Box Set Vol. 1

Led Zeppelin

Atlantic, 1990

http://www.ledzeppelin.com

REVIEW BY: Benjamin Ray

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 08/30/2005

Box sets are always a dicey proposition. Do you include the biggest hits and a few album cuts to appeal to old and new fans alike, or do you include a lot of unreleased and rare songs?

In Led Zeppelin's case, there were only a handful of unreleased songs. So guitarist/producer Jimmy Page compiled four discs of the band's best music and released it in 1990. He orders the songs somewhat chronologically and includes most everything good from the band. It includes pretty much all you need to know from the band, although it doesn't tell the whole story the way the individual albums do.

The first disc features "Whole Lotta Love," "Heartbreaker" and "Communication Breakdown" as a killer opening punch, while "Babe I'm Gonna Leave" is one of the band's strongest and most emotional moments. The softer "Thank You," the soundcheck version of "I Can't Quit You Baby" (better than the original version), and the defining "Dazed and Confused" are all on here as well. my_heart_sings_the_harmony_web_ad_alt_250

Disc 2 is where the talent, ambition and experimentalism came to a head. The staggering quality of output here -- "The Rain Song," "Over The Hills And Far Away" and of course "Stairway To Heaven" are coupled with "Rock And Roll," the piledriving "Immigrant Song," the mystic "Battle Of Evermore," and pretty much everything else from the band's fourth album.

Disc 3 is the bombastic mythology side of Zeppelin, with "Kashmir," the epic "In My Time of Dying," and "No Quarter," plus the decadent "For Your Life." Zeppelin's three best songs also are here in "Achilles' Last Stand," "When the Levee Breaks" and "Trampled Underfoot." Truly stunning; rock and roll rarely got better than this.

The final disc shows Zeppelin in a downward slide, and after the first three discs the stuff here is somewhat anti-climactic. "Ozone Baby?" Really? The mundane "Candy Store Rock" and "In The Evening" just plod along, although "In the Light" is a great Physical Graffiti track and a few gems from Coda are worth rediscovering. 

The bonuses here are all on the first disc -- the BBC versions of "Traveling Riverside Blues"  and the solo guitar medley "White Summer/Black Mountain Side," which is way too long at eight minutes; and "Hey Hey What Can I Do," one of the band's loosest and most fun moments and a song that should have been included on Led Zeppelin III, had that album had any room for fun. Also, a pastiche of "Moby Dick" and "Bonzo's Montreaux" is a tribute of sorts to drummer John Bonham, but seems rather pointless, since Disc 3 speaks more about his talent than any remix.

This is too long to be a hits collection and too short for those who want to update their old vinyl, but for a thorough overview of the band, this is a wonderful place to start. The included book includes interviews, pictures and an essay and is a welcome addition for fans. And if you're not a fan, for whatever reason, you will be after listening to this.

Rating: A

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© 2005 Benjamin Ray and The Daily Vault. All rights reserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without written permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of Atlantic, and is used for informational purposes only.