Led Zeppelin - Mothership

Thu 20th Dec, 2007 in Music Reviews

Led Zeppelin
Mothership
Swan Song/Atlantic

Led Zeppelin
The Song Remains the Same
Swan Song/Atlantic

More than anyone else – more than the Stones, more than the Floyd, more than the Pistols, and certainly more than the Bay City Rollers – the music of Led Zeppelin defined the era of the 1970s. A primordial oozing of sex, drugs, and rock – œn roll, they didn’t live up to the excesses categorised by the era; they invented them.

But more than that, Led Zeppelin defined hard, loud and fast rock – œn roll. It’s this side of the band that is clearly on show in the early parts of both their latest greatest hits compendium and on the recently re-released live document, The Song Remains the Same. Recorded in New York City in 1978 – as England exploded with punk, mythically burying the dinosaurs that the Stones, Floyd and Zep had apparently become – before a rapturous crowd, it’s a cohesive and brilliant showcase of incredible musicianship and fabulous songs.

Mothership, on the other hand, is not too far distant from its cousins Early Days and Latter Days that brought together much of the same material on the first ever Led Zeppelin greatest hits release. But its claim to fame is in the remaster – the effect of which ostensibly appears to have made the cymbals crisper, the drums boom, the bass slink, the guitar freak out, and the vocals soar. In short, it’s a hell of a lot louder – fortunately the songs are the same. All brill, no fill.

Who needs Wolfmother or the White Stripes when Led Zeppelin did it so much better so long ago?