BBC SESSIONS

"BBC Sessions" is an excellent 2 CD compliation, that captures the essence of early Led Zeppelin at its rawest and freshest. Really, few broadcast documents of Zeppelin can be found, and until recently, none of them in an official release. First of all, let's go to the context: Zeppelin selected the highly reputable John Peel's "Top Gear", Chris Grant's "Tasty Pop Sundae" and Radio One's "In Concert" series for their British radio appearances, which can be heard on this fabulous compilation.

The music:

They just finished the sucessful first US tour, and started doing the sessions, which can be heard on the first CD, first recording on "Top Gear" the Willie Dixon blues classics "You Shook Me" and "I Can't Quit You Baby" (which have also nice live versions of those ones, a 10 minute "You Shook Me" with extended soloing, and a powerful "I Can't Quit You Baby", plus a live version of "Communication Breakdown" and "How Many More Times", all recorded in 1969 and in the same CD!). What is more, on CD 1 we've, during the sessions, two more versions of "Communication Breakdown" (in total 3, if we count the live one), a studio version of the classics "Dazed And Confused", "What Is And What Should Never Be" and "Whole Lotta Love". What is more, on CD 1 we've also unonreleased versions of "The Girl I Love She Got Long Brown Wavy Hair" (yeah, what a riff!), "Travelling Riverside Blues" (which is a Robert Johnson blues pastiche) and another cover, "Something Else". By hearing all this you can realise the power the band had on their very early years (all in 1969) and how they became so famous. One of the best aspects of Led Zeppelin is that in those days (and I think always) they performed as if every concert would be the last, amazing. And that's not all!

After these extremely strong sessions, on CD 2 we'll have to travel two years in time to John Peel's BBC Rock Hour which takes place at the Paris Theatre in London, April 4, 1971, an amazing live presentation, which I specially love its rawness and crunchy sound, the crunchy sound of live Zep! This is probably the most famous of the group's radio appearances, a typical '71 concert, feturing songs from their first four albums, including the first ever broadcast of "Stairway To Heaven". No applause greets the opening bars, just expectation from the very quiet studio audience. The other songs of this amazing live appearance are "Immigrant Song" (which is longer that the original version, featuring a guitar solo at the end) 'sticked' a veeery raw "Hearbraker", which is followed by a nice version of "Since I've Been Loving You" (which is very similar to the original one), "Black Dog" (including Bonzo's "Out On The Tiles" introduction), a 18 minute version of "Dazed And Confused" (with a long bow guitar intermission and jamming in the middle, as expected when you hear this song), "Stairway To Heaven" (as I said before, the first ever broadcast of this one!), the hippie segment with the beautiful "Going To California" and "That's The Way" and a "Whole Lotta Love" Medley (almost 14 minutes), with the classic flows, sitating with a group's version of John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillun", "Truckin' Little Mama", "Fixin' To Die", "That's Alright Mama" and "A Mess Of Blues", with a bunch of cool guitar solos. The organ of John Paul Jones introduces "Thank You", finishing a tight and compact (even if nervous at times) performance. Amazing!

Overall, this is an excellent capture of Zep's early days, fresh and raw, rockin' all around! Highly recommended to anyone. Also, if you haven't got into this band, this is a good way to get in Led Zepelin's musical world. Despite the sound quality isn't the best, it's veeery enjoyable on every listen. An historical document.

Rating: 4.1/5

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