Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin (3LP, deluxe) [WARNER]

Why you'll love it

This deluxe 3LP set pairs the remastered debut with two LPs of a previously unheard show from the Olympia in Paris, October 10, 1969, in a tri-fold sleeve. The album itself gave the world "Good Times Bad Times," "Dazed and Confused" and "Communication Breakdown."

This edition

• 3LP set
• 180g vinyl
• Remastered under Jimmy Page
• Tri-fold sleeve
• Live at the Olympia, Paris 1969
• Stereo mix
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

Some bands spend years finding their sound. Led Zeppelin found theirs in a matter of weeks. Jimmy Page put the group together in the summer of 1968, and by October they were at Olympic Studios in London, recording fast and mostly live, with Page producing.

"Good Times Bad Times" opens with John Bonham's thunderous kick drum and Page's sharp solo, "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" swings between folk and fury, "Dazed and Confused" brings out the violin bow, and "Communication Breakdown" is two and a half minutes of pure velocity. John Paul Jones's organ glows on "Your Time Is Gonna Come," "Black Mountain Side" nods to English folk guitar, and "You Shook Me" and "I Can't Quit You Baby" show how deep the blues roots ran. Robert Plant sings like he's trying to reach the back of a very large field.

The Paris discs catch them a year later as a fully formed live monster, stretching "Dazed and Confused" and "How Many More Times" and slipping in "Heartbreaker" from the second album. It was the opening wave of Page's deluxe reissue campaign in 2014, and he has clearly never knowingly underdone anything.

Also at Kops: more Led Zeppelin on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Atlantic (cat# 8122796460), a reissue of the 1969 album.