Zep has been too precious with their live stuff...
Zep has been really skimpy when it comes to releasing live recordings. It is a custom nowadays for legacy acts to release live albums from their heyday, mostly as part of deluxe editions or anniversary releases of their classic albums. But Zep only did that once with LZ I, and then never again. Oh how I wish they went along with that direction! It was so promising. Imagine...if they had released a whole "remastered" series that featured a companion live album for each of their studio albums to document each era of the band. It might have gone as follows:
Led Zep I: Live in Paris 1969 (which is what we have)
Led Zep II: Live at Royal Albert Hall
Led Zep III: Live at Blueberry Hill
Led Zep IV: A best-of comp of the Japan Shows
Houses of the Holy: Holy cow! So many to choose from! This is probably their absolute peak as a live band. I'll probably go with Providence or Offenburg 3/24.
Physical Graffiti: A best-of comp of the Earls Court shows
Presence: Again, so many to choose from! But the most iconic is Listen to this Eddie, so I'll go with that one.
In Through the Out Door: a best-of comp of the Knebworth '79 shows
(As for Coda, I think the deluxe edition is just fine as it is, containing unreleased tracks, so no need for a live album companion here, perhaps?)
I think it's criminal how we have so few proper live albums from the greatest live act of the rock era. When Zep was on fire, they were the best to ever do it! I am grateful, however, for all that we have been given. How The West Was Won and The Song Remains The Same are two of the greatest live albums ever made by anyone. Not only are the performances incredible, but from an audiophile standpoint, the sound quality on those two is insane! Especially TSRTS, which is one of the best-sounding live albums I have ever heard -- typical Jimmy page quality! BBC Sessions, while not really a bona fide live concert album, is a fine document of the early days of the band, showcasing Plant's voice at the peak of its yet-untamed freak intensity. The Live in Paris 1969 which was released as a companion disc of LZ I is really great too, with a surprisingly clear and almost studio-level sound quality.
More than anything, I think the release of Live in Paris 1969 offered the clearest hint that there's a lot more that hasn't been released. And I mean A LOT LOT MORE. We're talking mountains of tapes here. Why am I led to think this? Well, simple logic. For one, that concert was from '69, when they were just starting out and did not yet have all the best equipment at their disposal -- and yet the quality of the recording that they got from that is pristine! Imagine the level of quality of all the live shows that they were able to recorded since, as they went forward to become the biggest band in the world for a decade, with the most advanced recording technology right at their fingertips. Imagine.
I'm pretty sure there are at least a couple of dozens of live shows that are more than qualified for release as official live albums, both from a sound quality and performance standpoint. Just think of the case of HTWWW. That one came out of nowhere! Practically nobody knew that high-quality multitrack recordings for the LA Forum and Long Beach 1972 shows (which were used and comp'd to make HTWWW) existed in the first place! And it was not released until more than 30 years later! It was just sitting there all those decades. The thing is, none of us really knows how many shows were recorded and we're really just playing guessing games when it comes to the subject, though perhaps some guesses are more informed than others. But I'm willing to bet that in the 12 years of the band's existence, with most of those years spent touring and touring -- I'm willing to bet that at least a handful of high-quality live recordings have been made for each touring year. And they're all just there, sitting in some vault, as they have for half a century already. The best live recordings of all time, just sitting in some vault.
Methinks that the main reason why we're not getting any more live albums is Jimmy's perfectionism. I think this is also the reason why they're not releasing live albums as companion discs to the studio albums. Jimmy wants to release the live albums as stand-alone projects in their own right, if they are to be released at all. Maybe this is because he views the live documents as too precious to be released as mere companion discs. Besides, most of their concerts are 3-4 hours long, so it will be difficult to package them as such. We all know just how much of a perfectionist Jimmy is. He puts the word "obsessive" to shame. He's an extremely keen artist, obsessed with perfecting even the minutest detail of his art. The microedits in the remastered TSRTS gives us a hint of just how overly meticulous he can be. I believe this extreme attention to detail is what made him such a great producer in the first place, and why the Led Zep studio albums are all just about as perfect works of art as humanly possible.
Jimmy is also very old by now, and maybe his ears aren't in the best shape as of today. 60 years of maximum rock n' roll will do that to ya. Besides, maybe he just wants to spend his days in peace and rest, and can't really be personally bothered with the extremely difficult and taxing job of sorting, selecting, editing (microediting, that is), mastering, packaging and releasing the live Zep stuff. I mean, it must take insane levels of energy, concentration and time to oversee the release of major, high-profile music projects, let alone a new official Zep release. If that is the case, though, why don't they hire an archivist, or a team of dedicated archivists to supervise the matter? Look at what Dylan's, Hendrix's, The Grateful Dead's and even The Stones' estates are doing! In this century, we've been so spoiled with high-quality live releases from legendary bands and artists. But not from the Zep.
It's really a pity that Zep has not followed suit. They've been too precious with their live stuff. Not even Royal Albert Hall has been released as a standalone live album! They've released a live EP last year coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Physical Graffiti, but these are the same songs that have already been released in the 2003 DVD! And, seriously, an EP? EP?! Can a mere EP contain the live spirit of a 4-hour Led Zep show? No, sir. If anything, the release of that EP feels like more teasing. More teasing to make us crave for more. I sure hope something major follows.
C'mon Zep! Get the live albums out! You won't believe the demand and the hunger out here for those live recordings! You are the greatest live band of all time, and many of your shows are the greatest concerts that this planet has ever seen! Release the damn live recordings already! With the technology that's available now, even the roughest recordings from yonder can be restored to studio-like quality. What are you guys waiting for? Jimmy, what's taking so long! We're not gonna live forever!
Sigh.
Last year's release of Becoming Led Zeppelin gave me profound renewed hope that something is happening, that something is being done, something is in the works -- that the Zep legacy is being looked after, at least. That there are projects in the pipeline. That something good is about to happen. As with many fans, I am waiting for the day that more live shows are officially released in impeccable sound quality and presentation. Until then, we'll have to survive on bootlegs which have sustained us for so long.