Legends and BBC Sessions

[Brian Downing <metranil@xxxxxxx>]

 1. I thought the Legends special was okay, but nothing too exciting.  I
sort of wish the band would've had someone else narrate the show.  Did
anyone else notice how Tyler mispronounced "Bron-Y(r)-Aur?  I guess he
misplaced his Blueberrry Hill bootleg before he rehearsed.  With the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame thing and now this, it seems that Steven Tyler
is inexorably linked with the band.  I can't believe there aren't any
credible young musicians who could relieve Tyler of this duty.  I have
always had the feeling that Aerosmith were paying lip service to the band
without actually understanding Zeppelin's meaning.  I'm always suspect of
people who consistently allude only to numbers on II.  Bring it On Home is
cool, but that's barely what the band was about.  I can see Tyler being
disappointed by the "wimpiness" of III or Houses of the Holy.  It just
seems to me that, once again, Zeppelin are the Rodney Dangerfield of Rock
if their only champions are from a band whose last great album came out
the same year as Presence.  Think about the illustrious names who've 
inducted the other "biggies" into the Hall of Fame and you'll know what 
I mean.  Hell, Camper van Beethoven understood more about what Zeppelin's 
essence was than Aerosmith ever will.

2. A marginal thumbs down, as well, to the BBC Sessions.  The edits are
pointless, the sound not markedly better than the recent boots, and the
cover art immediately becomes the worst in Zeppelin's catalog.  I also was
perplexed by Luis Rey as choice for writing the liner notes.  He's pretty
upfront about his disappointment with both the 3/3/69 and 4/1/71 sessions
in his book, so I find it ironic he has to try to endorse them in print
for this release.  I would have preferred David Fricke or Kurt Loder, both
much better writers than Rey.  Granted, they might not have heard every
unlistenable audience tape ever made of the band, but they have been
long-time fans of the group even before the 1987-1988 rebirth made it
hip to champion Zeppelin.