Cleaning out the Led Zeppelin vaults for one last album

Three years after their last album, "In Through The Out Door," Led Zeppelin released this album of songs they did not release on their previous albums because, well, they were not good enough. The tracks that stand out are those dominated by the late John Bonham's frenetic drumming, "Poor Tom" and "Bonzo's Montreaux," which certainly seems fitting. You wonder if Jimmy Page turned up the drum tracks before they released this one since Bonzo's drumming certainly seems much more prominent than usual. The alternative version of "I Can't Quit You Baby" is interesting, and hints at what would become available when the group released the live versions they did for the BBC. Most of these tracks, such as "Ozone Baby," "Darlene" and "Wearing and Tearing," are hard rockers that you would readily identify as being from the period when Led Zep was working on "Physical Graffiti." If you are like me, and that is always a remote possibility, you will listen to this one a few times and then go back and listen to Led Zeppelin's "real" albums.

I actually own this edition,not just showing off.

I just can't understand why people write reviews if they don't like a band and are quite unfamiliar with the material,why bother?

All vinyl replicas from the UK and Japan(more expensive but with the characteristic OBI) are nice to have for the packaging alone as the sound is the same as the regular remastered edition.This album was compiled by Page as an overall view of the band in '82.Check the 'see all my reviews' feature for my comments on the album for the regular edition.The gatefold sleeve features a great compilation of photographs and the CD has the Swan Song artwork amazingly reproduced.Better to have an album of outtakes than countless 'best of','greatest hits with one new song',which Zeppelin never released until the compact two-disc Remasters in the mid nineties,now out of print.'I Can't Quit You Baby' is not an alternative take but the live take from the Albert Hall '70 as is 'We're Gonna Groove',both available on the DVD 'Led Zeppelin'.

Anyone remotely familiar with Led Zeppelin knows how Jimmy Page engineered the sound of the band around the drums,it's no accident that Bonzo(John Bonham)is omnipresent,that was his main characteristic!

Anyway,if you can spend the cash for the packaging all the series is amazingly produced,if not,the regular edition souns just as good and is affordable.

REJECTS! ...... the Zeppelin castoffs.......

This album, it is true to say, is a nice extra addition to a serious Led Zeppelin fan's collection. By no means should this album be bought by anyone who has not listened to Led Zeppelin that much as it could give the great band a diminished impression to a new listeners ears, however, Led Zeppelin fans will be all to pleased to own a copy of this, the reject album.



The album has some very good points. The tracks on the album are all very good, bashed out with loads of passion and, even if they probably will never get inot your top 10 Led Zep songs, they are a good listen. The album kicks off well with 'We're gonna groove' a short garage style rocker bashed out in style and is followed up by 'Poor Tom', a remnant from the 1970 Led Zep III recording sessions. However, 'I Can't Quit You Baby' performed live at an Albert Hall rehersal. I'm not knocking the track, its brilliant but it does not seem completely necessary a second time around (its originally on Led Zep I). Following this are Walter's Walk, Ozone Baby and Darlene, all good hard rock tracks, the first being a Houses of the Holy remnant and the latter two being from the In Through the Out Door sessions (in fact I think those two tracks would have done well on the album instead of tracks like the oversynthesized Corouselambra which bring down the albums overall standing .... but clearly the omission of these tracks must have seemed the right way to go at the time. Following this is Bonzo's Montreux, recorded in Switzerland in 1976. This is a great tribute to the great drummer. The final track, 'Wearing and Tearing' is a great finish to the album, again another track which you think would have served well on In Through the Out Door....



So, not bad for a bunch of rejects ay. My real misgivings with the albums is 1) the time length, 33 minutes is way too short. It would be nice to see maybe 'Travelling Riverside Blues' and 'That Girl She Got Long Black Wavy Hair' from the BBC sessions added on here, to give the album more depth. 2) My other misgiving is the inside cover, which shows photos of the band. This is good in memorabilia terms but gives the album an impression of being a 'best of Zeppelin' to an unsuspecting listener. These misgivings aside, I would say buy this album but only when your familiar with ALL of Led Zeppelin's 8 studio albums as this is only really an addition. However, don't knock the tracks as they are very good for castoffs.



So, 1982's Coda was the end of the road in terms of Led Zeppelin studio albums. Below is the order I would put them in based on how good I think they are:



1. Houses of the Holy

2. Led Zeppelin I

3. Physical Graffiti

4. Led Zeppelin IV (Zoso)

5. Led Zeppelin II

6. Presence

7. Led Zeppelin III

8. Coda

9. In Through the Out Door



In my opinion, the first 7 albums in that list are all classics in their own right. This is totally my opinion - many would say IV or Phys. Graf. are the best but Houses claims that honour in my mind. Also, below are what I would regard as Led Zeppelin's greatest 6 songs:



1. The Rain Song (Houses of the Holy)

2. Dazed and Confused (Led Zep I)

3. Stairway to Heaven (Led Zep IV)

4. When the Levee Breaks (Led Zep IV)

5. No Quarter (Houses of the Holy)

6. Kashmir (Physical Graffiti)



I needn't say no more!!

Swan Song

One of the testaments to a band's talent and work is what is left on the cutting room floor. Two years after John Bonham's death Jimmy Page released this collection, a hodge podge of songs that includes sound checks and songs not deemed good enough for their original studio albums. Yet for material that supposedly didn't make the original cut, it's far superior to the best material of Led Zeppelin's forgotten contemporaries. The album is just as listenable as much of Zep's other work, perhaps more so than some, and features the band doing what it does best: playing the blues like it had never been played before. Highlights include the Ben E. King-penned "We're Gonna Grove," the bitter cynicism of "Ozone Baby," the pleading, emotional vocals on "Darlene," and a blistering version of "I Can't Quit You, Babe" that not only showcases the talents of all four band members, but puts the version from their first album to shame.

Zeppelin's wrongly jeered odds and ends album

Led Zeppelin's tenth and final album Coda was released in November of 1982 to an unsuspecting public, two years after the death of John Bonham and the demise of the band.

The album was released at a time when New Wave acts like Duran Duran and what not had hijacked music with their style over substance brand of music.

When fans took Coda home would they be pumped(as I was when I first got this album in November of 1985) or disappointed, read on.

We open the album with We're Gonna Groove and for many years stated was an outtake from Led Zeppelin II. In fact, this track was recorded at The Royal Albert Hall in January of 1970(listent to the Led Zeppelin DVD and this side to side and it is the same track). Guitarist Jimmy Page adds sub-octdivider effects on guitar and new guitar solos whilst a young Robert Plant screams his head off. Next is Poor Tom which was an interesting leftover from the Led Zeppelin III sessions. Bonzo and bass player John Paul Jones supply a great rhythm track under Page's stellar 12-string acoustic work and Plant's great vocal and harmonica. I Can't Quit You Baby is also from the Royal Albert Hall performance in 1970(see DVD and listen to this version side to side) with the crowd noises, the improv intro and conclusion removed after Bonzo's drum solo. This version decimates the version on Led Zeppelin I. The first half ends with Walter's Walk which was an outtake from the Houses Of The Holy sessions and my personal favorite on the album. This rocker has excellent work from Page, Jones and especially Bonham.. Plant's vocals I think were recorded in 1981 and 1982 as his voice does not sound like it was from 1972.

The second half of the album mainly has three outtakes from the In Through the Out Door sessions which were Ozone Baby, Darlene and Wearing and Tearing plus one song recorded in 1976 Bonzo's Montreux. The rocker Ozone Baby was the rock radio hit and is a great song. Darlene follows and is another highlight on Coda. Jonesy's piano work is killer, whilst Pagey slipped into his Scotty Moore/Jimmy Burton persona to deliver some inspired lead work in the middle and the end. Bonzo's Montreux was a 1976 John Bonham drum instrumental with some electronic effects added by Page around 1981/82. It's a nice tribute to Bonzo. The closing Wearing and Tearing was a song that would have stopped bands like The Damned and The Sex Pistols in their tracks with its speed and riff supply.

The album did well when it came out reaching #4 in the US and going Platinum but many fans complained it was too short.

In fact, this album is expanded on the 10 disc Complete Studio Recordings box set released in 1993. There are four bonus tracks which were Baby Come on Home which was an outtake from Led Zeppelin I and appeared on Led Zeppelin box set two. Travelling Riverside Blues which was recorded for the BBC and first appeared on the 1990 Led Zeppelin box set. The instrumental White Summer/Black Mountain Side was recorded during a BBC concert in the summer of 1969 and first appeared on Zep's 1990 box set. Hey Hey What Can I Do was an outtake from Led Zeppelin III and was initially released as The Immigrant Song's B-side and on the 1990 Led Zeppelin boxed set.

I give the album FIVE STARS due to the songs contained and don't care if it was only 30 someodd minutes whilst it is expanded on the version of the album that appears on Zep's 1993 box.