Led Zeppelin: Jimmy Page On Making The Led Zeppelin Remasters - Part 1
Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page on the story behind the Led Zeppelin Remasters.
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MusicTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:10 Hello there, this is Jimmy Page and you're watching
00:12 "Tasting Rock."
00:16 Well, it's interesting that you said, is there an archive
00:20 that's carefully annotated?
00:22 That's exactly how it started out.
00:24 I started annotating my own archive, listing everything
00:29 that went back to the very earliest--
00:31 it was all analog tape that I was doing.
00:34 And it went back to the early little 3 and 1/4 inch reels
00:38 that were done at home when I lived with my parents.
00:41 And it goes to a 5 inch reel and hit home demos.
00:45 And I was going all the way through, and it got through
00:48 through all the material that I had.
00:50 I was logging it and collating it and making notes all
00:53 through the yard birds.
00:55 And then, of course, it gets to Led Zeppelin.
00:57 And I'd started to do some of that.
01:00 But I must say that I'd had an idea that was along the lines
01:07 of the project that we were all now familiar with, the
01:10 re-releases.
01:11 But somehow, these sort of gems that were sitting around
01:16 could come out.
01:18 I had another plan.
01:20 But this was far more ambitious and much lengthier,
01:24 and far more relevant, I think, to the whole picture of
01:28 what needed to be presented, an audible picture of what
01:33 went on in the studio.
01:35 When it comes to the Led Zeppelin aspect of it, it was
01:39 hundreds of hours, literally hundreds of hours of listening
01:42 to tape, because you've got to listen to it in real time.
01:45 And then, say you've selected a title, and you're going
01:48 listening to everything you've got around that title.
01:51 And there's copious notes being made.
01:54 It's a lengthy project.
01:56 But I knew it was worthwhile.
01:58 Yeah, I had a good idea of the sunset sound mixes, things
02:05 like that, alternate versions of "When the
02:07 Levee Breaks," et cetera.
02:10 Different versions of "In the Light." I knew there was a
02:13 wonderful version on the Led Zeppelin III.
02:16 What I had was an early version of "Since I've Been
02:21 Loving You," the track of "A Whole Lot of Love." I mean,
02:25 they're just total gems.
02:27 So to actually be able to put them out in context with the
02:32 release of the studio albums is great.
02:35 It's a good way to do it.
02:40 There was one surprise that came up, because I thought we
02:48 might have a gap.
02:50 And it would be a bit of a nail-biting
02:54 gap for "Presents."
02:56 And I thought there'd been something that had been mixed
03:01 down at the time, rough mixes, and some songs that didn't
03:05 make it on "Presents." And I was relieved to find it.
03:10 It actually wasn't labeled, the box.
03:12 I had to go through all manner of things, whatever was on
03:16 tape, I had to listen to it if it didn't have a proper--
03:19 even if it did, I had to check it was in the right box.
03:22 Anyway, the material for "Presents" turned up.
03:25 So that was like a breathing of sigh of relief and wiping
03:29 the floor with it.
03:30 It was like, oh, thank you, God.
03:32 Because without the material for "Presents," it would have
03:36 been tricky.
03:39 As was the first album, we had to use a live performance,
03:44 because there just wasn't the material left over to make up
03:47 a companion disc.
03:48 But now there was for everything, so it was cool.
03:50 I'd always intended to make Physical Graffiti's companion
03:57 disc a single disc, because the pure nature of why the
04:03 studio album of Physical Graffiti was a double disc, or
04:08 two vinyls, or whatever, was a simple reason that that's
04:11 what it was.
04:13 And this is what it is, as far as a companion disc.
04:17 It was no point in trying to just put things on there,
04:20 because it was too close to something that was already on
04:25 there, 10 years gone.
04:27 There was no point.
04:28 Sometimes there just wasn't another version to actually
04:32 pull out.
04:32 So with whatever there was, I made the best compilation I
04:36 felt, showing the band really at work and at play, and these
04:41 sort of passionate performances from each of the
04:44 individuals and collectively.
04:45 And it's cool.
04:47 [MUSIC - PHYSICAL GRAFFITI, "BAD BOY"]
04:48 [MUSIC - PHYSICAL GRAFFITI, "BAD BOY"]
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04:50 [MUSIC - PHYSICAL GRAFFITI, "BAD BOY"]
04:53 [MUSIC - PHYSICAL GRAFFITI, "BAD BOY"]
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04:55 [MUSIC - PHYSICAL GRAFFITI, "BAD BOY"]
04:57 [MUSIC - PHYSICAL GRAFFITI, "BAD BOY"]
04:58 [MUSIC - PHYSICAL GRAFFITI, "BAD BOY"]
04:59 [MUSIC - PHYSICAL GRAFFITI, "BAD BOY"]
05:00 ♪ I'm a bad artist ♪