BBC Review & JPJ int.

[Jeryl Davis <jeryldavis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

A friend of mine sent this to me and I thought it might be suitable for
a first post to FBO.

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Thursday November 20 12:56 PM EST

FEATURE: Led Zep Flies Again With Release Of 'BBC
Sessions'

By Gary Graff

DETROIT (Reuters) - When Led Zeppelin made its first trip to the BBC
Studios in London during March of 1969, it was a young band with one
album done, a second on the way and a buzz based on guitarist Jimmy
Page's tenure with the Yardbirds and bassist John Paul Jones' lengthy
session credits.

The group's sound was primal and raw and not completely formed. It's
first selections were sledgehammer cover versions of the blues great
Willie Dixon's "You Shook Me" and "I Can't Quit You Baby."

But even the casual ear could pick up a special, distinctive chemistry
that was bubbling under the standard 12-bar changes.

And within two years, the group was wending its way through the shifting
dynamics of its opus, "Stairway to Heaven," as well as intricate
acoustic pieces such as "Going to California" and "That's the Way."

This rapid growth is traced on "BBC Sessions," a new release of
frequently bootlegged material from the Led Zep archives and a more
complete chronicle of the legendary quartet's performance prowess than
the soundtrack album from the 1976 film "The Song Remains the Same."

"That is a natural process, obviously, of just playing a lot together;
you get closer and closer, you get to anticipate each other's moves,"
says Jones, explaining that while he and guitarist Jimmy Page were
seasoned professionals when the group performed, singer Robert Plant and
drummer John Bonham -- whose death in 1980 led to the band's dissolution
- -- didn't have much big-time experience.

"I think what you're hearing is the maturation of the other two more
than us," he says.

Jones acknowledges that performing on BBC programs such as "Top Gear,"
"Chris Grant's Tasty Pop Sundae," "One Night Stand" and "In Concert"
were major gigs for rock bands.

The Beatles, Rolling Stones and other groups made several significant
appearances on the BBC, often as a way of getting around the national
network's sticky "needle time" rules, which permitted disc jockeys only
so much time each day to play records -- thereby limiting exposure for
rock bands.

But in Led Zeppelin's case, the BBC dates also provided the group with
an opportunity to give the listening audience a taste of how its songs
evolved after they were recorded.


"We were allowed to expand and play five-, six-, seven-minute songs,"
says Jones, 51, who was born John Baldwin and became a professional
musician at age 16. "The albums were always the starting point of the
music, and then we'd take it out and expand it on the road.

"And then we'd come straight off the road and into those studios. So the
fire in the playing was particularly noticeable, and the cockiness was
there."

The BBC outings also allowed the band to play some of its blues and
rocks favorites by other artists. The Beatles' "Live at the BBC" album
was filled with covers, and besides the Dixon cuts, "BBC Sessions" finds
Zep working its way through Eddie Cochran's "Something Else" and Sleepy
John Estes' "The Girl I Love."

Jones says these were songs done mostly "for fun," but that in the early
days of the band they also served a more pragmatic purpose.

"We started putting them in in the early days, when the act wasn't that
long," he remembers. "It all kind of started in Boston, I think, at the
Tea Party, when we had a very short act, and we played for an awfully
long time. Anybody that knew more than four bars of anything would start
it, and we would all just join in.

"But it was fun, mainly. You're not trying to be like, 'Hey, this is a
new angle' or a different interpretation.' We weren't that pretentious."

Jones says the idea for "BBC Sessions" was hatched during the meetings
he, Page and Plant regularly have to sort through Led Zeppelin business.

The musicians culled the song list from four broadcasts during 1969 and
1971, deciding to duplicate some songs -- such as "Dazed and Confused"
and the Dixon tunes -- to further illustrate the group's musical
development.

The 1971 "In Concert" broadcast from London's Paris Theatre was
particularly noteworthy, since it features a preview of "Stairway to
Heaven" and other songs from Zep's then-forthcoming fourth album. But
Jones says he remembers nothing particularly momentous about that
performance.

"It was recognized as a good song and a good track, but it didn't go
down half as well as the stuff the audience knew," he says. "That's the
way of live shows, anyway."

The release of "BBC Sessions" raises the question of whether more
concert material from the Zep archives is on the horizon. Page and "BBC
Sessions" engineer Jon Astley have both alluded to other available
recordings, but Jones says there are no firm plans for additional
releases.

"These live tapes pop up rather than come from a great big store we're
going to release bit by bit," says Jones, who's planning a solo album
for 1998 while Page and Plant are working on another album together.

"You come across this stuff. This one kind of appeared while we were
doing other Zeppelin business."

Jones adds that he meets "too often" with Page and Plant on residual Zep
business matters. His relationship with the two has been strained since
the singer and guitarist reunited in 1994 without inviting Jones or
telling him about it. Feelings soured further when they named their
album "No Quarter," after one of Jones' Zep compositions.

"I felt, not stupid, but ... why? Why doesn't somebody just say
something. Just say, 'We don't want you,' or whatever," he says. "I
really don't mind. It just seems so spineless to sort of crawl away."

Jones got even at Zep's 1995 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame, when he thanked his former bandmates for "remembering my (phone)
number." The zinger remains a highlight of Hall of Fame lore, and Jones
remembers Neil Young, who jammed with Zep that night, poking Page and
Plant in the ribs and admonishing them, "don't you forget his phone
number ever again."

However, Jones acknowledges, the episode has put a chill in their
relationship.

"I find it hard to talk about, and they certainly don't want to talk
about it," says the married father of three grown daughters. "I know
Page certainly looks at me a bit funny sometimes. I think Robert's in
another world; I don't know what he thinks anymore. And we were close.
It seems just odd."

Page and Plant each declined to respond to Jones' comments. That said,
there's still a chance that the three might reunite for Atlantic
Records' 50th anniversary bash last year, as they did for the company's
40th anniversary celebration. But Jones makes no promises.

"I don't know; it'll be funny doing anything with them again," he says.
"I kind of hope I don't have to. I don't know what more I can tell you
about that. I would rather not, to be honest." ----- ----- -----
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(Gary Graff is a nationally syndicated journalist who covers the music
scene from Detroit. He also is the supervising editor of the
award-winning "MusicHound" album guide series.)

Reuters/Variety
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Hope ya liked it! BTW...I picked up a used copy of Jimmy Page - Midnight
Outrider a few weeks ago for $32. Can anybody tell me if this is a fair
price? It has the following tracks:

Disc One
1. Wasting My Time
2. Wanna Make Love
3. Untitled (unreleased)
4. Hummingbird
5. Prison Blues (No 1)
6. Prison Blues (No 2)
7. Train Kept A Rollin
8. Blues Anthem

Disc Two
Midnight Moonlight Acoustic Sessions Tracks 1-17

Wandering Upon The Rings,
Jeryl Davis