I wish Plant would either get over it, or get out of the way. For fucks sake, these guys are going to kick the bucket soon. Let Page finish out his archivist mission of preserving Zeppelin for generations.

I imagine the boys are waiting until the Beatles doc runs its course.

Just got it in the mail today. It is beautiful. Definitely a different perspective from behind the lens as Carl wasn’t granted as much access as newspaper/magazine photogs. The pictures are almost from a fan’s perspective. Pretty cool. Some great shots from when Jimmy joined Bad Company on stage in 74.

I don’t hate the song, but I agree that it doesn’t fit amongst the Zep catalogue. I’m also not much of a fan of Plant on ITTOD in general. Just sounds like he had one foot out the door (pun intended), which he did. Or he was prepping for his solo career (he was). People always shit on Page for being too messed up to contribute on ITTOD, but he brought good material to the session. Some of it might have been half-baked, but the songs left off that album were better than a few of the songs on it IMO. AML included. This isn’t a knock on Jonesy either. I love a lot of his live experimentation in the latter years. I would have been intrigued by an extended Jones opus instrumental in the mix somewhere. The pump was primed for an epic Zep album in ITTOD, like Kashmir or Achilles on steroids in space. Instead they gave a half-hearted, disjointed record that was fun and charming at times and wholly corny/bad at others. In other words, they mailed it in. Carouselambra is probably my favorite track off the album, and there are parts of it that annoy the hell out of me. I’d always hoped that different versions of this song would emerge, like the In The Light outtakes. Just an opinion.

The book is excellent. Highly recommend.

The band doesn't owe you anything.

News to me. If there is ever to be an official release, it’s good to hear that Page has the recordings that are often rumored. I’ll gladly take it and I’ve got quite a few of the boots of these shows.

Here is the link to the interview with Ross: https://ledzepnews.com/2021/08/15/led-zeppelin-have-the-tapes-ross-halfin-explained-led-zeppelins-archive-of-live-shows/

Sure. Although Ross seemed pretty confident. He mentioned a few shows including Southampton. The book is very cool, BTW. He also mentioned Jimmy being a big collector of Zep boots and that he shares his finds with him often.

Whoops, I meant Ross Halfin. Not Rob Halford. Ha! No edit functionality?

Rob Halford was interviewed about his new book. There were quite a few interesting tidbits regarding live footage and concert recordings. He speculated that Page has a lot of stuff, but all the members of the band have to agree to its release. He intimated that it was Plant that was hesitant to release things. I’ll try to dig up the link.

I saw Terry a few years ago at The Chapel in San Francisco. He’s still got the chops. More so than many of his contemporaries. I’d argue he’s still match fit more than one Robert Plant when it comes to howling.

It's part of the ephemera of the band, IMO. Their visual representation of light and dark on stage was intentional. Just as it was in their music. It's part and parcel of the ethos. The stuff fascinated me as a kid, because there was an interesting back story, rumor mill or not. Not a lot of other bands had that, and it made me want to dig in deeper with Zeppelin. It's part of the reason I've become a poor man's collector of some of the occult and magick items of that era and before. I've always said that Black Sabbath's entire catalog of riffs could be found within any live rendition of Dazed & Confused. Sabbath made scary music for the time, but Page and the boys were actually summoning something much more profound, dark and otherworldly.

Sly was incredibly important. They were one of the first crossover funk/rock bands around. Their live performances were legendary. I have no qualms with their inclusion. Sly's story is pretty important regarding the dangers of fame/over-indulgence. If anything, their story hasn't been told enough. Same goes for Ike & Tina and even James Brown.

I thought it was excellent. Despite the choices to focus on a select few artists and neglect Zeppelin. It doesn’t whitewash or rewrite history. The music and movements of 71 were a major tipping point in defining the culture. Great series. The Attica Massacre stuff was insane. The Sly Stone behind the scenes stuff was fascinating. James Brown was bringing the funk all over the globe. I could deal with less Carol King and Elton, but realize they were major voices that year. I highly recommend it. I wonder if Zeppelin refused access to footage because of the upcoming documentary? It’s just so odd that EVERY other band gets a mention or entire segment. Most of the artist interviews are voice only over the archival footage, so they clear created some of this during the pandemic, but you don’t notice because the footage is so good.

Not a mention of Zep in the entire series. Every other major artist of the period gets a nice segment or at least a mention. More time is spent on Lennon and The Stones than others (typical), but how do you ignore IV coming out that same year?

I own the album and rather enjoy it. It’s definitely a niche listen, but Scarlett summons some powerful lines and the production is straight up eery. Fitting of a Page project. Very witchy.

Willie’s American Guitars was my neighborhood shop growing up. Joe Walsh bought a Bass cabinet my Dad was consigning there in the late 80’s. I used to go there every weekend and ogle the 20k vintage Les Pauls. Same guys still work there today. I’m completely dumbfounded that they had possession of the Black Beauty TWICE. I probably saw it. My Dad probably played it. Incredible story.