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Led Zeppelin
How The West Was Won
2003 Atlantic
83587-2

If you?re one of the 14 souls in the known
universe who has never heard Led Zeppelin, my
recommendation is buy these CD?s. Now can I join
the band Jimmy?

Marathon pre-Van Halen styled guitar solos, way
over-the-top blues drumming, vocal whining to the
nth degree, here they are!

We should thank Led Zeppelin. As a result of all
this pompous, self indulgent, never-ending
musical jacking off, the next generation of
musicians turned against this crap and punk and
new wave were born. No more endless solos and bad
blues. No more angst-ridden vocalists, and
guitarists who miss every 17th note in their
crappy solos. Cream, Hendrix, and Canned Heat
started this endless jamming and Zep ended it.
The Grateful Dead notwithstanding, who wants to
hear this stuff these days? Well, I did, for
about an hour.

Ya wait 30 years and finally, what do ya get? A
triple CD taken from two shows. This is Led
Zeppelin, as they never existed. Most Led
Zeppelin shows were 90 percent train wreck and 10
percent brilliance. This release is the opposite.
This shit is too perfect!

I?d much rather have heard both complete shows,
all clunkers included. That?s what made Led
Zeppelin cool: brilliance and train wrecks. The
Hendrix estate does that too; they edit out every
wrong note and mistake. It?s a bogus historical
record, and not half as cool as it could/should
be.

Other notes from my marathon Zep listening
session:

1. Aaahh..., Robert Plant, when he still had a
voice.

2. They could have left the three longest tracks
off and made a single CD.

3. These guys were hot shots, really really good.

4. Even Page sounds great!

5. What the heck do they know about "the land of
ice and snow?" They?re Limeys!

6. The ?70s. You had to be there. Nineteen-minute
versions of "Dazed and Confused." This kind of
musical noodling came and went loooong ago, thank
god. 

?Bun E. Carlos
July 2003