(...Story Continued from Previous Page) We had
done this few days' rehearsal with Jason Bonham just before then, to see how it
went. It felt really, really great playing with Jason, and with the others,
really satisfying. It clicked immediately, it sounded tight -- I was surprised
how many of the keys we remembered! So I was there at Bonnaroo fresh from the
excitement of that.
How did the timing come together? Was it planned that the "Song
Remains the Same" reissue, the "Mothership" collection and the digital catalog
announcement would all happen leading up to the show?
Jones: The timing just kind of fell into place. We'd been working on the
"Song Remains the Same" 5.1 mix for quite a long time, and we'd gotten lots of
requests from the record company for a good compilation. We were never really
happy with (the 1999-2000 collections) "Early Days" and "Latter Days," and this
will replace those. It's really kind of a chronological sampler -- there are
songs from every one of the studio albums, so that's kind of cool.
The online stuff we started talking about not so long ago, and the O2 show
was just decided on, quite late -- and that's part of it, we were having so many
meetings about everything else, this just got on the agenda and then started to
receive more serious talk. The time seemed right to do it.
But why was this the right time?
Jones: I don't know why! It seemed sort of organic. These things appear at
the right time. The last time it came up was quite some time ago, and then it
didn't seem right. This time it came up and everyone said, "Well, why not?"
That's kind of how it's always been with Led Zeppelin. There never has been any
great strategy or great planning.
How is it being under so much media scrutiny for this show? When Led
Zeppelin was actually making records, you never really received that much
attention or mainstream exposure.
Page: I don't really want to give the media the benefit of the doubt, but
each of our albums is so radically different, I just think that the reviewers
didn't have a clue as to what we were doing. They were totally perplexed and
bewildered. The passage of time, though, has shown what it was that the fans
could connect and relate to.
In the late '60s and early '70s, there were other bands that had virtuoso
players within them, but to have four virtuosos who could truly play as a band
-- that was the important thing. So we had four guys on top of their game,
straightaway, and then those four combined to make a fifth element, which took
them even further.
The level of playing is so fine, it travels across so many musical
landscapes. Anyone who wants to play an instrument inevitably comes to Led
Zeppelin because it is such a remarkable textbook, it's a diamond with so many
facets. And the spirit and the honesty of the playing translates across
generations.
Jones: It's very nice that everybody is so interested. It's astonishing,
overwhelming, to get 125 million hits or whatever for the tickets. But the music
is what it's all about, and we have to just get to that.
Do you think that the media's lack of interest worked to the band's
advantage in the end? Certainly no one could ever say that Led Zeppelin was
overexposed.
Page: We were always underplayed in press, to the point of annihilation,
really negative press. But each tour, we couldn't meet the demand for people in
each city. If we sold as many tickets as we could, we could have kept touring
forever. So because of being so underplayed, it really relied on people's spirit
coming to it, to access Led Zeppelin through the records. And like anything
that's any good, it spread by word of mouth.
Is that why there's still such reverence for the music? Why do you
think the allure is still so strong for younger listeners?
Jones: I'm not entirely sure. We made the records in the '70s, but they're
not really of the '70s. It was a pretty unique band, it didn't really fit into
any categories. Which is part of why the press didn't really get what we were
doing, which was really their problem -- it certainly wasn't a problem for the
fans who were buying the records or coming to the shows. So I think the records
aren't dated because they weren't of their time in the first place.
Young kids, especially young musicians, really recognize the truth and the
integrity of the music. So many people tell me, "My son or daughter has taken up
an instrument and they want to play like you." It's nice to be an inspiration. I
was certainly inspired by my heroes, and it's nice to pass that along.
"The Song Remains the Same" isn't generally considered to be an
example of Zeppelin at its live peak. What do you think of that reputation -- do
you think it gets a bad rap?
Page: Listen to (the 2003 live album) "How the West Was Won" -- that was done
a year earlier and we were really firing on all cylinders, but, you know, I
could be critical of those performances, too. ("Song") is taken from across a
couple of nights, at the end of a long tour. It was pretty happening, really
happening. It wasn't the best shows we did on that tour, but I don't know which
ones were.
Jones: I never thought it had a bad reputation. I always thought it was a
good gig, but now it sounds bloody good as well. I think the record companies,
as they will do, when they put the film on VHS and on DVD, they just did the
transfer directly, straight to video, with no consultation with us.
Everything we've ever done was a statement of where the band was at the time.
It was the end of a tour, the New York crowds were always very responsive. I'm
sure I saw the same faces in the first rows from night to night. I think we
played well -- I don't know how it came across, but I have no hesitation saying
that.
Was there anything that surprised you in the performances while you
were doing the remixing and remastering?
Page: The remix was related to having up-to-the-minute 5.1 surround mix on
the film. But we couldn't change a frame on the film once it was copyrighted. So
unlike the (2003 live retrospective) DVD, where we could overlay visuals to the
sound, the exercise was that the film was out of sync and we had to actually
adjust the music. We couldn't just go slow motion on the film. With the aid of
ProTools, (engineer) Kevin Shirley did a fantastic job with that. And everything
just sounds so much better. You have techniques today that weren't dreamt of
back then.
Also, the whole of the set is included now. It goes in the way we envisioned
it, how we would really pace a show. The only addition was "The Ocean" -- that
was the encore, but we put it into the set.
John Paul, what stands out to you when you go back and
listen?
Jones: How good it all was. I hadn't played the records much since those days
-- or even in those days. As soon as one was finished, we would start work on
the next record or the next tour or whatever. Now I hear them and think, "Oh, I
forgot -- that was really good!"
What is it like to watch the movie's famous "fantasy sequences"
now?
Jones: Well, we did look young! It was supposed to be a concert film, but
when we went through it, there were these holes in the film, when they were
changing reels or something. So then there was a bit of panic. I don't know
whose idea it was to do the fantasy sequences -- but Jimmy and I were just
talking about it, and we realized that Bonzo's wasn't actually a fantasy
sequence, it was a reality sequence!
It was all fun, but in the end, not to sound like a broken record, it still
comes down to the music. There were some embarrassing moments, but some good
fun, too.
Page: We all went off our own merry ways, but Bonham just carried on in his
usual way while we did these weird depictions of whatever. It was very much for
the time and of the time. It was courageous, on one hand -- on the other hand,
we managed to be Spinal Tap (laughs). But we did it first!
What is the biggest misconception about Led Zeppelin?
Jones: A lot is made of the salacious reputation of the band, which always
detracted from the music. That was always disappointing -- especially
newspapers, they would always start talking about sharks or whatever, and I
would always think, "Oh, God, why does nobody mention how good the band was?"
Page: The biggest misunderstanding (long pause) ... I could be trite and
say that people think the robbery in the movie was a fake, that we did that to
add drama to the film. But now, by including the local coverage from the New
York news (in the "Song" DVD's bonus footage), you can see that it was very
real.
I don't know -- I don't care what they think about the band, or about me, or
whatever. That will all be eradicated by listening to the music. If you really
listen closely and hear what it was that we were doing, all the rest goes away.
Alan Light is the former editor-in-chief of Spin, Vibe and Tracks
magazines and a former senior writer at Rolling Stone. His writing has also
appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, GQ and Entertainment Weekly. His
book "The Skills to Pay the Bills: The Story of the Beastie Boys" was published
in 2006. Alan is a two-time winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for
excellence in music writing. |
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