially the more instrumentally driven tracks. As far as I’m concerned Robert Plant’s vocal histrionics are the least compelling element of Led Zeppelin... but I’m sure I’m in the minority on that.
And for the beautifully lush "10 Ribs & All". I would have loved to have seen a full-fledged lyrical song come of that. It strikes me as something that would have been perfectly suited for "In Through The Out Door".
I'm the same. I actually find myself either listening to the companion discs more, or listening to hybrid albums I've made that mix n match the alternate takes (or alternate passages) with the studio versions. IV is my personal favorite because: 1. The companion disc uses every track and can thus be played as a true "album". 2. All the mixes are unique but not too divergent from the real album. 3. Some of the mixes I flat-out prefer now (Rock And Roll, Stairway To Heaven, Misty Mountain Hop). 4. Even the tracks that I wouldn't claim as "better" are still very much enjoyable as their own thing - Black Dog, Four Sticks, the more psych-driven UK Mix of When The Levee Breaks. 5. Both backing tracks (The Battle of Evermore and Going To California) are simply beautiful and really highlight the wondrous song foundations of the band.
In a way I feel like "10 ribs / Carrot" was better as an instrumental. Some songs just seem better without vocals. Don't know why, though I'm a fan of instrumental music in the electronic genre, so that might be why.
I agree btw it absolutely would have fitted the mood on ITTOD, but Page was right in not including it on Presence. Presence is abrasive & metallic, and a pretty piece like "Carrot" would've been completely out of place.
Thank you for compiling this list of observations. I'll revisit this next time I take a listen to this material.
That tape level overload is part of the magic of the second album. If II was recorded the same way as Presence (for example), it wouldn't have quite the same vibe. I know it's a quasi-audiophile forum, but this is rock 'n' roll, after all. There's supposed to be some grit in it. And think about how much praise the oh-so-holy-grail Ludwig pressing of II gets -- it takes the overload and overloads it just a little bit more. Not that I have an RL. They're too expensive. Love this thread. There's some gold in those companion discs, even if Jimmy's hand was forced.
Yeah, you are. It's just that I can't think of anyone who could have fronted LZ any better. The firepower that Page, Jones and Bonham packed was tremendous. They needed somebody with tremendous power and range. And, nobody ever mentions it, but Plant wrote the melodies, and came up with some real beauties. He never gets any credit for it.
I can take the overload here on there but it really becomes bothersome (to me, anyway) on the second half of Whole Lotta Love.
I agree. II is my single favorite sounding Zeppelin album because it has such a tube-y warm sound. As you said, I don't know if an audiophile would call it "good" but that's never been here nor there to me. As a simple listener I find that one of the best-sounding albums ever made. If not just one of the greatest albums period.
There was a time when I would have swore up and down that Plant was THE best in live rock-n-roll, now it's a struggle to listen to him at all. He is a very nice man, but back in the day, in concert, I don't know. I guess he wears thin after a few songs. I still love the classic studio albums.
@ajawamnet did an incredible new mix of Whole Lotta Love, correcting many of the technical flaws/limitations in the original mix, including progressively increasing overload that messes up the sound of Bonham's drums towards the end (which I'd never really explicitly noticed before), and some phase anomalies. The result is a more balanced, cleaner, and in some ways tighter and more forceful version of the track that - except for the wonderful full, non-faded ending - is quite faithful to the original mix. However, while I love this new mix and listen to it frequently, @misteranderson is indeed correct that there are elements of the original mix that contain magic and make the song what it is. For example, there's a volume swell and tension in the original, when the breakdown finishes and the band comes back to the main riff, and Plant comes back in with "you been... coolin'" - it never ceases to make my spine tingle, and it only happens on the original version. Still, something like a 3-disc set of Steven Wilson remixes of a couple dozen Zep tracks would be an instant buy for me. I don't know if I'd be interested in remixes of the actual full albums, though, because I'm so attached to every nuance of how they sound and I'd like the Wilson remixes as an interesting alternative rather than a song-by-song substitute. In that vein, it's a pet theory of mine - and I'm happy to hear disagreement on this - that modern remixes are most appealing when you're a real fan of an artist, but not necessarily a super-fan. I love the 40th anniversary Doors and Tull remixes, and I love Wilson's Yes remixes, along with his remix of XTC's Skylarking and Tears for Fears' Songs from the Big Chair. But of all those, I'd say the last one is the only artist or album that might be in my very top tier of most-loved/formative years artists and albums. In contrast, I just can't see myself wanting to listen to a remix of the entire Who's Next album, or Wish You Were Here, or Physical Graffiti, or London Calling. It would just be too weird somehow. (Yes, I know there are 5.1 versions of some of these albums, but maybe that's why I'm not big into surround either...)
For whatever one may think of his singing on its' own, it matched perfectly with the overall sound of the band...even when it faultered.
Agreed. I won't deny Plant's aren't everyone's cup of tea, especially his various different phases. But some of the goofiest vocals weren't his fault - the helium vocals on "The Song Remains the Same" (and I think "The Ocean" too, yes?) were sped up in the studio; and so too were the vocals on "No Quarter" slowed down. And think about Good Times Bad Times, Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, Dazed and Confused, Whole Lotta Love, Heartbreaker, Immigrant Song, Since I've Been Loving You, That's the Way, Rock and Roll, Stairway, Levee(!), The Rain Song, Custard Pie, In My Time of Dying(!), The Wanton Song, and Nobody's Fault but Mine, among many others - those songs wouldn't be anywhere near what they are without Plant's vocals. Not to mention Levee has one of the all-time great rock harmonica performances.
It is unclear why there was so much manipulation done to Plant's vocals for the "Houses of The Holy" album. This album is ranked very highly among many Zeppelin fans, but I think the odd vocal effects are a glaring issue. That is why I loved the vocal-less "The Song Remains The Same" and "No Quarter" on the Companion Discs because the musical performances are tremendous.
The last thing on my mind in '75 or '76 when I first heard tracks from Houses on the radio, was that the vocals may have been manipulated. 40 years later, and 20 or 30 years since I found out about what was done, I still couldn't care less. Agreed about the karaoke TSRTS and NQ on the companion. They're fantastic.
I could easily put that back in ... The RMS levels (the DR rating) would jump a bit but it could be done - I'd try not to trash it. On another thread I posted a snippet of that part with just the rhythm section - no vox: As I told the guy I did it for, my wife mentioned it's sounds like "aural crack for baby - boomers" http://www.ajawamnet.com/ajawam2/lz-wll-rhyend.mp3 As i mentioned in the first post I did about remixing this, the biggest issue was getting the drums right. After finding out that the one track was 8ms off, it really helped with the imaging. And thanks for the kind words. I just wanted it to sound like I thought I remembered it sounding, when I put it up in my studio years before I remixed it. Always kinda liked that song and as the band has mentioned it's almost "dirty" kinda feel to that groove. Definitely iconic for that era of rock... So people don't have to go digging for it here's the link to the VU meter vid of the mix: and the comparison vid http://www.ajawamnet.com/ajawam2/lz-wll-vu1.mp4 http://www.ajawamnet.com/ajawam2/lzcompare_0006.mp4
I think the companion disc for In Through The Outdoor is better than the proper album myself. It has an edge to it that was missing from the final product. It's to bad Jimmy didn't include the extended All Of My Love on that disc. Probably my biggest complaint about the companion Discs.
Interesting! My issue with the ITTOD companion disc is that three of the tracks I was most looking forward to checking out - Fool in the Rain, All My Love, and I'm Gonna Crawl - are very poor-sounding tracks, the worst sonically of the entire studio-album reissue campaign, that sound like they were sourced from mono cassettes or something. I do agree with you, though, about the extra "edge" when it comes to the companion version of Carouselambra - the guitars and Plant's vocals are a bit higher and clearer in the mix, giving it a more Zep-like feel that I prefer to the official album version of the track. (In the Evening is interesting too since it's such a radically different mix/version - but I love the menace and murk of the official version.) As for All My Love, I too was disappointed not to get the extended version - Page's guitar work in that outro is perhaps his best work on the whole album. Apparently, though, that extended version that many of us have heard is a later mix from about 1990. So since Page was including only mixes/versions created at the time of the original album's production, that extended version was ruled out. (Plus I'm not sure if it's known if that extended mix even was done by Page or with Page's supervision, or if it was done by some unauthorized person with access to copies of the ITTOD multitracks - the sound quality of the extended version is inferior to the official album.)
That's my exact view as well. I think the companion disc for that one carries both the high of the highs, but the low of the lows, in terms of the alternate mixes. Great stuff except for those three you mentioned! I would have rather heard a stereo "alternate take" of ANY kind for Fool In The Rain, I'm Gonna Crawl, and All My Love, as opposed to the mere mono versions, which really kind of go against the "point" or style of those songs to begin with. All three are very lush and spacious tracks by nature.
Haven't read all 6 pages, but I'm sure you've been corrected, as this song came from Physical Graffiti. Regardless, it's a great version of the song. But other than that and the live stuff, I don't give them much listening, even though I'm a huge Zeppelin fan!
Yes, you are correct about an alt version of this track being on the PG companion disc. I actually was referring, though, to the version of this that closes out the Coda companion discs. The Zep reissues have two different rough/alt mixes of this song, one on the PG companion disc and one on the Coda companion disc. The one on the PG companion disc is more radically different than the final official version, so I guess technically it's the more interesting variation of the two. But as a piece of music I prefer the one on the Coda companion disc.
