Mothership, a New 2-CD Compilation from Led Zeppelin

by Tom Watson.

Earth beware: Mothership (Atlantic/Swan Song) lands on November 13, signaling the launch of Led Zeppelin's month-long CD, DVD, digital download and concert reunion invasion aimed at planetary conquest. Resistance, futile, let's declare November 2007, International Led Zeppelin Month and welcome the invaders with open ears.

Though this is a review of the 24 track 2-CD Mothership compilation of studio-recorded Led Zeppelin milestones, let's first put International Led Zeppelin Month into perspective.

[Note: The following is based on information available as of the date of this article and is subject to change.]

November 13: CD and digital downloads

November 13 is the Mothership street date and the day on which 12 Led Zeppelin albums become available through online purchase and download.

Mothership will be offered in five configurations:

1. Standard Package: 2-CD set ($19.98 SRP)
2. Deluxe Edition: 2-CD set plus a DVD featuring 90 minutes of live performance footage from the 2003 Led Zeppelin DVD (not the complete Led Zeppelin DVD) ($24.98 SRP).
3. Collector's Edition: 2-CD set plus ultra-deluxe DVD, collectible limited edition. Exact description of "ultra-deluxe" and SRP not available as of this review.
4. Vinyl Edition: 4 LPs, high-end, audiophile quality vinyl with collectible memorabilia ($74.98 SRP).
5. Digital download from online music retailers.

November 13 is also the day on which 12 Led Zeppelin albums will be available through online digital downloads. Fans will be able to purchase both entire albums and individual songs a la carte. Here's a list of the 12 albums:

1. Led Zeppelin (1969)
2. Led Zeppelin II (1969)
3. Led Zeppelin III (1970)
4. Untitled fourth album commonly referred to as Led Zeppelin IV or Zoso (1971)
5. Houses Of The Holy (1973)
6. Physical Graffiti (1975)
7. Presence (1976)
8. The Song Remains The Same (1976; recently remixed and remastered for reissue on November 20 - see related interview with Kevin Shirley)
9. In Through The Out Door (1979)
10. Coda (1982)
11. How The West Was Won (2003)
12. Mothership

November 20: DVD

November 20 marks the street date for two configurations of the reissued The Song Remains the Same movie DVD from Warner Bros Home Video and the release through Rhino Records of the 2-CD The Song Remains the Same soundtrack.

Deluxe Edition DVD - also referred to by some online retailers as the Special Edition ($19.97 SRP)
Limited Collector's Edition DVD - 2-disc set that includes collectible vintage T-shirt with original album artwork design, lobby cards, reproductions of original premiere invites, tour schedule, and more ($44.98 SRP)

Two other configurations of The Song Remains the Same movie currently have a street date of December 11:

Deluxe Edition HD DVD - High Definition ($28.99 SRP)
Deluxe Edition Blu-ray DVD - for those with Blu-ray players. ($28.99 SRP)

November 26: reunion concert

Last, but by no means least, the surviving members of Led Zeppelin - Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones - will reunite for a one-off show on November 26 at London's O2 venue as part of a concert tribute to the founder of Atlantic Records, the late Ahmet Ertegun. They will be joined by drummer Jason Bonham, the son of Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham who passed away on September 25, 1980. (More concert information.)

Mothership - a simple "best of" compilation or something more?

November 2007 could be a complicated month for serious Led Zeppelin fans on a budget. It's especially interesting that Mothership's street date, November 13, coincides with the day on which the group's entire studio catalog becomes available for a la carte online purchase and download, meaning, if Mothership is nothing more than a "best of" compilation, why not compile your own? A few reasons come to mind.

Reason one: Mothership, produced by Jimmy Page, is a compilation of Led Zeppelin songs selected by Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones from the eight studio-recorded albums that were released prior to the death of John Bonham. The 2-CD set is, in other words, the remaining members of Led Zeppelin's idea of "the best of Led Zeppelin." Imagine the Mothership landing on a distant planet whose inhabitants have never heard of Led Zeppelin and Page, Plant and Jones presenting Mothership by way of aural explanation. This is the primary pleasure of Mothership - it's a voyage through Led Zeppelin's classic studio-album universe with Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones at the helm.

Reason two: Some listeners prefer high resolution CD sound to a compressed digital download version. Also, while the tracks on Mothership have not been remixed, Mothership was remastered by John Davis at Alchemy Mastering in London (in the early '90s, Jimmy Page transferred the analog Led Zeppelin studio tapes to digital for the creation of The Complete Studio Recordings and Davis used those digital versions as the source for Mothership). This means that the Mothership compilation reads as a unified whole despite the fact that the tracks were culled from albums originally recorded under varying circumstances and sound levels. DIY compilations may not reflect this smoothing-out benefit of remastering, which helps make the Mothership CDs a more pleasurable listen-through experience by avoiding the need to fiddle with the volume control as the CDs cycle through tracks from the various Led Zeppelin albums.

Reason three: The recently written liner notes by Rolling Stone Senior Editor David Fricke, alone, could be worth the price of Mothership (Amazon.com, for example, offers a pre-order street price of $14.99 and $19.99 for the Deluxe Edition that includes a DVD of 90 minutes from 2003's Led Zeppelin DVD). Fricke's notes chronicle the 12-year life span of the group with interesting behind-the-scenes information and fresh, well-written commentary.

Reason four: Though at the moment we don't know the per-song online download price, if it's .99 each, the 24 tracks of Mothership would cost $23.76.

Mothership tracks listed by source album (year of original album release)

Disc One

From Led Zeppelin (1969):
Good Times Bad Times
Communication Breakdown
Dazed And Confused
Babe I'm Gonna Leave You

From Led Zeppelin II (1969):
Whole Lotta Love
Ramble On
Heartbreaker

From Led Zeppelin III (1970):
Immigrant Song
Since I've Been Loving You

From the untitled fourth album (Led Zeppelin IV or Zoso) (1971):
Rock And Roll
Black Dog
When The Levee Breaks
Stairway To Heaven

Disc Two

From Houses Of The Holy (1973):
The Song Remains The Same
Over The Hills And Far Away
D'yer Maker
No Quarter

From Physical Graffiti (1975):
Trampled Under Foot
Houses Of The Holy
Kashmir

From Presence (1976):
Nobody's Fault But Mine
Achilles Last Stand

From In Through The Out Door (1979):
In The Evening
All My Love

Related Links
Review of Led Zeppelin at London's O2, December 10, 2007
DVD Review: The Song Remains The Same (2007) - Led Zeppelin
Message from Jimmy Page about Led Zeppelin Reunion Concert
Guitarist Jimmy Page Fractures Finger, Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert with Led Zeppelin Postponed
Kevin Shirley Talks about Revisiting Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains The Same
1977 Jimmy Page Interview (Audio/Text)
Led Zeppelin's official website
Rhino Records
Warner Bros. Home Video
Led Zeppelin to Release Digital Catalog
Led Zeppelin Will Play Concert on November 26 at London's O2 in Tribute to Ahmet Ertegun

---