A new four-song EP showcases the band’s blues-rock and folk roots
It took me twenty-something years before I started listening to Led Zeppelin. My dad used to always blast their music growing up, but it wasn’t until after I moved to Nashville and joined a rock band that I began to appreciate their music. The group is one of the biggest influential rock bands, but ended with the death of drummer John Bonham in 1980.
The group follows its four official audio live projects — the 1976 soundtrack to their film The Song Remains the Same, the 1997 BBC Sessions, the 2003 triple live project How the West Was Won, and the 2012 reunion concert, Celebration Day, with Jason Bonham on drums — with Live EP. The four-song set features tracks that were originally released on the 2003 Led Zeppelin double DVD set, and appear in audio format for the first time. Guitarist Jimmy Page produced the project.
The EP is part of the celebration of Physical Graffiti‘s 50th anniversary, which is regarded as one of the greatest double albums of all time, despite not producing any hits. The album is known for its incredible musical diversity, showcasing the band’s mastery across hard rock, progressive rock, rock ‘n’ roll, and folk.
The band’s roots shine on “In My Time Of Dying,” Trampled Under Foot,” “Sick Again,” and “Kashmir.” With three tracks stretching past the nine-minute mark, this EP runs long without ever dragging. The quartet delivers a psychedelic rock journey, jamming in a way only Led Zeppelin could.
Whether Page emptied the vaults with the deluxe reissues a decade ago remains uncertain, but Live EP keeps fans hopeful that more concert treasures may yet surface. This, of course, is in addition to the previously unreleased gems that were included in the band’s officially sanctioned documentary, Becoming Led Zeppelin, released to IMAX theaters earlier this year.
Becoming Led Zeppelin traces the journeys of the four members of the “Stairway to Heaven” rockers through the music scene of the 1960s and their meeting in the summer of 1968, culminating in 1970. Directed by Bernard MacMahon, the rock doc will be released in physical form on September 30th via Sony Pictures.
Live EP is available on CD, 180-gram 12-inch vinyl, and digital formats via Rhino Records. The label also dropped an updated 50th anniversary edition of 2015’s Physical Graffiti Deluxe Edition 3 LP vinyl set featuring the companion audio disc, now including a new bonus replica Physical Graffiti promotional poster.
It’s not likely we’ll ever see another Zeppelin reunion, as Page seems to be largely retired and frontman Robert Plant is focused on the Americana sound he’s adopted in the past decade plus and has scoffed at reuniting the classic heavy rockers. When Plant does revisit Zeppelin material live, his renditions are typically transformed beyond recognition. But the music endures, preserved in the studio and on stage, ready to be revisited at the press of a button.
Fans eager to experience Led Zeppelin’s music live can catch Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening on tour, performing Physical Graffiti in full along with a pair of other classics. A new run starts on October 22nd in Louisville with stops through November 26th in Hollywood, Florida.
