Led Zeppelin: The Complete BBC Sessions

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin: The Complete BBC Sessions
Format
Audio
Publisher
RHINO RECORDS
Published
16 September 2016
ISBN
9397601006854

Led Zeppelin: The Complete BBC Sessions

Led Zeppelin

Nearly 20 years ago, Led Zeppelin introduced BBC Sessions, an acclaimed two-disc set of live recordings selected from the band’s appearances on BBC radio between 1969 and 1971. Later this year, the band will unveil The Complete BBC Sessions, an updated version of the collection that’s been newly remastered with supervision by Jimmy Page and expanded with eight unreleased BBC recordings, including three rescued from a previously “lost” session from 1969.

BBC Sessions was originally released in 1997 and has been certified double platinum by the RIAA. The Complete BBC Sessions builds on that collection with a third disc that boasts eight unreleased performances, plus “White Summer,” a recording that first surfaced in 1990 on the Led Zeppelin Boxed Set. In addition, the set includes extensive session-by-session liner notes written by Dave Lewis. For the first time ever, it provides accurate details and notes about all of the band’s BBC sessions.

Musical highlights on this new collection include the debut of a long-lost radio session that has achieved near-mythic status among fans. Originally broadcast in April 1969, the session included three songs: “I Can’t Quit You Baby,” “You Shook Me,” and the only recorded performance of “Sunshine Woman.”

Also included are two unreleased versions of both “Communication Breakdown” and “What Is And What Should Never Be.” Separated by two years, the performances vividly demonstrate the young band’s rapid evolution over a short period of time.

Jimmy Page spoke about the band’s growth in an interview with Guitar World: “The BBC Sessions show in graphic detail just how organic the group was. Led Zeppelin was a band that would change things around substantially each time it played…We were becoming tighter and tighter, to the point of telepathy.”

Speaking with Wall of Sound, John Paul Jones added: “We’d been on the road a lot by the time those sessions were recorded. The albums were always the starting point of the music, and then we’d take it out and expand it on the road. Then we’d come straight off the road into those BBC studios.”

Recalling the BBC experience in an interview with Mojo, Robert Plant said: “The whole thing was very quaint: the politeness of the audience, the technicians fumbling about, proper hallowed low-key introductions. Like there was some sort of holy moment about to occur.”

 

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