More of the Music of Led Zeppelin
Reviews and Commentaries for the Music of Led Zeppelin
Sonic Grade: B
Considering how bad (or at best mediocre) the average copy of the first Zep album sounds, let’s give credit where credit is due and say that Bernie’s remastered version on Heavy Vinyl is darn good (assuming you get a good one, something of course that neither I nor you should assume).
It’s without a doubt the best of all the Classic Zeppelin titles, most of which we found none too pleasing to the ear.
Our Thinking Circa 2010
[The last time we played a copy.)
We like the Classic, albeit with reservations. It’s without a doubt the best of all the Classic Heavy Vinyl reissues of the Zeppelin catalog, most of which are not very good and some of which are just awful.
Why is this one good? It’s tonally correct for one thing, and the importance of that cannot be stressed too strongly.
Two, it actually ROCKS, something a majority of pressings we’ve played over the years don’t.
Three, it’s shockingly dynamic. It may actually be more dynamic than any other pressing we have ever played.
[It might have been back in the day, but it’s highly unlikely we would agree with that assessment in 2023. Like this record, we had a lot of R&D ahead of us before we could know just how dynamic this recording could be.]
If you aren’t willing to devote the time and resources necessary to acquire a dozen or more domestic and import copies, and you don’t want to spend the dough for one of our Hot Stamper copies, the Classic is probably your best bet.
We would agree now with almost none of what we had to say about this Classic title when it came out back in the day. We’ve reproduced it below so that you can read it here for yourself.
It’s yet another example of a record we was wrong about. Live and Learn, right?
Our (Somewhat Mistaken) Commentary from the ’90s