Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page Previews Eight Unreleased Tracks And Talks New Collection
It’s not every day that Led Zeppelin lets anyone hear rare tracks, but that’s just what Jimmy Page did when he decided to preview eight songs for a New York City audience. The guitarist unearthed tracks that were never heard before, from demos and various outtakes, during a conference at the Crosby Street Hotel in New York City.
It was a day that was three years in the making, and one that weighed heavily on the icon’s mind. Page spent three years digging through boxes of unreleased material from the 60s to and 70s to see what would fit best for the deluxe edition of the band’s remastered first three albums, which are being re-released for June 3.
With the three original albums being re-released comes eight new tracks that were produced by Led Zeppelin decades ago. For Jimmy Page, it was a weird process going through the unreleased material. During the press conference, Page said:
“When you’ve got a chance to listen to it all, it’s like a portal into that time capsule of when each album was recorded.”
Explaining just how the tracks were picked, the Led Zeppelin rocker described the eight songs and how they made him feel upon listening and performing them.
“The music is so joyous, it was terrific listening to it all and each individual’s performance was so great. it gives you the opportunity to have another listen to every single person in the band and the individual performances, and how it really gels.”
In addition to the conference Jimmy Page played four bonus tracks that are featured on the first two Zeppelin albums, and an additional four from the Led Zeppelin III album. The bonus songs are live recordings from a concert that took place in 1968. Two of the tracks included, aside from the rare songs, are “Communication Breakdown” and “You Shook Me.”
Of the material as a whole, Page said:
“Obviously there’s CDS, MP3s, vinyl. That’s the whole reason for doing it, so you’ve got everything catered for in every sort of area. But while I was working on the original albums, I said, ‘Well, let’s think of how to make this into something really special. And I left no stone unturned.”
Page should know as he is the songwriter for their most popular song “Stairway To Heaven” and most of Led Zeppelin’s material.
As stated, the remastered collection hits stores on June 3 in various forms.
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