Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 26/05/2003
Label: Atlantic

According to a recent BPI poll, Led Zeppelin are the most bootlegged band of all time. And that's only counting the 384 'official' ones you can buy. For the past three decades, fans have spent millions in the absence of 'authorised' product or the prospect of ever seeing their heroes in concert again.

Which all makes the overdue arrival of 'How The West Was Won' such a mystery when the demand was obviously there. The only explanation is that Zeppelin's era was very different from ours, when premature best ofs and contract fulfilling live specials appear annually.

In pre-video times, Zeppelin never released a UK single, rarely made TV appearances and took extra care to avoid the usually critical press. From the late 60s and onto Knebworth in 1979, concerts were their natural habitat away from the scathing British press. The west was not so much won but bulldozed by incessant touring, as the band honed their performance to the levels of imperial, untouchable quality.

The fact that Jimmy Page's masterful hands have assembled this release means that it does what so many live albums have failed to do in the past - captures the subject in their prime. In Zeppelin's case, it's two shows recorded in LA in 1972 following the release of their classic fourth album. Had it failed to translate anything less than the sheer adrenalin of their live shows, this would have been a futile exercise and may never have seen the light of day.

But thankfully, these whopping three discs will rightly satisfy even the most insatiable fan. There are the riff-athons of 'Black Dog', 'Dancing Days', 'The Ocean' and 'Immigrant Song', the epic 'Stairway To Heaven' and the never-ending blues of 'Since I've Been Loving You'. Mercifully, the acoustic delights of 'Going To California', 'That's The Way' and 'Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp' are also present, as are the prog yet utterly mesmerising 'Dazed And Confused', complete with bow mid-section, and the free-flowing blues jam breakdown at the core of 'Whole Lotta Love', both registering at well over twenty minutes. It's an exhilarating experience just waiting to see where each song will go next.

Unlike the occasionally off-putting and dated sights of the DVD, listening to the music allows you to reconstruct your own images - minus the suspect beards and outfits - as Plant howls, Page and Jones noodle and Bonham trashes away. And it's the latter's almost incomprehensible performance of 'Moby Dick' that literally stops you dead in your tracks for a blindingly intense 19 minutes. It's a phenomenal display of drumming, stamina, strength and gong-addiction that magnificently honours his reputation as the Zeus of the drum kit.

So, until they invent time machines, this is the only way you'll hear Led Zeppelin in all their glory. It's a masterclass in why they were, and still are, the greatest rock band to grace the Earth. Lap it up because you know there will never be another band like Led Zeppelin.

    by Chris Heath