Le retour des Dinosaures

Return of the Dinosaurs, titre d’un bootleg du second concert de Knebworth en 1979, aurait pu s’appliquer à merveille à l’actualité de Led Zeppelin en cette fin 2007. Actualité riche à plusieurs titres : sortie d’une compilation (Mothership) et d’un DVD remasterisé et completé de The Song Remains The Same, réunion des trois membres survivants (Page, Plant et Jones) pour un concert unique à Londres le 26 Novembre (ne cherchez plus les places, elles sont parties depuis longtemps), et mise en ligne du catalogue complet de Led Zeppelin. Je ne reviens pas sur le concert, on a plus qu’à croiser les doigts pour que tout se passe bien et pour que ce concert soit enregistré… En attendant la sortie de Mothership et de The Song Remains The Same, voici quelques infos sur ces deux bijoux.

• Mothership
• The Song Remains The Same
• Mise en ligne de la discographie complète

Mothership

Trois promos sont sorties au format vidéo (disponibles sur le site officiel), en voici une :

La compilation Mothership, qui diffère très peu des compliations déjà sorties en CD depuis le début des années 90, sera disponible en deux version : la version Standard, et le coffret Deluxe.

Les deux versions contiennent les mêmes titres audio, mais le coffret Deluxe se voit nanti d’un DVD de 19 titres, parfait complément au DVD sorti en 2003. Les deux versions sortent le 13 novembre 2007 (le 12 en Angleterre), en sont disponibles en pré-commande chez Rhino. Voici le contenu :

Disc 1

1. “Good Times Bad Times”
2. “Communication Breakdown”
3. “Dazed and Confused”
4. “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You”
5. “Whole Lotta Love”
6. “Ramble On”
7. “Heartbreaker”
8. “Immigrant Song”
9. “Since I’ve Been Loving You”
10. “Rock and Roll”
11. “Black Dog”
12. “When the Levee Breaks”
13. “Stairway to Heaven”

Disc 2

1. “The Song Remains the Same”
2. “Over the Hills and Far Away”
3. “D’Yer Maker”
4. “No Quarter”
5. “Trampled Under Foot”
6. “Houses of the Holy”
7. “Kashmir”
8. “Nobody’s Fault But Mine”
9. “Achilles Last Stand”
10. “In the Evening”
11. “All My Love”

Disc 3 : DVD (Deluxe Edition)

1. We’re Gonna Groove (Royal Albert Hall)
2. I Can’t Quit You Babe (Royal Albert Hall)
3. Dazed & Confused (Royal Albert Hall)
4. White Summer (Royal Albert Hall)
5. What Is & What Should Never Be (Royal Albert Hall)
6. Moby Dick (Royal Albert Hall)
7. Whole Lotta Love (Royal Albert Hall)
8. Communication Breakdown (Royal Albert Hall)
9. Bring It On Home (Royal Albert Hall)
10. Immigrant Song (Audio: 1972 / Pics, Australia 1972 Super 8 )
11. Black Dog (Madison Square Garden)
12. Misty Mountain Hop (Madison Square Garden)
13. Going To California (Earls Court)
14. In My Time Of Dying (Earls Court)
15. Stairway To Heaven (Earls Court)
16. Rock And Roll (Knebworth)
17. Nobody’s Fault But Mine (Knebworth)
18. Kashmir (Knebworth)
19. Whole Lotta Love (Knebworth)

Des extraits audio des CD 1 & 2 sont disponibles sur le site officiel Mothership.

The Song Remains The Same

C’est la grosse nouveauté de cette actualité : la sortie du film (19/11 au States, 20/11 chez les Rosbifs, 11/12 en France) en version complétée et remasterisée, aux format DVD, HDVD et BluRay, accompagnée du soundtrack en version CD. Quelques privilégiés ont pu assister à la projection de la version BlueRay, la différence est énorme, à la fois en qualité audio et vidéo, mais également en terme de contenu.

Disc 1

1. Rock And Roll
2. Celebration Day
3. Black Dog*
4. Over The Hills*
5. Misty Mountain Hop*
6. Since I’ve Been Loving You*
7. No Quarter
8. The Song Remains The Same
9. Rain Song
10. The Ocean*

Disc 2

1. Dazed And Confused
2. Stairway To Heaven
3. Moby Dick
4. Heartbreaker*
5. Whole Lotta Love

(*) Pas dans le film original

Les puristes débattent déjà sur l’origine des titres, et sur l’ordre des morceaux, le film original ayant été tourné sur les trois soirées au Madison Square Garden (New York) fin Juillet 1973. Pour toutes les infos concernant ces trois soirées, je vous invite à lire la superbe étude (in English) par Eddie Edwards.

Mise en ligne de la discographie complète

Pour terminer, Led Zeppelin se met au goût du jour en proposant en fin d’année sa discographie complète en téléchargement (payant, faut pas déconner) sur Internet. Extrait de l’annonce sur le site officiel :

The Legendary Band’s Original Albums Available For The First Time At All Online Music Retailers November 13

LOS ANGELES — Led Zeppelin’s catalog is among the most enduring bodies of musical composition to come out of the 20th century — and now it’s coming to the 21st. As one of digital music’s final holdouts, the band’s illustrious catalog is one of the most highly anticipated digital releases to date. Beginning November 13, the band’s original albums will be available for full-album or a la carte download from all online music retailers.

The albums being made available include Led Zeppelin (1969), Led Zeppelin II (1969), Led Zeppelin III (1970), Untitled fourth album (1971), Houses Of The Holy (1973), Physical Graffiti (1975), Presence (1976), The Song Remains The Same (1976; recently remixed and remastered for reissue on November 20), In Through The Out Door (1979), Coda (1982), How The West Was Won (2003), and Mothership (available November 13). Featuring such indelible anthems as “Communication Breakdown,” “Whole Lotta Love,” “Immigrant Song,” “Stairway To Heaven,” “D’Yer Mak’er,” and “Kashmir,” these releases, together with various retrospective collections, have sold more than 300 million albums worldwide.

“We are pleased that the complete Led Zeppelin catalog will now be available digitally,” said Jimmy Page. “The addition of the digital option will better enable fans to obtain our music in whichever manner that they prefer.”

“The Led Zeppelin catalog is a highly anticipated and essential addition to the world’s leading digital music services,” said Edgar Bronfman, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group. “In their 12 years together, Zeppelin created one of the most powerful, influential, and timeless bodies of work in the history of modern music. They not only enjoyed enormous commercial success, but their ground-breaking musical innovation transformed the cultural landscape. We have been planning for this landmark day for a long time, and we look forward to expanding Led Zeppelin’s presence across a full array of digital platforms.”

Over 25 years after disbanding, Led Zeppelin continues to inspire generations of fans. The September 12 announcement that the band would reunite for a one-off concert in honor of Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun created unprecedented demand as an estimated 80,000 fans a minute attempted to access the concert’s official website to register. More than a million fans attempted to apply for one of the 10,000 tickets available in a random drawing for the band’s first concert in over 19 years at London’s O2 Arena on November 26.

Announced earlier this year, on November 13, Atlantic Records/Rhino Entertainment will release Mothership, a 24-track, two-CD comprehensive collection that spans their 12-year career. All eight of the band’s classic studio albums are represented, with the tracks being personally selected by Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones. Originally released in 1976, The Song Remains The Same soundtrack album of the concert film features songs from the band’s three-night stint at Madison Square Garden in July 1973. On November 20, The Song Remains The Same soundtrack gets the deluxe reissue treatment, with the band members overseeing the remixing and remastering of the original release. The new version of the soundtrack includes six songs that were not on the original release, plus new liner notes by Academy Award-winning director Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous).

Formed in 1968, from the ashes of The Yardbirds, guitarist Jimmy Page brought in Robert Plant, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones and toured as The New Yardbirds. In 1969, their self-titled debut was released and is regarded as one of the most important rock records ever made. Led Zeppelin went on to become the colossal rock icons that we know today, setting new records along the way for fan attendance at their gigs and record sales.

Universally recognized as one of the most successful, innovative, powerful and influential bands in modern music, Led Zeppelin continues to be honored for their pivotal place in music history. In 1995 they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005, and were awarded with the Polar Music Prize in Stockholm in 2006.