Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Ushering in 2014, Jimmy Page announces future releases

"It's good news for the New Year," says a message posted Jan. 1, 2014, on Jimmy Page's website. "The first of the Led Zeppelin releases - comprising of Led Zeppelin I, Led Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin III and their companion discs - will be released this year."

(Editor's note: So the title of Led Zeppelin's first album is Led Zeppelin I, Jimmy? What's the title of the one after Led Zeppelin III?)

In the New Year's message, Page also:
  • announces some solo material -- "I've also been working on some of my own material from the archives that will be unleashed in 2014."
  • sends fans his well wishes -- "Hello there and Happy New Year to you all. I hope you are enjoying the holidays. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the support you've given the website." [www.JimmyPage.com]
  • references a blues song when he closed with the words, "Let The Good Times Roll!"
  • and signs the message with his name and autograph.
Coincidentally (or perhaps not), New Year's Day 2010 was when UK's The Independent caught Page admitting that he was already "a year behind" on a project with "lots of new music to present."

Page followed up in July 2011 by launching his website and using it twice in its first nine months to sell vinyl pressings of his past solo work. The first, Death Wish II, was a re-released soundtrack album Page had originally released on the Swan Song label in 1982. The second, Lucifer Rising and Other Soundtracks, contained instrumental solo material Page had recorded in the 1970s but had not released.

Walking into Clarksdale, the 1998 album he recorded with Robert Plant, marks the last time Page recorded a full album and released it within months. That disc will enjoy its 16th anniversary in April.

A literal interpretation of Page's remark today about future Led Zeppelin box sets holds that fans can expect one release this year, namely, what is presumably a 6-CD box set focusing on the first three Led Zeppelin albums, recorded in 1968, 1969 and 1970. The set would include the three albums in their original running order with as many as three additional discs of bonus material.

This year will then usher in the fourth intentional wave of rebranding and repackaging Led Zeppelin's studio material. Between 1990 and 1993 came the original self-titled 4-CD box set along with the Remasters, Box Set 2 and Complete Studio Recordings sets. A pair of single-CD sets, Early Days and Latter Days, followed between 1999 and 2000, later to be combined and sold as one. Mothership followed in 2007, offering a remastered look at an updated 2-CD summation of the group's studio tracks.

3 comments:

  1. I don't think we should be that literal. It will be three separate releases.

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  2. Yeah, I can see how Page's words can be construed as saying three separate releases all this year.

    Also, I made an edit above. The original version, in the last sentence, incorrectly stated Mothership was a 4-CD set. We all know it was only 2 CDs, same as Early Days and Latter Days combined, same as Remasters, but with subtle differences in the track listings. I've written ad nauseam on this in the past.

    ReplyDelete
  3. As far as im concerned the year couldn't have started better. maybe if they try to recreate 07 reunion but im not sure... happy NY all :)

    ReplyDelete

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