STACK #144 Oct 2016

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Coming Up

Led Zeppelin The Complete BBC Sessions

Words Michael Dwyer

DAVID BOWIE - WHO CAN I BE NOW? [1974-1976] The late great Duke’s second box set covers his dark American phase, bookended by Diamond Dogs and Station to Station . Includes several live albums, one of singles and B-sides and, for the first time, a scrapped early draft of Young Americans called The Gouster . (Parlophone/Warner)

those – You Shook Me , Dazed and Confused , Communication Breakdown , I Can’t Quit You Baby , What Is And What Should Never Be – also turn up on the black record, partly explaining Page’s reluctance to gild the lily back in ‘97. His sonic discernment can hardly be questioned either. Master tapes were unceremoniously erased after the band’s Maida Vale Studio 4 session of March 19, 1969, so the fabled Sunshine Woman arrives at last via some fabulously crusty dub of a tape of a tape. “There’s no point pretending it wasn’t recorded off the radio,” Page recently shrugged. There’s no pretending she’s dispensable, though. She’s a fast mover; all hammered bar piano and nasty 12-bar boogie with blasts of blues harp and little indication, as legend has it, that she was summoned from the ether on the spot by a band clearly in the throes of a decidedly purplish patch. Where-and-when details are meticulous, down to photos of each venue concerned, but don’t expect slabs of contextual pontification about what it all means. The kicker for collectors may be the little 3D laser sticker of Storm Thorgeson’s winged rock god logo on the back of each LP. It’s the little things, right? (Rhino/Warner)

really!), fans knew exactly how much Jimmy the Satanic gatekeeper was holding out on us. The good news is that the “Sunshine” sheila and all eight of her missing companions have been found this month, extending the original 25 tracks to a fifth, lovely, 180-gram record in this unambiguously “Complete” white box. How lovely? The first four LPs are in glossy white cardboard sleeves featuring black and white photo portraits of Page, Plant, Jones and Bonham from the era. For maximum mystery, the fifth could be none more black, barring reversed type and cover sketch portraits. Content-wise, the Paris Cinema gig of April ‘71 features mid-period classics like Immigrant Song , Since I’ve Been Loving You , Black Dog , Going To California and Stairway to Heaven . The bulk of the sessions happened in March and June of ‘69, so selections naturally lean heavily on the first two Zep albums of January and October that year, with half a dozen songs appearing two or three times across the first four LPs. Yet more versions of most of

W here oh where was Sunshine Woman ? To say the good lady was conspicuous by her absence back in ‘97 is to underestimate the howls of outrage from Led Zeppelin aficionados the world over. Back then, these UK radio sessions from 1969 and 1971 represented the band’s first officially released live recordings since The Song Remains The Same , the somewhat compromised film soundtrack of ‘75. Given that all six BBC studio and theatre engagements had been logged by jolly thorough chaps in white coats, and apparently even illegally taped and traded (yes,

JANE’S ADDICTION - STERLING SPOON Who knows exactly what anniversary Perry Farrell has in mind but this box commemorates Nothing’s Shocking (1988), Ritual de lo Habitual (1990), and the first Lollapalooza over six limited edition LPs. Expect live recordings, rarities, demos, and other stuff to frighten your children into just saying no forever. (Rhino/Warner)

OCTOBER 2016

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