Pitchfork

Since the many foibles of Led Zeppelin still occupy a reasonable plot of debate sime among my peers, I was delighted to see the BBC Sessions coming out, if only to fuel a few more conversations about John Bonham's drinking habits. Surprisingly, the reaction among the Led-heds I know has been skepticism. It seems that in the recent years, with the release of several box sets, multi- disc remasters and tribute albums, the Sessions seems only another addition to the slow, odorous Led Zeppelin corporate behemoth. A reaction to the Beatles' Anthology success, if you will, and just in time for the holidays.

And then there's that live thing. I had heard, justifiably, that the sound on the Sessions was state- of- the- art for the period, and that the tapes had been meticulously cleaned-up in accordance with the Zeppelin Remastering Bible (Vols 1-34.) We all know that there's nothing worse than a shittily recorded live show, and this ain't it. The sound is clean, clean, clean. What does this clean, clean, clean really mean, mean, mean, you ask? Well, it means that this double-disc set of tracks is packed to the gills with tasty little live morsels that rarely get through production of a studio album. The drums stand out beautifully, John Bonham's "gimme a half- a- beat and I'll be there" style shining through. Plant's voice isn't nearly as together as on the studio recordings, but he stays within reasonable boundaries, suggesting that they worked hard to make sure that these hugely- popular televised broadcasts shed them in the best light. Any comment about Jimmy Page would be an understatement, so I'll refrain. And hell, even John Paul Jones at that goofy keyboard, splashing his faerie magic all over the place is rockin'. Overall, you get the Zeppelin sound with the veneer of studio production stripped off. There was no one to play the second guitar or do the voice overdubs, so out they go, leaving raw Zeppelin, in all its bluesy, roots-rock glory.

In short, we got a slice of Rock-N-Roll history. We got high sound quality. We got the titans in great form. And ain't that enough?