Led Zeppelin to Reissue ‘BBC Sessions’ With Eight Unheard Tracks
Led Zeppelin's upcoming reissue of 1997's double-platinum BBC Sessions will include eight previously unheard songs. Titled The Complete BBC Sessions, the album will be available in compact disc, vinyl and digital formats on Sept. 16 – as well as a super deluxe box set.
The project collects Zeppelin live recordings made by BBC radio between 1969-71, showing "in graphic detail just how organic the group was," Jimmy Page told Guitar World. "Led Zeppelin was a band that would change things around substantially each time it played. … We were becoming tighter and tighter, to the point of telepathy.”
Among the unreleased songs are three from a 1969 session that was previously thought to be lost: "Dazed and Confused," “I Can’t Quit You Baby,” “You Shook Me” and the only recorded performance of “Sunshine Woman.” The other unheard items include two versions of both “Communication Breakdown” and “What Is and What Should Never Be.” Recorded two years apart, they are said to be substantially different.
“We’d been on the road a lot by the time those sessions were recorded," John Paul Jones told Wall of Sound. "The albums were always the starting point of the music, and then we’d take it out and expand it on the road. Then we’d come straight off the road into those BBC studios.”
The deluxe edition includes the remastered original album on two discs, plus a third disc of unreleased audio. The vinyl edition is spread over five LPs. The super deluxe set features the two-disc remaster; the third disc of new songs; the remastered vinyl; a high-def audio download card with all of the content; a 48-page book with photos of the band, the recording locations, BBC memorabilia and session information; and a high-quality print of the original album cover.
The first 20,000 copies of The Complete BBC Sessions will be individually numbered, as well. Page supervised the remasters; Dave Lewis wrote the extensive liner notes.
Led Zeppelin Albums Ranked Worst to Best