New Led Zeppelin

Apparently Jimmy Page has been busy (not including the time spent hassling Robert Plant to tour again). Page has been remastering several of Led Zeppelin‘s early albums with plans to reissue them as deluxe editions (which means extras!).

I used to mock “reissues” and “box sets” and things like that. Then music went digital and everything changed and now I think they should reissue the shit out of something if someone is going to buy it. Slap that baby in a zeppelin-shaped box and sell it to the faithful!

Led Zeppelin I, II and III will be the first ones re-released on June 3rd, and they’ll come out as single-disc remastered albums with a bonus disc of unreleased studio and live tracks that were recorded at the same time. This could be awesome or horrible, like most things in life.

“The material on the companion discs presents a portal to the time of the recording of Led Zeppelin,” Page said in a press release. “It is a selection of work in progress with rough mixes, backing tracks, alternate versions and new material recorded at the time.”

Led Zeppelin, when they were good, were very, very good. There could be some gems in that stuff. But when they were bad…they were average. You know, just average. That’s what happens when you write your entire album in a two week block in a cottage somewhere.

But it’s still kind of exciting. I always love to hear unreleased tracks from any artists I admire, because even if they don’t make the cut, they can sometimes reveal a lot about how songs develop and change, the dynamic in the recording studios, the differences between live and recorded performances. They’ll be reissuing vinyl as well, and I would love to hear the remastered material on vinyl (and maybe replace some of my more worn originals). In addition to the reissues and vinyl, there’s also going to be a box set with loads of extras, and some of Page’s own material. Possible goodies in preparation for an upcoming tour??! Haha, noooo. That’s never gonna happen.

But Page is at the helm. Zep remastered should be good.