LED ZEPPELIN – "On Track - Every Album, Every Song"
(A Review of the 2021 Book by STEVE PILKINGTON)
****
There will be fans that will look at
the release date for Zep's debut album on Page 13 as January 1968 for the USA
and March 1968 for the UK - and wince.
They'll instinctively know it should
read January and March 1969 (it was recorded between September and October
1968). But it's an easy mistake to make and don't for a moment let that put you
off this rather brill little book.
I suppose the world needs another Led
Zeppelin splurge like it needs another Covid-19 variant, but I enjoyed this
read a huge amount and as one of those old buggers who was actually there when
they hammered those Gods so to speak - there is a lot I didn't know discussed
within.
And it was a blast to return to deep
album cuts like "What Is And What Should Never Be", "Gallow's
Pole", "When The Levee Breaks", "No Quarter" and
"Ten Years Gone" and find mentions of Robert Plant's scat-vocals,
Memphis Minnie as the real writer, John Paul Jones and his keyboard
contributions and Jimmy Page building up the various guitar parts for the
stunning Side 3 closer of "Ten Years Gone" on "Graffiti".
And there are even 16 photo pages that show most of the important artwork
(inner sleeves, inspirations and so on) alongside period live photos. They miss
a few things like the beautiful inner sleeves of "Graffiti" and the
five other angle cover sleeves labelled A to F on the spines of "In
Through The Out Door" and so on (I think it’s the 'D' angle photo that is
now the default cover for all issues – a side shot of the man sat on the chair at
the bar burning a piece of paper). But there's enough to be getting on
with...
UK-released by Sonicbond Publishing in
October 2021 (December 2021 for the USA) - with "On Track... LED ZEPPELIN
- Every Album, Every Song" - author and uber-fan STEVE PILKINGTON gives us
160 A5 paperback pages of properly in-depth 'track-by 'track' analysis (priced
at £14.99 but available for about ten or eleven).
You get their issued studio and live
catalogue from "Led Zeppelin" and "Led Zeppelin II" (both
in 1969) through to 1979's final studio effort "In Through The Out
Door" and onward to the 1982 ragbag "Coda" mop-up compilation.
But it also smartly takes in posthumous compilations like "BBC
Sessions" from November 1997, the 3CD live set "How The West Was
Won" from May 2003, the "Led Zeppelin" DVD also from May 2003
and finally the reunion 2-disc set "Celebration Day" from November
2012. The last few pages are two Appendix lists of the Author's fave tracks and
Concert Milestones (Denmark in 1968 to Berlin in 1980) followed by some adverts
for other books in the series.
Pilkington smartly precedes his song-by-song
analysis with lay-of-the-land paragraphs on the circumstances surrounding each
album and they really do set up the read. Stuff like the ridiculous debacle
over the "Houses Of The Holy" artwork that delayed the album's
release by nearly 8-months amazes (painted naked kids climbing up the Giant's
Causeway in Northern Ireland to some sun god was not everyone's idea of saintly
genius even in 1972). Insights also like the original 'Racket' Hipgnosis
artwork (hideous idea about a tennis court) being rejected for
"Houses" album and the Obi band-name that had to be put on sleeves or
US retailers wouldn't (quite rightly) stock an LP with naked children on it
(albeit in a very covered up way). Those wrapped paper OBI's had to be broken
open (like a present), so March 1973 UK copies of the LP on Atlantic K 50014
with the titled Obi still relatively intact are incredibly hard to find (like
"4", there isn't actually a title or band name on the outer artwork
at all). There's the St. Mark's Place building in New York that formed the
'window sleeve' basis for February 1975's "Physical Graffiti" with
its fourth floor that had to be edited out of the photo to make the wording
fit. He even has the drawing that inspired the 'object' on the largely crap "Presence"
LP from 1976 - another Hipgnosis artwork disaster too far in my book.
Pilkington includes the only non-LP
B-side they ever released on a 45-single during their run - "Hey Hey, What
Can I Do" (on the flip of the US release for "Immigrant Song")
at the end of the "Zeppelin III" sessions when it was recorded. It
appeared on the 1972 Atlantic Records sampler LP "The New Age Of
Atlantic" (which was a single LP and not a double as he says). There's
lovely stuff on Sandy Denny's gorgeous duet-vocal contribution to "The
Battle Of Evermore" on November 1971's "IV" when she was
in-between Fairport Convention and Fotheringay and how it didn't appear in
Zeppelin live sets until 1977 with John Paul Jones sometimes taking her vocal
part. Pilkington quite rightly rubbishes the all-time low of "Coda" -
an embarrassment of posthumous album of career outtakes that also featured
their most boring Hipgnosis artwork ever.
Speaking of outtakes and peripherals -
when reissued as a 3CD set in the 'Deluxe Edition' series, "Coda" was
massively expanded and made a ton more acceptable and it really might have been
better if this book went at all those outtakes too - but it doesn't. In
fairness to him, he isolates the important ones, so you do get stragglers like
"Baby Come On Home" from the debut LP sessions that first officially
appeared on the 1993 posthumous release "Box Set 2" - and "La
La", an outtake from the famous October 1969 second album that finally
turned up as a Bonus Track on the 2CD Deluxe Edition of "II". But
there are others missing.
So, not perfect really by any means (4
out of 5 stars), but Pilkington's writing is really good, his knowledge gives
you fan-obsessive background like the missing credits to Joan Baez and Anne
Bredon for the 'Traditional' "Baby I'm Gonna Leave You" and Bert
Jansch for "Black Mountain Side" both on the explosive debut (his
affection too for the band shines through on every page). And I liked hearing
that the two kids Stefan and Samantha Gates (Stefan's older sister Samantha was
aged 5 at the time of shooting in 1972) who featured on the "Houses Of The
Holy" artwork in spray paint went on to better things - she to a BBC
cooking show. It was even rumoured once that Samantha was in fact a young
Samantha Fox - the famous UK Page 3 pin-up - but not surprisingly such
salacious muck turned out not to be
true.
It’s only another one of the stories
and myths that have sprung up around this legendary hedonistic Rock band. How
very Led Zeppelin! A tasty addition to their cannon and one that fans will love.
Get physical and enjoy...
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