Led Zeppelin: The Complete BBC Sessions (Deluxe Edition 3 CD) 2016

 

In 1968, Jimmy Page formed Led Zeppelin, one of the most influential, innovative and successful

groups in modern music, having sold more than 300 million albums worldwide. The band rose from the ashes of The Yardbirds, when Page brought in Robert Plant, John Bonham and John Paul Jones. In 1969, Led Zeppelin released its self-titled debut which was produced by Jimmy Page, as were all the subsequent albums. It marked the beginning of a 12-year reign, during which the group was widely considered to be the biggest and most innovative rock band in the world.
                  

BBC Sessions Deluxe Edition (3CD) – Remastered original album plus a third disc of unreleased audio

is a compilation album featuring studio sessions and a live concert recorded by English rock group Led Zeppelin for the BBC. It was released on 17 November 1997, by Atlantic Records. Disc one consists of material from four different 1969 BBC sessions. Disc two contains most of the 1 April 1971 concert from the Paris Theatre in London.
              

Disc Three includes Nine recordings from a conglomerate of 1969 sessions, including "Dazed and

Confused", "I Can't Quit You Baby", "You Shook Me" and "Sunshine Woman" along with two versions of both "Communication Breakdown" and "What Is and What Should Never Be" (recorded two years apart) were released on 16 September 2016, comprising a third disc of the previously two-disc BBC Sessions compilation.
               

Eight of the nine songs were previously unreleased; "White Summer" was previously released in 1990 on the Led Zeppelin Boxed Set and the expanded 1993 reissue of Coda from The Complete Studio

Recordings and Led Zeppelin Definitive Collection (2008) box sets. The lost March 1969 three-song session – by all accounts erased from its master tapes – appears on the disc sourced from a reputed AM radio recording. This session contains the oft-bootlegged, boogieing blues rocker "Sunshine Woman," a track that Zeppelin never formally released previously, and renditions of Willie Dixon's "I Can't Quit You Baby" and "You Shook Me."
                     

Countless bootlegs of these recordings circulated for years before the official release. This release was widely welcomed by Led Zeppelin fans as it was the first live release since The Song Remains the

Same in 1976. Others have criticized the decision to edit some of the songs and drop others that were recorded for the BBC. Most notable are one session from 1969 which included the unreleased song "Sunshine Woman", and about seven minutes of the "Whole Lotta Love" medley from 1971. The album was re-released in September 2016 as The Complete BBC Sessions with further BBC recordings, including the "Sunshine Woman" session.
             

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. 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.
             

(ALL MUSIC by Stephen Thomas Erlewine)
Back in 1997, Led Zeppelin released BBC Sessions, the band's first attempt to chronicle its heavily

bootlegged live recordings for the British Broadcasting Corporation. That double-disc set didn't contain all of Zep's BBC Sessions: a full nine songs from 1969 were left behind, including three songs recorded in March -- a session highlighted by the otherwise unavailable original "Sunshine Woman" -- that were believed to be lost. The 2016 triple-disc set The Complete BBC Sessions adds those songs as a third disc to a remastered version of the original 1997 compilation, an addition that doesn't greatly alter the overall picture of Zeppelin's BBC Sessions but offers a whole lot of additional value.
                 

Without those sessions, the compilation remains a stellar showcase of Led Zeppelin in ascendancy but

with them the portrait deepens, particularly in how "Communication Breakdown" winds up being a place for the bandmembers to stretch their legs, incorporating covers or even interpolations of their own songs; it's a place where their intensity is married to their thirst for adventure.
                 

Elsewhere, there are plenty of extended blues jams -- "I Can't Quit You Baby" and "You Shook Me" from the lost March 1969 session are condensed and sound all the more powerful for it; similarly, the

woozy rearrangement of Robert Johnson's "Travelling Riverside Blues" resonates because it's concise -- but the music that hits hardest remains the live-wire rockabilly ("Somethin' Else") and revved-up blues-boogie, the latter coming to the forefront on the otherwise unavailable "The Girl I Love She Got Long Black Wavy Hair" and that unearthed "Sunshine Woman," a throwaway raver that shows just how loose, muscular, and invigorating Zeppelin were at the outset.

LED ZEPPELIN

                  

John Bonham – drums, percussion, backing vocals
John Paul Jones – bass guitar, bass pedals, keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals
Jimmy Page – acoustic and electric guitars, backing vocals, mastering, production
Robert Plant – vocals, harmonica

ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL

                   

Andie Airfix – art direction, design
Jon Astley – mastering
John Davis – mastering (The Complete BBC Sessions 2016 reissue)
Luis Rey – liner notes
Chris Walter – photography
                 

Led Zeppelin – The Complete BBC Sessions
Label: Atlantic – R2-556277
Format: 3 x CD, Album, Compilation, Reissue, Remastered
Country: US
Released: Sep 16, 2016
Genre: Rock
Style: Blues Rock, Hard Rock

CD1.

                     

01. You Shook Me   5:14
Written-By – J.B. Lenoir, Willie Dixon
02. I Can't Quit You Baby   4:22
Written-By – Willie Dixon
Written-By [Sample Of '19 Years Old'] – Muddy Waters
03. Communication Breakdown   3:12
Written-By – Jimmy Page, John Bonham, John Paul Jones
04. Dazed And Confused   6:39
Written-By – Jimmy Page
Written-By [Inspired By] – Jake Holmes
05. The Girl I Love She Got Long Black Wavy Hair   3:00
Written-By – Jimmy Page, John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, John Estes
06. What Is And What Should Never Be   4:20
Written-By – Jimmy Page, Robert Plant
07. Communication Breakdown   2:40
Written-By – Jimmy Page, John Bonham, John Paul Jones
08. Travelling Riverside Blues   5:12
Written-By – Jimmy Page, Robert Johnson, Robert Plant
09. Whole Lotta Love   6:09
Written-By – Jimmy Page, John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, Willie Dixon
10. Somethin' Else   2:06
Written-By – Bob Cochran, Sharon Sheeley
11. Communication Breakdown   3:05
Written-By – Jimmy Page, John Bonham, John Paul Jones
12. I Can't Quit You Baby   6:21
Written-By – Willie Dixon
13. You Shook Me   10:19
Written-By – J.B. Lenoir, Willie Dixon
14. How Many More Times   11:51
Written-By – Jimmy Page, John Bonham, John Paul Jones
Written-By [Samples From 'The Lemon Song'] – Chester Burnett, Jimmy Page, John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant

Flac 24/96 KHz Size: 1.11 GB

CD2.

              

01. Immigrant Song   3:20
Written-By – Jimmy Page, Robert Plant
02. Heartbreaker   5:16
Written-By – Jimmy Page, John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant
03. Since I've Been Loving You   6:56
Written-By – Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant
04. Black Dog   5:17
Written-By – Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant
05. Dazed And Confused   18:36
Written-By – Jimmy Page
Written-By [Inspired By] – Jake Holmes
06. Stairway To Heaven   8:49
Written-By – Jimmy Page, Robert Plant
07. Going To California   3:54
Written-By – Jimmy Page, Robert Plant
08. That's The Way   5:43
Written-By – Jimmy Page, Robert Plant
09. Whole Lotta Love (Medley)    (13:45)
9a. Whole Lotta Love
Written-By – Jimmy Page, John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, Willie Dixon
9b. Boogie Chillun'
Written-By – John Lee Hooker, Bernard Besman
9c. Fixin' To Die
Written-By – Bukka White
9d. That's Alright Mama
Written-By – Arthur Crudup
9e. A Mess Of Blues
Written-By – Doc Pomus, Mort Shuman
10. Thank You   6:37
Written-By – Jimmy Page, Robert Plant

Flac 24/96 KHz Size: 1.48 GB

CD3.

                

01. Communication Breakdown   3:00
Written-By – Jimmy Page, John Bonham, John Paul Jones
02. What Is And What Should Never Be   4:15
Written-By – Jimmy Page, Robert Plant
03. Dazed And Confused   11:08
Written-By – Jimmy Page
Written-By [Inspired By] – Jake Holmes
04. White Summer   8:23
Written-By – Jimmy Page
05. What Is And What Should Never Be   4:44
Written-By – Jimmy Page, Robert Plant
06. Communication Breakdown   4:55
Written-By – Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones
07. I Can't Quit You Baby   5:27
Written-By – Willie Dixon
08. You Shook Me   4:10
Written-By – J.B. Lenoir, Willie Dixon
09. Sunshine Woman   3:06
Written-By – Jimmy Page, John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, Willie Dixon

Flac 24/96 KHz Size: 891 MB

NOTES

                  

3-1, 1-4, 1-1, and 1-2 recorded March 3, 1969. Original broadcast date March 23, 1969 on John Peel's Top Gear.

3-9, 3-7, and 3-8 recorded March 19, 1969. Original broadcast date April 14, 1969 on BBC World Service's Rhythm And Blues.

1-5, 1-3, 1-10, and 3-2 recorded June 16, 1969. Original broadcast date June 22, 1969 on Chris Grant's Tasty Pop Sundae.

1-9, 1-7, 1-6, and 1-8 recorded on June 24, 1969. Original broadcast date June 29, 1969 on Top Gear introduced by John Peel

1-11, 1-12, 3-3, 3-4, 1-13, and 1-14 recorded on June 27, 1969. Original broadcast date August 10, 1969 for the pilot One Night
Stand part of Top Gear, introduced by John Peel.

2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 2-4, 2-5, 2-6, 2-7, 2-8, 3-5, 2-9, 2-10, 3-6 recorded April 1, 1971. Original broadcast date April 4, 1971 on the John Peel Sunday In Concert programme.