Frequently bootlegged and now digitally remastered by Jimmy Page, these tapes capture a 25-month (1969 to 1971) arc in which Zep's sound grew to encompass the speed rush and jazz/blues festival stuff of their 1969 debut, the fully developed folkie musings of "Going to California" (in which Plant vowed to make a hejira right up to Joni Mitchell's front door), and the band's modestly popular multilayered epic "Stairway to Heaven." The Sessions also give a glimpse of nearly off-the-cuff invention in an intense take on Robert Johnson's "Traveling Riverside Blues". Most other white blues musicians would've rushed to get this on vinyl; Page and Plant instead used it for parts, most notably taking its profound acoustic freneticism for Led Zeppelin III . --Rickey Wright
Track Listing
You Shook Me I Can't Quit You Baby Communication Breakdown Dazed And Confused Girl I Love What Is And What Should Never Be Communication Breakdown (2) Travelling Riverside Blues Whole Lotta Love Something Else Communication Breakdown (3) I Can't Quit You Baby (2) You Shook Me (2) How Many More Times Immigrant Song Heartbreaker Since I've Been Loving You Black Dog Dazed And Confused (2) Stairway To Heaven Going To California That's The Way Whole Lotta Love (2) Thank You Immigrant Song Heartbreaker Since I've Been Loving You Black Dog Dazed And Confused (2) Stairway To Heaven Going To California That's The Way Whole Lotta Love (2) Thank You
