Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. You Shook Me
2. I Can't Quit You Baby
3. Communication Breakdown
4. Dazed And Confused
5. Girl I Love
6. What Is And What Should Never Be
7. Communication Breakdown (2)
8. Travelling Riverside Blues
9. Whole Lotta Love
10. Something Else
11. Communication Breakdown (3)
12. I Can't Quit You Baby (2)
13. You Shook Me (2)
14. How Many More Times
15. Immigrant Song
16. Heartbreaker
17. Since I've Been Loving You
18. Black Dog
19. Dazed And Confused (2)
20. Stairway To Heaven
21. Going To California
22. That's The Way
23. Whole Lotta Love (2)
24. Thank You

Disc 2:

1. Immigrant Song
2. Heartbreaker
3. Since I've Been Loving You
4. Black Dog
5. Dazed And Confused (2)
6. Stairway To Heaven
7. Going To California
8. That's The Way
9. Whole Lotta Love (2)
10. Thank You

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4010 in Music
• Released on: 1997-11-17
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Live, Double CD
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Frequently bootlegged and now digitally remastered by Jimmy Page, these tapes capture a 25-month (1969 to 1971) arc in which Zep's sound grew to encompass the speed rush and jazz/blues festival stuff of their 1969 debut, the fully developed folkie musings of "Going to California" (in which Plant vowed to make a hejira right up to Joni Mitchell's front door), and the band's modestly popular multilayered epic "Stairway to Heaven." The Sessions also give a glimpse of nearly off-the-cuff invention in an intense take on Robert Johnson's "Traveling Riverside Blues". Most other white blues musicians would've rushed to get this on vinyl; Page and Plant instead used it for parts, most notably taking its profound acoustic freneticism for Led Zeppelin III. --Rickey Wright

CD Description
There is no question that Led Zeppelin was one of the greatest studio bands ever. Every rock album made since 1969 owesa huge debt to the techniques Jimmy Page developed, especially his groundbreaking "guitar-as-orchestra" style of layering track upon track. But what is often forgotten is that forall of their studio tinkering, they could deliver a live performance as powerful and full of spontaneity as any "jam" band.
Disc one, recorded on four separate nights in 1969, shows a raw, blues-obsessed rock and roll band. The emphasisis clearly placed on creating a highly-charged improvisatory atmosphere. Recorded in 1971, just before the release of their seminal IV album, disc two captures a band exploring the limits of what they could create live without losing sightof their roots. The performances are more cerebral and introspective, with more attention paid to arrangements, though they still find the time to stretch out and jam, particularly during "Whole Lotta Love" and "Dazed And Confused". Recorded at two critical points in the band's career, THE BBC SESSIONS offers an important look at Led Zeppelin as they defineand redefine themselves, and in the process, rock and roll.

Customer Reviews

Led Zeppelin Live as they should be listened to...
Led Zeppelin were a live band. They had such incredible talant. The studio albums were good but rock music is about live performances and in my opinion Zeppelin were hard to beat. This album is all about the second CD for me. From the start of "Immigrant Song" you are in at the deep end. It is early Zeppelin for sure but it is easy to see why they still move so many people to this day (me included). It is such a shame that more of the live material is not released, I don't care if there is the occasional mistake, that's what it's about, it's live! Whilst the studio stuff on the first CD is nice to listen to buy this one for the second CD because it's what Zep were all about...

****1/2. Great!
Live Zeppelin was the stuff of legend, and these BBC sessions, recorded in 1969 and 1971, have been frequently bootlegged. They are finally seeing official release on this wonderful double CD.

The 1969 sessions on disc 1 are gritty and powerful, sometimes even more so than the studio recordings of the same material. Zeppelin performs originals like the fine folkish "What Is And What Should Never Be", the fiery rave-up "Communication Breakdown", and the psychedelic "Dazed And Confused", but the majority of the 14 songs are blues covers.
The Otis Rush-hit "I Can't Quit You Baby" gets the Zeppelin treatment, along with Sleepy John Estes' "The Girl I Love She's Got Long Black Wavy Hair" (one of the highlights of the album), and Willie Dixon's all-time classic "Whole Lotta Love".
Robert Johnson's "Traveling Riverside Blues" is another highlight; a tremendous electric rendition burning with Jimmy Pages' urgent slide guitar playing. And Zep's piano-driven blusn n' boogie version of Eddie Cochran's "Somethin' Else" is pure rock n' roll fun.

You will note that a couple of songs are here in two different versions...the two renditions of "Communication Breakdown" are quite similar, while the second takes of "I Can't Quit You Baby" is two minutes longer than the first.

Disc 2 is highlighted by a tight, muscular "Immigrant Song", a swaggering "Heartbreaker", and a crushing rendition of the tough blues "Black Dog". Well, I could go on and on, really. A beautiful, evocative "Stairway To Heaven", a great take on the acoustic folk-ballad "That's The Way", and a 14-minute medley of "Whole Lotta Love", John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillun", Bukka White's "Fixin' To Die", Arthur Crudup's "That's All Right", and the wonderful R&B-stomper "A Mess Of Blues" (Pomus/Shuman).

The sound and mixing on both discs is excellent, and the performances are almost uniformly great...rough and tough but by no means sloppy. Robert Plant is in fine form all the way through, and Jimmy Page completely fulfills the listener's expectations, playing crunchy rhythm guitar and creative, bluesy solos.
The ten-to-twenty minute versions of "Dazed And Confused", "You Shook Me", and "How Many More Times" are perhaps something of an acquired taste, and this is not really the place for newcomers to start, but fans will be delighted by these fiery, energetic live-in-the-studio recordings by Led Zeppelin in their prime.
4 1/2 stars - highly recommended.

A Magic Moment in Time from a Magic Band
Being too young to experience Led Zeppelin the first time around I had to come at them second-hand, after realising, in about 1995, that guitar-based music was in its death throes and the future rested with dance music. But hey, who needs to listen to second-rate guitar bands doing the same thing for the 1000th time when you can immerse yourself in the most fertile and innovative period in modern music production -- 1968-71. At the forefront of the explosion that happened at this time were the Zep, and this album captures them in their natural habitat: live and alive. If you're new to LZ then the second or fourth album are the best places to start, but as soon as you've caught the bug and realised how astounding their music is, you will want to hear them live. This BBC sessions album is a much better bet than the double live record 'The Song Remains the Same', because the recording quality is superior, and it was recorded 69-71 when these four musicians were at their creative zenith -- a fact that translates to these live performances with shocking clarity. Put your skin-tight flares on, pretend you've got long hair, and immerse yourself in the sound of the most vital band of the most important period in twentieth-century music. The live sound captures LZ's blues obsession more clearly than the studio albums, especially on the blues reworkings of classic tracks like 'You Shook Me' (twice on this album just in case you missed it the first time round) and 'I Can't Quit you Baby'. Although top marks must go to the amazing 'new' blues creation of 'Travelling Riverside Blues' (Robert Johnson isn't given a credit), previously unreleased. Jimmy Page takes us to slide guitar heaven. It is simply amazing. CD two has some classics from Led Zeppelin IV, which were being recorded here 8 months before the album release. Its probably the only time you'll hear LZ live without the opening notes of 'Stairway to Heaven' being greeted with orgasmic woops. And catch the dizzy, heady atmosphere of the times when during 'How Many More Times' Robert Plant cries 'I don't know what I'm saying, but I'm having a good time'! Page, Plant, Jones, and Bonham at their incredible best -- worth 10 times the asking price... but I'm sure the three surviving lads don't really need the royalties.