It was the reunion everyone wanted, but possibly never expected. On December 10, 2007, at London's O2 Arena, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham (John's son) took the stage as Led Zeppelin for the first time since the band broke up in 1980. (Page, Plant and Jones had several tepidly-received reunions in the '80s, one at Live Aid and one at the Atlantic Records 40th anniversary concert, but none were considered by the band to be true Led Zeppelin performances.) It was the passing of Ahmet Ertegun, Atlantic Records founder and mentor to the group, that got them together, and the 16-song set was a fitting tribute to the musical icon.
This year, five years after that landmark performance before some 16,000 attendees, Atlantic Records is finally making that concert available to the public as Celebration Day. It's a fitting tribute for one of the heaviest bands in the world, with an international theatrical release planned starting October 17, followed by a multi-format release on November 19.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbusDxLekPQ]
On September 21, the full release plan for Celebration Day was announced. The show will be featured as:
- A two-disc "music only" edition
- "Standard" audiovisual sets, the two audio CDs with the concert on DVD or Blu-Ray disc
- Deluxe editions: 2-CD/2-DVD and 2-CD/1-DVD/1-BD editions will feature an additional DVD "featuring exclusive bonus video content including the Shepperton rehearsals and BBC news footage"
- A music-only edition on Blu-Ray, "featuring high-resolution 48K 24-bit PCM stereo and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound" (link forthcoming)
- A 180-gram triple-vinyl edition (link forthcoming)
- A digital download
The set list and pre-order links (in case you missed them up top) are after the jump.
Led Zeppelin, Celebration Day (2-CD, 2-CD/1-DVD, 2-CD/1-BD, 2-CD/2-DVD, 2-CD/1-DVD/1-BD) (Swan Song/Atlantic, 2012)
- Good Times Bad Times
- Ramble On
- Black Dog
- In My Time of Dying/Honey Bee
- For Your Life
- Trampled Under Foot
- Nobody's Fault But Mine
- No Quarter
- Since I've Been Loving You
- Dazed and Confused
- Stairway to Heaven
- The Song Remains the Same
- Misty Mountain Hop
- Kashmir
- Whole Lotta Love
- Rock and Roll
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this will be cool...
...and rather well-timed with the band's Kennedy Center Honors announcement yesterday!
Be cautioned, that with the exception of "Since I've Been Loving You", the songs have all been de-tuned 2 to 3 keys down, due to Robert Plant's present-day vocal limitations.
I think For Your Life and Kashmir are both in their original key. But it was weird hearing Stairway to Heaven brought down a whole step to G-minor. It ended up sounding more like Deep Purple's Soldier Of Fortune. But it is good that this peformance will be out officially instead of those cellphone videos that have been on Youtube for so long. I can't wait to get it.
What a bizarre comment. Do you have some beef with Plant, Page and Jones or stand to lose money with the release of this in theatres or on Blu-Ray/DVD? Why the caution? Anyone who watches the trailer can hear that Plant is singing several songs in a different key.
This is a 2007 performance, not a 1977 performance. I don't think anyone is expecting Plant to sound the same as he did 30 or 40 years ago. Seeing the three surviving members perform a full show together in high definition is really the biggest selling point. And judging from the footage in the trailer, Plant still shows - regardless of the key he is singing in - that he is one of the best front men in rock history.
This will be an awesome concert to see in its entirety. If you have your reasons for not wanting to see it, fine; just don't try and ruin it for everyone or discourage others from seeing it.
I don't care about several songs being in a different key (Plant's still great), but I do wonder if this will be a less than accurate document of what was actually played that night. I've read where Jimmy Page was taking his time with this, wanting everything to be "perfect." Does that mean he went tinkering with this, like he did with the expanded The Song Remains the Same soundtrack? I hope not.
I'd rather see/hear Zep@Earls Court 1975 than this. Old men going through the motions. Sad.
Plant is in fine form on this show, as he is in other recent projects (see Band of Joy). Of course his voice is changed over the years and is now different, deeper and in some ways richer. If I want 70's Plant I can still watch The song remains the same over and over. I don't care if they have changed the key to the whole set as long as the results are great, and this IS great.
Holy crappamoley--Two to three keys DOWN?????????????? What a ripoff!!!!!