Why only 18,000 tickets to rock's biggest reunion ever?

As soon as the era of Led Zeppelin concluded in 1980 due to circumstances beyond any earthling's control, persistent outside speculation began that the group's three survivors would carry on together in one form or another. This assumption has not become reality, except with the understanding that today, as they prepare to unleash a set lasting two hours, the three carry on as friends.

The fact is that since their breakup, the amount of time they have carried on together publicly in a musical fashion has amounted to approximately an hour: 20 minutes in 1985, another 20 in 1988, and 15 minutes in 1995. Not even a full hour of new moments in Led Zeppelin concert history has existed in the presence of public audiences.

We have learned many stated reasons for the scarcity of collaborations involving all three: It wouldn't be the same. The expectations would be too great. The associated travel would be too much. They have their own careers now. There was some rift among the three. They've already accomplished everything possible. There's something despicable about enormous shows.

The live tribute to Ahmet Ertegün announced yesterday does not negate or dismiss those reasons. In fact, a single concert date in England means no real need for travel. It's been a long time since they rock 'n' rolled – such a long time, in fact, that they have already adequately established themselves as career musicians outside of the context of their collective group. Wounds have healed, and they have nothing to prove. Although John Bonham will never be back, they have obtained the first in the direct familial line of succession to the drum stool throne. And, like it or not, the show they're playing is not going to be in front of an enormous crowd.

Perhaps the limited seating capacity of the venue chosen is the one attribute to this upcoming reunion that most upsets fans who have been persistent in their hopes that someday they would be able to see the Zeppelin once again take flight. A reunion is taking place, and the total number of randomly selected attendees from all over the world will be no more than 18,000 in a world inhabited by 6.6 billion people, of whom an estimated 20 million found themselves vying for the opportunity to register for tickets at a Web site that crashed within minutes of the official announcement. Eighteen thousand seems like a drop in the bucket, particularly when one considers that we're talking about the same band that broke its own records for highest paying concert attendance for a single act.

However, it's an appropriate number when you recall Robert Plant's disdain for "enormous shows," a term he used in an interview for the BBC yesterday. He resists playing them because, he says, "Once you get that big and you start playing those kind of shows, you lose the reins of what you're trying to do." Keep in mind that this is a guy who has played in the middle of the Sahara desert, with street musicians in Marrakech, and at a zoo a short commute from his home town – not exactly Rock in Rio. Robert prefers smaller, more intimate audiences, and he's going to get his wish as the first staged Led Zeppelin reunion concert in a dozen years takes place on Nov. 26.

If you've registered for the concert lottery, don't worry: You have as fair a chance in attending as anybody else does. You could jeopardize that chance by registering more than once. If you successfully register, you will receive a confirmation by e-mail although not immediately. Please be satisfied if the Web site itself displays a confirmation. It will instruct you to be patient. Only the luckiest fans, randomly selected, will be contacted by a third-party vendor by Oct. 1 to give them a 72-hour window to pony up the money for one or two tickets, after which the opportunity is gone. These are the terms for rock's biggest reunion ever, and true fans will respect and abide by them just as they respect the musicians and their reasons for finally making a dream come true.

Official: Led Zeppelin to reunite, Nov. 26 concert confirmed

The three surviving members of Led Zeppelin will reunite this November for a single show in London, according to an official announcement made today.

As promoter Harvey Goldsmith stated at a London press conference in their absence, the group's performance Nov. 26 at the city's O2 arena will be at a concert that will also include Pete Townshend of the Who and Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones.

There was no mention of whether Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones would consider playing another gig together after the tribute concert to Ahmet Ertegün, the Atlantic Records cofounder and close personal friend to Led Zeppelin.

"During the Zeppelin years, Ahmet Ertegün was a major foundation of solidarity and accord," Plant said in a press release. "For us, he was Atlantic Records and remained a close friend and conspirator. this performance stands aloneas our tribute to the work and the life of our long standing friend."

The reunited Led Zeppelin will also include drummer Jason Bonham sitting in to fill the seat left by his father, John Bonham, whose death on Sept. 25, 1980, caused the band to announce its retirement later that year.

The younger Bonham has been drumming in recent months for classic rock group Foreigner, which has also been booked to perform at the Nov. 26 concert.

Concert proceeds are to benefit the Ahmet Ertegün Education Fund, set up to "provide students with annual scholarships to universities in the UK, USA and Turkey," according to an official press release. "In addition, a music scholarship open to all will beestablished at Ravensbourne College in the UK."

Tickets to the event, priced at 125 British pounds ($254), are available exclusively from a random drawing at http://www.ahmettribute.com/.

Aside from three one-off performances in 1985, 1988 and 1995, and two jams at family members' weddings, Led Zeppelin has not reunited for a tour.

While the Led Zeppelin members are rumored to have been rehearsing together over the past month, the concert in November would be their first public appearance together since May 22, 2006, when they were awarded the Polar Music Prize at a ceremony in Stockholm.

The most recent performance by all three former members coincided with their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, on Jan. 12, 1995. At the time, Page and Plant were toward the start of a mini-reunion of their own that, by the end of 1998, had resulted in two full-length albums as well as a home video and television special heralding their work together.

Led Zeppelin's much-anticipated performance is set to take place during a rare month of new releases from the band showcasing live and studio material recorded mostly during the band's 1970s heyday. A plethora of new releases are to hit stores on two consecutive Mondays, with the performance taking place on the Monday of the following week.

Rhino Records, in conjunction with Atlantic, will release a new greatest-hits collection called Mothership with a U.K. release date of Nov. 12, followed one week later with Atlantic's upgraded reissue of the soundtrack to Zep's 1976 film, The Song Remains the Same, as well as Warner's reissue of the film on DVD and Blu-Ray with additional footage.

Ertegün's surviving wife, Mica Ertegün, stated in a press release that her late husband "would be very proud that Led Zeppelin have chosen to reunite and headline a benefit concert in his name featuring so many of his friends. I would like to thank all of the artists for their generous contribution to help make Ahmet’s vision a reality."

Singer-songwriter Paolo Nutini will also appear at the concert on Nov. 26, and Wyman will perform with the Rhythm Kings.

Initial reports from the press conference:

• New Musical Express
• Rolling Stone
• Billboard
• Uncut

The correct bassline that inspired "Black Dog"

John Paul Jones has claimed numerous times through the years that he was inspired to write the bassline that became the backbone of "Black Dog" after listening to Electric Mud, the psychedelic album by Muddy Waters.


One of these instances was in a lesson for Guitar World Online in about 2001 that included a transcription of the bassline live Zep recording seekers recognize from the intro of 1969 versions of Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor."

Guitar World also featured the bassline from "Black Dog" with accompanying text about how the one bassline inspired the other (and, subsequently, how "Black Dog" riff evolved in its development).


The original URL of that feature was here, although it's no longer online; however, one can retrieve the text of this feature via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. I copied the relevant portions here though, and Jonesy's discussion begins as follows:

Let's begin this first lesson by talking about what I've often heard people refer to as the classic Led Zeppelin "stomp groove." A prime example of this can be found in the song "Black Dog," from our fourth album.

As you probably already know, Led Zeppelin was heavily influenced by blues music-Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James, Muddy Waters, B.B. King and many others.

At this point, the Guitar World Online page included the sheet music, seen here, and a WAVE audio file for the riff we recognize as the intro to Zep's live versions of "Killing Floor." For Mac users (like Jonesy himself), it also included an AIFF file. Alas, these files are no longer retrievable. Jonesy continued:

I was inspired to write the "Black Dog" riff after learning this old blues riff in E (see Figure 1) from the Muddy Waters album Electric Mud (Cadet, 1968). It's a swampy, circular, single-note riff and Jimmy Page and I used to love to play it forever! I wanted to write an original riff that had that same type of busy, yet plodding, feel.

His use of "single-note" means no more than one note is played at a time, rather than that the riff is composed entirely of a drone or repeated note of one pitch. At any rate, there you have it: the claim that it's from Electric Mud.


However, that's a whole album, not a song. So, it must be on one of the tracks, right? Well, if so, you should be able to go back to that album and listen for that precise riff. You can do that until the cows come home, and you'll never find it anywhere on that album.


It is, however, on the track "Smokestack Lightning" from the Howlin' Wolf LP in 1969, recorded with the same intentions as Electric Mud: to make a bluesman look silly doing some psychedelic music that, who knows, might actually earn some younger-generation fans who'd previously overlooked him.


So, what happened? It's my contention that -- gasp! -- Jonesy make a mistake. (Hell, he called me out on a mistake in my newsletter once, so I'm just repaying him the favor.) The two albums are similar in spirit, so he just got them confused.


But that's not the only instance of him citing Electric Mud as the source, is it? No, it's not. He certainly goofed up a number of times!

You know how you learn something wrong, and you can never get it right? Especially if you are never told that it is wrong?


Then we all started reciting it as fact. If Jonesy said it, it must be true. And if Jonesy said it five gazillion times, it must be really, really true! So, we learned it wrong, and he kept saying it wrong year after year, interview after interview. Until somebody stopped him. And that somebody was yours truly.


On Dec. 10, 2001, I interviewed John Paul Jones for four hours. At one point, he and I sang the riff together, and I asked him where it was from. He said Electric Mud. I told him I had that album on CD and I couldn't find the riff anywhere. He said he could be wrong but didn't suggest any alternative. And life moved on for both of us.


The following April was when I discovered where it was really from. I bought the Howlin' Wolf LP from 1969 on eBay and played it for the first time on April 26, 2002, on the 33rd anniversary of the third of four San Francisco shows that week at which Led Zeppelin played that very riff. In my April 27, 2002, edition of "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History," I wrote that the correct source of that bassline is Howlin' Wolf's LP. But he didn't necessarily read that newsletter, did he? Good thing my story doesn't end here!


Two years later, on Aug. 19, 2004, I greeted John Paul Jones on the closing night of his tour with Mutual Admiration Society. I held up the 1969 Howlin' Wolf LP cover to him, which reads, "This is Howlin' Wolf's new album. He doesn't like it. He didn't like his electric guitar at first either." Jonesy saw me and knew exactly what I wanted to talk to him about. While he was signing items for other fans, he talked to me, and I told him this album's third track was the source of that riff. Taking my word for it, he admitted that he'd been wrong all those times in the press when quoted on Electric Mud. I offered Jonesy to take the LP back home to England with him for old time's sake. Instead, he let me keep it -- but now with his autograph scrawled on the front.


If I wasn't entirely sold on the album by then, I like it just fine now.

Extended clips of Robert Plant/Alison Krauss album

Rounder Records has posted long clips of the 13 tracks of Raising Sand, the forthcoming album from Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. The album hits the streets Oct. 23.

Considerations about a Led Zeppelin reunion

Probably many folks are already convinced that a Led Zeppelin reunion is imminent, particularly with the disclosure that there will be a press conference this Wednesday, Sept. 12. Now before you go getting too used to the idea that the guys are going to hit the road once again after taking the stage, there are a few very important things you should bear in mind.

Plant has been a solo star for 25 years, and he likes his independence. He is free to do whatever he wants, something that has been particularly obvious since he liberated himself from nightly Zeppelin-heavy set lists with Jimmy Page in 1998. Read the liner notes he prepared for his own compilation Sixty-Six to Timbuktu for his own most earnest thoughts on collaborating with all sorts of folks throughout his career as a singer.

He loved collaborating in Led Zeppelin for so long because the personalities involved meshed so well together. Take away any one element, and it is incomplete. He moved on to do things so unlike Led Zeppelin after John Bonham was taken away. Despite the loss of his friend, Plant was eventually able to enjoy making music again. He even came to terms with the music of Led Zeppelin and performed many of those classic tunes again, exploring and reintrepreting the songs always with the intent of keeping it interesting.

Further, it could be argued that the present day is another creative peak in his career. He is on a Fats Domino tribute album with a gospel choir. He has an album coming out with Alison Krauss and will probably tour with her to support it. After that, he and the Strange Sensation will have another album of their own to release and to promote. Plus, he must have other things in the pipeline. So many different projects all from one man at age 59; that is commendable. His passion for music is clear.

John Paul Jones, as discussed earlier, is doing a lot of different things, including a little overlap in musical tastes with Robert Plant. Jones has been fine-tuning his acoustic side and playing many stringed instruments with a number of different bands who know who he is and respect that and pay homage to him. To Jones, however, every assembly of music is -- as the name of a touring outfit that involved him a few years ago suggested -- a mutual admiration society. With him, too, a passion for music is obvious.

At this point in their careers, would Plant and Jones ever give that freedom up permanently? No. They enjoy their respective freedoms too much. So, the point I am trying to make here is this: If there is a Led Zeppelin press conference on Wednesday, prepare yourself for the eventuality that it could mean a brief reunion. However, do not kid yourself by thinking it will outlast its expiration time of one single concert. The shelf life of any reunion coming up is very limited. They don't call it "one night only" for nothing!

Led Zeppelin press conference? Sounds fishy

The reunion rumors just get larger and larger.

The latest report is now from Billboard, saying a press conference will be held Wednesday that ought to shed some light on everything.

OK, when was the last time there was ever a Led Zeppelin press conference? Was it 1970 in New York, the clip included on Led Zeppelin DVD as a bonus feature? Does the Drake Hotel robbery aftermath in 1973 with Peter Grant giving the middle finger count?

Anyway, the thought of Led Zeppelin having a press conference is very foreign to me. It's rather unprecedented in the post-Zep era. The suggestion that there will be one sounds a bit fishy to me -- just when everything else was pointing to the reunion rumors being right.

I'll believe it when I see an official word. And if that happens Wednesday, Sept. 12, great. And if not, well, I'll just keep on being joyful that the band was as great as it was during its years of performing, which did begin 39 years ago today lest we forget.

John Paul Jones' busy year

John Paul Jones has had an active year. Having produced the album Waterloo, Tennessee for Uncle Earl, he began the year with several appearances with the group. In London, he appeared on BBC Radio 2's "Bob Harris Country" show alongside Uncle Earl and accompanied them onstage on Jan. 27 at their premiere London performance. Jones and his wife, Mo, allowed them to stay at their home while they were in town. The "g'Earls" were also able to meet all three daughters of Mo and John Paul Jones.

Waterloo, Tennessee was released March 13 while the group was in the middle of a U.S. tour. Jones flew from London to New York to join Uncle Earl onstage on March 14. They caught up again at the end of the following month at the Merlefest bluegrass festival in Wilkesboro, N.C. Throughout the four-day festival held April 26-29, Jones sat in with several acts: Uncle Earl, the Duhks (Video of their "Whole Lotta Love" cover on April 28 can be seen here and here, and audio of the entire set can be purchased here), Donna the Buffalo and the John Cowan Band. Audio of a four-song set he played on April 28 with Uncle Earl's Rayna Gellert can be found online here.

Jones' first billed appearance of the year was in June at the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tenn. There, his name was included as part of the scheduled SuperJam alongside solo star Ben Harper and Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson of the Roots. Jones commented in a videotaped interview a few hours before going onstage for the SuperJam that he had not yet met either performer – much less discussed what material they would play or rehearsed anything. It was truly to be an impromptu jam session. In the meantime, however, Bonnaroo held plenty of other activity for Jones, including two sets on the afternoon of June 15. He sat in with Uncle Earl during their 12:30 p.m. spot and with Gillian Welch during her 3:45 p.m. spot (A 10-minute video can be seen here).
Jones then played Bonnaroo's SuperJam set beginning at midnight. As Uncle Earl explained in a newsletter in July:

Well, the truth is, if we went to festivals like Bonnaroo every weekend, we just might be in danger of trying to be actual rock stars. We saw The Police, and Sting took off his shirt at the end of their set. But even better, we got to see our dear John Paul Jones there in his truly native element, rocking out in a midnight "superjam" with Questlove and Ben Harper. The crowd went wild. John took a full ten minutes to walk across the stage and pick up his bass, and he needed that much time for the applause to chill out enough so the band could play music. It was intense and very humbling. To think we had been playing Cluck Old Hen with the man just hours before!!

A one-minute video capturing the beginning of "Good Times Bad Times" can be seen here, although a much better-sounding clip contains the middle of the song including a fine guitar solo from Harper. Michael Ward joined on bass to allow Jones to play lap steel for "When the Levee Breaks," video of which can be seen here. Ten minutes toward the end of "Dazed and Confused" can be seen here while another source captures it all in parts one and two. Ben Harper was interviewed afterward, commenting that he was "dazed and confused" to find himself playing onstage with Jones.

For good measure, Jones also sat in at Bonnaroo with Gov't Mule the following night for the tail end of a set that ended up heavy on Led Zeppelin numbers. (Videos show their set list as including "Moby Dick" riffs at the end of a drum solo before settling into "Livin' Lovin' Maid (She's Just a Woman)" – which can be seen both here and here – followed by "Since I've Been Loving You" and, finally, "No Quarter" – the beginning of this song is here, and more toward the end is here.)

During the week that overlapped July and August, Jones made no less than three concert appearances with Robyn Hitchcock and his band, which also includes Peter Buck of R.E.M. The first two took place in Italy on Monday, July 30 (footage of this show can be seen here and also here), and Wednesday, Aug. 1. The third was at the Down on the Farm festival in Halden, Norway, where – in addition to the Campfire Stage set with Robyn Hitchcock – Jones also played a set on the Main Stage with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.

This busy year of jamming continues next week as Jones is set to perform again with Robyn Hitchcock on Sept. 14 at the End of the Road festival in Dorset, England.