Led Zeppelin Live at the Beeb

In the past few years, it's become very fashionable to dig around in the archives of the British Broadcasting Corporation and unearth tapes of live performances of all the great bands who've played there. Such lumineries as The Beatles, The Yardbirds, and David Bowie, just to name a few, have taken the tapes of their live performances, mastered them expertly, and released them for the enjoyment of the music-consuming public. In 1997, Led Zeppelin, aided by the compilation and mastering skills of one Jimmy Page, did the same thing, and the result is BBC Sessions--Led Zeppelin, a spectacular collection of some electrifying performances by one of the greatest bands in rock 'n roll history.

Performing a live concert in the studios of the British Broadcasting Corporation must have been a difficult thing for Led Zeppelin to do--as I pointed out in an earlier review of live BBC recordings by the Yardbirds, most bands would have to feel restrained in such a small venue. For a band like Led Zeppelin that played at high volume and created a true arena sound, it must have been difficult not to roll all the knobs to the right and send the needles on the board into the red, creating distortion and other problems that sometimes plague a live performance. This collection is remarkably clean, and the mix achieved during the live performances is balanced and has good separation of the various instruments and voices.

This collection has two discs--Disc One was recorded at various times in 1969, and Disc Two contains performances from 1971. One of the strengths of Led Zeppelin has always been thei band's ability to improvise, and despite the constraints of performing in the studios of the BBC, the essence of Led Zeppelin is captured perfectly in these performances.

Highlights Of Disc One

Led Zeppelin was first and foremost a blues band, and their covers of You Shook Me and I Can't Quit You Baby by blues master Willie Dixon show the band's skill at interpreting primal blues in a rock context. The Girl I Love She Got Long Black Wavy Hair and Travelling Riverside Blues show just how well Led Zeppelin learned from the old masters when creating their own blues pieces. The three versions of Communication Breakdown on this disc give the listener an idea about how this band's talent for improvisation could result in diffferent versions of the same song, while the elegant What Is And What Should Never Be points unequivocally to Led Zeppelin's musical evolution.

Highlights Of Disc Two

The live version of Since I've Been Loving You, Led Zeppelin's greatest blues effort, is almost perfect--Jimmy Page's guitar work is almost otherworldly, and Robert Plant puts his own spin on this tale about infidelity with some gut-wrenching vocals. Dazed And Confused sounds like it comes straight from the depths of hell, and That's The Way nicely counterbalances its demonic sound with some soothing acoustic guitar work. No live performance would be complete without Stairway To Heaven, and for a recording with no overdubs, the quality of this song is incredible. The highlight of this disc is the medley in Whole Lotta Love--snippets of old classics like Boogie Chillin', Fixin' To Die, That's Alright Mama, and A Mess Of Blues are woven together in a very energizing performance.

I highly recommend this album, and I'll be the first to admit that I'm biased--I love live performances, Led Zeppelin is one of my favorite groups, and I've actually seen them live on two occasions in 1970. Whether you share the same biases as I do is not really important--it's the music that counts, and this is an excellent collection of live music from one of the greatest bands of our time.

Pick it up.

Thanks for reading.