Zeppelin on vinyl

No more H-O-H on my turntable now that I found out it's weak...

I'm sorry I beg do differ. Zep $ is way over-produced. One of my biggest complaints is that Jimmy's guitar solo's sound like they were recorded in a toilet bowl.

Also, Houses of the Holy weak!!! Wow, that's one of the best Zep albums. It showed that the band wasn't willing to sit on their laurels but instead continued to be creative. The roots of physical graffitti can be found in houses of the holy. And by the way The Ocean with it's rampant time signatures and key changes is a weak song? Gimme a break. The fact that they pulled that song off with all of those factors shows their musical prowess not their lack of.

Sorry folks, I forgot the most important part of any post.

IMO

strange, all this time I thought it was a great album too Stevecham....

No Quarter is one song

Weak:
The Rain Song
The Crunge
D'yer Maker
Dancing Days
The Ocean

That's right, weak. The first 4 crush this junk. So do Physical Graffiti, Presence, and In Through the Out Door. There's a lemon in every group's discography and Houses of the Holy is Zep's pits. This was Zep's last album for Atlantic before forming their own label (Swan) and they mailed it in.

It is also the album that clearly shows the damage to Robert Plant's voice from all of the screaming. His range on this and succeeding works is much narrower.

Houses weak? No Quarter?

Yikes!

Actually the original release of Zep 4, Atlantic SD-7208, is quite good.

However, the reissue Atlantic 191292, is markedly different. It sounds compressed and lean when compared to the first releases.

Go figure.

Sidenote, without question the best sonics from the first pressings of all Zep albums is Houses of the Holy which is a bit ironic because the material is quite weak.

#4 is a bit dry and always was, even on the original release from 1971. It's one case where (perish the thought) the remastered CD actually sounds a bit better (oh the horror).

I hate the mix on #4

Ditto on the Classic releases. Except for #4 (Zoso) all are very good sounding. My #4 is a bit noisy.

newly remastered....
page and plant are involved with the new releases through warner. they will be as good as it gets....

JJmali,

I like all of them I just think the first three are the best because they are not over produced. Like you said live and raw sounding.

Nrostov, I can't comment on that level. Notice I made no comparison to any other Zeppelin material. I do know that I like them. Sorry.

Jaybo,

How do we know that the're not going to digitally remaster them?

Thanks for the information, Jaybo. I look forward to these releases. -- Howard

the classic releases are fine....they are just done from 1990's masters. the new releases are supposed to be even better.

Jjmali,

Let me ask you this. I feel that the ones after that don't sound as good because of Jimmy Page's production. I back this up with one of the biography's I read about the band. I read how Jimmy just went over and over the albums and kept redoing things. I think he ruined the mixes on some of the albums especially Led Zepplin IV. What do you think?

Nrostov, you are 100% correct to my ears. The first three albums are excellent. They have a very live feel to them. They have a raw sound that I find extremely enjoyable. The classic versions of those are some of my favorite vinyl.

Jaybo,

What exactly was wrong with the Classic records releases? They sound awesome to me(especially the first three).

Jaybo, thanks for the correction about Warner Music. I never can keep straight which labels are owned by which of the major conglomerate record companies these days.
.

the zepplin stuff, approved by the band, will be coming from warner music(atlantic/swan song), not universal. the classic records issues were never anything to write home about, and were made with older masters.

It might have something to do with the media anouncing that LZ is now allowing internet downloads on all their material.

Licensing rights expired. Universal (the license holder, IIRC) is now issuing a lot of vinyl directly but no word of new reissues of the LZ titles Classic has issued.

As an example, see the new Warner Brothers web site: Because Sound Matters.

The LPs issued so far by Because Sound Matters have received very good reports. At least some are being mastered by Steve Hoffman and Kevin Grey. However, I wouldn't assume that all vinyl issued by one or another Universal subsidiary will be of the same quality as these coming from Because Sound Matters.
.