Led Zeppelin
How The West Was Won

THE REVIEW

THE PREVIEW

During the glorious '70s, the art of promotion developed. There was no MTV or Internet, and the main available means were concerts, singles to be broadcast on the radio, and printed press. Except for a few rare promotional photos or 45 singles (only in the United States), the Led Zeppelin always granted themselves sparingly to radio and specialized magazines. The true promotional strength of the group was represented by their performances on stage: never simple shows, but events that bonded the audience, with overwhelming music and creating the stereotype of the rock deity, in a sort of musical telepathy. Live, without the forced discipline of the recording studio, their extreme ability to improvise and expand any song, which was never the same – contrary to the famous title The Song Remains The Same – led the music to constant evolution. The concert, in short, was also used as a testing and experimentation ground.

The ten studio albums represent a colossal commercial machine: over two hundred million records sold place the group at the top of sales charts of all time, second only to the Beatles, and yet this is only part of the story. Quoting John Paul Jones, "the main thought for the band has always been the live performance."

Thanks to the release on May 26th of the triple CD How The West Was Won, everyone will finally be able to enjoy the spontaneous excitement of a Led Zeppelin concert, and for many, it will be, in no uncertain terms, a shock. How The West Was Won will be released in the coming months in an audio DVD version. Those who own a surround system, as stated by Kevin Shirley (already with Black Crowes & Page, Iron Maiden, Dream Theater...), will have the sensation of being in the front rows at the Forum, just a few meters from Led Zeppelin.

The triple is drawn from the marathon concert at the Los Angeles Forum on June 25th '72 and from the one at Long Beach Arena two days later. The L.A. night was one where the audience didn't want to end, forcing the band to extend the usual setlist with six encores. Of the evenings at the Forum and the Arena, both extraordinary, Page selected the setlist that reflects the triumphant night in Los Angeles, with the only exclusion of the cover of Louie, Louie and the subsequent Thank You. It is imperative to remember that for Led Zeppelin, California was a second home and the Los Angeles Forum the preferred venue.

Thanks to the decision to open the vaults that hold the group's live recording tapes by Page, with the approval of Jones and Plant, we will hear a 23-minute Whole Lotta Love, the highlight of the evening, with a stunning medley with the entire band at full speed like a runaway train. In this tour, including the concerts of the triple CD, the Leds decided to test the songs that would later appear on the 1973 album House Of The Holy, such as Over The Hills And Far Away, very experimental and with Plant's vocal tone very different compared to the version that would later be found on the studio album, The Ocean, Dancing Days, The Crunge, the latter included in an instrumental version in a 25-minute Dazed And Confused.

It is not the first time that the group has released a live album. The first was the soundtrack of the documentary film The Song Remains The Same (1975), a compilation of the nights of July 27-28-29 '73 at Madison Square Garden in New York, which, however, does not do justice to the band's legendary concerts, does not reflect the setlist of a real show, and, above all, is the result of numerous copy-and-pastes within the songs by Jimmy Page. The band was worn out and went from inspired moments to others off-key. The double Bbc Sessions (1997) was instead superb. Except for the tracks from June 27 '69 at the Playhouse Theatre on the first CD and the actual concert at the Paris Theatre in London on April 1 '71, they are live performances without an audience in the London radio studios. Unlike the two cited live performances, How The West Was Won shows a triumphant and fiery Led Zeppelin concert without retouching.

 For the first time - hoping it is the first release of the much-desired Chronological Live Collection by Jimmy Page - we will all take part in those legendary performances that no other band managed to emulate in those years, and in the years to come. An impressive portrait of Led Zeppelin in '72, a group that literally fed itself to the audience on American soil, "How The West Was Won" is destined to enter the history of the best live rock albums, succeeding where "The Song Remains The Same" failed