Latest Led Zeppelin repackaging unnecessary for most fans

The Mothership is coming! But who cares?

There has long been a trend among corporate giants to release countless duplicative compilations of musical artists' best work. Be it the result of capitalism or something else, it happens a lot. I don't particularly understand the market. Why would there be a demand for another rehashing of the same material that's previously available? If they're selling, that's fine.

Whether or not to buy a newly released Led Zeppelin compilation was for many years something consumers never had to contemplate. But now, the band's creative handiwork will soon re-enter stores with the new name of Mothership. It is described in a promotional statement as "a 24-track, two-CD comprehensive collection that spans their illustrious career." However, this aim has already been achieved -- not once but twice in Led Zeppelin's past. As a result, fans must examine this third two-CD collection of essential material and judge for themselves whether the new release itself ought to become an indispensable addition to their collection.

The Original Compilations (1990–1998)

Two-thirds of the band's studio output easily fit onto four compact discs when first attempted in 1990 on a box set simply titled Led Zeppelin. Each of the four discs loosely concentrated on a general time period in the group's studio output, although strict adherence to that rule was abandoned in favor of a flow between songs. Jimmy Page said the running order presented the old picture in a new frame and was something fans would come to appreciate.

Another strong point of this original repackaging was that the selected tracks were drawn not only from the original eight studio albums but also the only posthumous release out by that time, Coda. The image of a mesmerizing and mysterious crop circle emblazoned the LP-sized cover. Also, its liner notes incorporated a history of the band including the accounts of journalists who supported the group throughout its career. All in all, the four-CD Led Zeppelin was for many reasons the most vital assortment of the group's studio work released to date.

Quickly following its release was Remasters, the first two-disc examination of the band's most essential studio work. Its 26 songs drew mainly from the same pool of songs as was included on the four-CD set, with the notable exception that Remasters altogether ignored that posthumous release, Coda.

The supplement to the original Led Zeppelin box set was released in 1993 with the name Box Set 2. Contained in a small package with art based on the same crop circles concept, it was comprised exclusively of only those studio tracks that were excluded from the four-CD box. Some people have chosen to nickname this tiny collection "the rest of the best," which presupposes that Led Zeppelin's entire catalog is all "the best."

If that is the case, then the definitive collection of the group's studio output can be only Complete Studio Recordings, the exhaustive 10-CD box set also issued in 1993. It contained all nine studio albums, including Coda, in their entirety with their original running orders intact. The set's Coda disc was also expanded to include the few tracks that had been previously unavailable on CD prior to the box sets. Even with its high pricetag, Complete Studio Recordings was a critical grab for many ardent Led Zeppelin fans.

For nearly the rest of the decade, these four collections were the only sets consumers had to mull over purchasing. Of them, the only one that attempted to package only two discs' worth of the very most fundamental work was Remasters.

This period also saw the release of the two-CD BBC Sessions. None of the material on this set has been reissued since.

A Presence in the 21st Century (1999–2006)

In 1999, Led Zeppelin released the first half of a two-volume set of CDs officially released as a best-of compilation. This first installation was called Early Days: The Best of Led Zeppelin Volume One, and its follow-up the following year was Latter Days: The Best of Led Zeppelin Volume Two. These presented a near-identical repeat of the tracks found on Remasters (more on this later), although the sets took advantage of new technology available when they arrived in 1999 and 2000, respectively. Each included enhanced content that paired previously unseen live footage of the group performing a Led Zeppelin song with the audio of its standard studio rendition.

The familiar track listing was not the only point of contention among fans. Many viewed the cover art of each as abominable. They feature the band members sporting astronaut uniforms. However, the booklets accompanying Early Days and Latter Days were showered with newly prepared liner notes as well as rare and previously unseen photographs. All things considered, the strong points of these releases made them palatable overall, and the powers that be were excused for releasing sets that were practically carbon copies of the two CDs in Remasters.

The Early Days and Latter Days sets were combined in 2002 as a single two-CD purchase, making them more attractive as one-stop shopping for casual fans.

Likewise, Remasters was repackaged in 2003 to fit into a standard-size CD jewel case, thus making it an even more attractive purchase than it already had been.

This period also saw the releases of Led Zeppelin's DVD and the three-CD live release How the West Was Won, both in 2003.

Mothership: Not Much of a New Frame

Only a few years after these commercial releases, the band is already at it again. This November, Led Zeppelin will saturate the market with a third two-disc set repetitively containing virtually the same predictable track listing. Mothership will boast of new liner notes from rock music journalist David Fricke, but that is about all its standard release has to offer that is both new and positive. For example, its new cover art is a downright deplorable cartoon rendition of a blimp (or is it a spaceship?) with two-dimensional lettering. As far as capturing the mystique of the group as did the crop circles, this putrid image misses the boat entirely. (This eyesore of an album cover is included on this page for educational purposes only and not because it brings beauty to the words.)

Only the collectors' editions seem especially appealing as they are said to contain shirts and reproductions of rare memorabilia. In addition, a limited collectors' edition of Mothership will incorporate a single-DVD summary of the same footage used on Led Zeppelin's 2003 DVD. However, these expensive limited editions are not intended for the same type of widespread consumption as the attractively repackaged Early Days & Latter Days: The Best of Led Zeppelin Volumes One and Two and Remasters. The cost associated with the memorabilia-enhanced limited editions of Mothership will surely keep casual fans away.

The Song Remains Repetitive: Find the Differences

Taken for the music only, each of the three similar two-disc collections -- Remasters, Early Days & Latter Days, and Mothership -- sorts the band's studio output into one of two categories: release dates that are pre-1972 and post-1972, or material from the first four and the last four studio albums. The overlap between Remasters and Early Days & Latter Days, between it and Mothership, and in fact between Remasters and Mothership, is significant.

Overall, Remasters contained the largest selection of Led Zeppelin's material. No less than 15 tracks culled from the first four albums appeared on its first disc, whereas both Early Days and Mothership have just 13 each. The treatment of the group's final four studio albums was the lightest on Latter Days, with only 10 audio tracks compared to the 11 on both Remasters and Mothership.

These sheer numbers do not convey the actual duplicity as much as does a thorough rundown of the precise song selections. Nineteen standouts from the band's catalog have remained constant top choices throughout each reappraisal of the material. Yes, that's correct: Remasters, Early Days & Latter Days and Mothership all have 19 tracks in common! That means 82.6 percent of the last two compilations match each other and Remasters! For instance, "Stairway to Heaven" has always ended the collections spanning the band's pre-1972 output, and "The Song Remains the Same" has kicked off every post-1972 disc. There's little variation anywhere except when it comes to the treatment of Led Zeppelin's fifth album, the 1973 Houses of the Holy.

The only selections from the debut Led Zeppelin album to make any of these collections are "Good Times Bad Times," "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You," "Dazed and Confused" and "Communication Breakdown," and the same four have appeared on all three collections. They were presented in a different order each time, and Early Days was the only one to present them in the same sequence as on Led Zeppelin's debut.

"Whole Lotta Love" is the only Led Zeppelin II track to have been included on all three, coincidentally the fifth track of each. "Heartbreaker" and "Ramble On" were chosen for both Remasters and Mothership, whereas Early Days preferred only one track from Led Zeppelin II -- "What Is and What Should Never Be," which was seen on neither of the other two collections.

From Led Zeppelin III, the two most recent collections have embraced only "Immigrant Song" and "Since I've Been Loving You." Remasters opted to sandwich another Led Zeppelin III track between those two, "Celebration Day."

Five songs from the band's untitled fourth album were selected to close out the running order on the first disc of Remasters. Of these, the triumvirate of "Black Dog," "Rock and Roll" and "Stairway to Heaven" has made it to the all three collections. "The Battle of Evermore" made the transition from Remasters to Early Days but not to Mothership. "Misty Mountain Hop" was dropped from both two-CD collections following Remasters, exchanged instead for "When the Levee Breaks."

The post-1972 discs vary less, mostly because the band seems to have agreed over the years that only two songs from each of its last two albums are worthwhile inclusions. These are "Nobody's Fault but Mine" and "Achilles Last Stand" from Presence, and "All My Love" and "In the Evening" from In Through the Out Door. Likewise, only three songs from the double album Physical Graffiti showed up on all three compilations: "Houses of the Holy," "Kashmir" and "Trampled Underfoot." Another Physical Graffiti track, "Ten Years Gone," was chosen for Latter Days, but the album's remaining 11 songs were not chosen for any of the three compilations.

As previously stated, the album whose representation varies the most, by a hair, on these sets is Houses of the Holy. In addition to the ever-present "The Song Remains the Same" at track one, "No Quarter" has made the final cut for all three releases. Whereas this pair of Houses of the Holy songs was deemed a sufficient showing for Latter Days, the band also selected "D'yer Mak'er" as track three on both Remasters and Mothership. Wildcard songs from this album were additionally included on those two collections: "The Rain Song" on Remasters and "Over the Hills and Far Away" on Mothership.

Early Days and Latter Days were the only of these compilations' standard editions to contain live footage of the group, albeit mimed to the studio releases. (Sticklers point out that while the visuals of "Kashmir" being performed at Earl's Court in 1975 is synched to the audio from the studio version, the audio does not fade out as it does on the studio version; that is because the ending from the live performance was introduced seamlessly into the audio.)

Conclusion

What's the point in reissuing the same music over and over again with little exclusive goodies to offer? Tell you what: You write the conclusion! Let's get this comments section buzzing! Go ahead and take the devil's advocate and defend this Mothership release as vital to any music collection. If you can explain how it presents anything new, then you are a great persuader.

Raising Sand musician Mike Seeger cherishes traditional sounds

Bob Dylan's is one of those names many musicians drop when asked to identify their largest influences. But dig deeper and ask Bob Dylan who influenced him, and you're likely to hear a name like Mike Seeger's.

Now aged 74 and still very much active, this authority on most string instruments has had a very important musical career dating back to the 1940s. An inspiring band of Seeger's, called the New Lost City Ramblers, is currently celebrating its 50th year of existence. The lesser known younger brother of folk singer Pete Seeger, he continues to perform regularly in live settings and often lends his creative hand to compilations of previously undiscovered folk music. His solo albums -- including one released earlier this year and another on the way shortly -- reflect his deep fascination with ranges of traditional styles whose diverse origins span the globe.

Mike Seeger is also one of a select few who joined Robert Plant and Alison Krauss in Nashville last year when they were recording the album that will be released next month as Raising Sand. When Seeger received my request for an interview, he wasn't quite sure why I would want to ask him about his involvement with the album. After all, he reasoned, his contribution was very minor -- limited to playing music on only one song. Besides that, unlike me, he hadn't heard the finished product yet.

To top it all off, he said he couldn't offer much insight as to the profoundness of the alliance of the former Led Zeppelin front man with the bluegrass vixen. Seeger sounded apologetic on the phone today when he confessed:

"I don't know if I should really make my ignorance known, but I didn't know who Robert Plant was. I've heard of Led Zeppelin, but I'm so engrossed in traditional music including bluegrass and country-western that I don't know other kinds of music much."

While he might not be able to distinguish Plant from, say, Ian Anderson or David Coverdale, much less Ric Ocasek, Seeger says he was familiar enough with some of the other personnel on the Plant/Krauss project to agree to contribute to it when asked. Basically, he took their word for it. "I did know Alison Krauss," he offered. "Alison is a wonderful singer and fiddler and bandleader … and on the strength of her music, and with T Bone [Burnett] producing it, I thought I could help some."

The project gave Seeger opportunities to partner again with Norman Blake, a traditional guitarist and Dobro player he admires, and percussionist Jay Bellerose. Seeger said he was most familiar with those musicians, although he did also recall having worked with Burnett and upright bassist Dennis Crouch in recording an album for dear friend Ralph Stanley, released last May.

Seeger's sole contribution to Raising Sand is on its closing track, "Your Long Journey." With its lyrics about the imminent passing of a loved one, it is credited to the husband-and-wife duo of Doc and Rosa Lee Watson, who originally recorded it for the 1963 LP Doc Watson & Family (available on CD since 1993 as The Watson Family).

Seeger, who played a prominent autoharp on the new version for Plant and Krauss, proclaimed the track to be "one of the most beautiful songs in the genre." Asked why he might have been selected to contribute to the album, Seeger speculated, "Well, I think it was that I play a fairly traditional-sounding autoharp style, and it fits with the older songs."

He deserves credit for being awfully open-minded. "I'm interested in a lot of sounds," said Seeger. He was raised on a steady regimen of recordings his parents often carried back from trips to the Library Congress. "I was reared on those field recordings and my parents' singing to us and my brother's music." (Mike Seeger was still in his teens when his brother Pete formed his first band.)

As far as not being versed at all in Led Zeppelin's music, it's forgivable in Seeger's case. He does seem interested, though. After learning where his preferences lie, I laid out for him the bit of Led Zeppelin history that was most relevant to him: John Paul Jones, on his recorded cover of "Down to the River to Play" available on his 2002 album The Thunderthief, employs an electronic technology called Kyma to layer musical lines played on the tripleneck mandolin; it is also a process that can be duplicated live. Seeger said he would be very interested to hear that and asked me to send him a copy. On that note, I plan to oblige.

Remembering Bonzo

Twenty-seven years ago today, the members of Led Zeppelin were staying at Jimmy Page's house after an upbeat rehearsal in the area the previous day. They had been in good spirits and, in between bouts of laughter, even began working up a live rendition of "Carouselambra" -- the longest track from their most recent album and perhaps the most intricately complicated song the group had ever considered. It had been two months since they had last played a concert, and they were preparing to take on the rest of the world. Advertising for their North American tour campaign was already underway with a slogan, "Led Zeppelin: The Eighties, Part One." Tentative plans for the following year included return trips to distant places like Japan and new destinations in South America.

That all changed when one of them didn't wake up. It was jarring when John "Bonzo" Bonham, a fun-loving 32-year-old family man, was found dead. He had been drinking large quantities of vodka all day and, in his sleep, choked on his vomit.

He was loved dearly by his friends, family and neighbors. Robert Plant said in 2003, "Well, it's tough because he and I came from the same area. I still live there. [His wife] Pat still lives there. [His son] Jason still lives there. Everybody's around, and it's a bit like waiting for Ulysses to come home."

On the 25th anniversary of Bonham's death, Pat wrote a message for her dear husband in a guest book at his grave. According to an article by Mike Nolan of the Worcester News, her note reads: "I miss you more each day my love will never die. Your loving wife Pat."

It's a great tribute to him that one of his children, Jason Bonham, will fill in for him on drums at the upcoming Led Zeppelin reunion concert. Jason learned from the best.

Fats Domino tribute released with two Robert Plant tracks

On a new two-CD collection produced both as a tribute to 79-year-old singer/songwriter Fats Domino and also to benefit the music culture in New Orleans, Robert Plant lends his vocals to two cover songs.

Domino, a New Orleans native who lost his home to Hurricane Katrina two years ago, has been recording since the late 1940s. He earned his first pop hit in the United States and England in 1955 with "Ain't That a Shame." John Lennon's cover version of the song, originally released 20 years later, now exists as the appropriate choice to open the tribute album released tomorrow in the United States.

As for Plant's involvement in the project, New York Times reporter Nate Chinen tells the story in an article published on Saturday: Plant had first agreed to contribute only one song for the compilation, a version of Domino's 1961 single "It Keeps Rainin'." However, one was not enough; he chose to record another, engaging in an impromptu recording session with a large vocal ensemble dropping in from another continent.

In April recording sessions attended in person by Domino, Plant committed both songs to tape during a three-day visit to New Orleans. For "It Keeps Rainin'," he was assisted by the Cajun sounds of the accordion-wielding Lil' Band O' Gold, a swamp-pop group from the southern Louisiana town of Lafayette. Plant and the band laid down their rendition on Thursday, April 19, according to Scott Jordan in a blurb for Lafayette's Independent Weekly and Keith Spera in a blog entry for The Times-Picayune.

Spera adds that following the recording session, Plant stopped by three New Orleans concert venues to take in some live performances. One of the acts he watched was Lil' Band O' Gold member Steve Riley's other band, the Mamou Playboys, performing at the Mid-City Lanes Rock 'n Bowl. Plant also listened to local mainstays The Trio at the Maple Leaf.

At Tipitina's, the top-billed act was not an area group but the 26-member Soweto Gospel Choir from South Africa. During their stay, they were ushered into a recording studio with Plant to record an impromptu cover of "Valley of Tears." In the original version, released 1957, Fats Domino was assisted by a pop choir and saxophone solo. However, the only musical accompaniment in the new recording of that song comes from some light percussion. Plant provides two verses of restrained vocals in this track, which stretches just barely over two minutes in length.

While it might be construed as an atypical combination of forces to outsiders, at least one person familiar with the New Orleans music scene was quoted in the New York Times piece as declaring Plant's recording session with the Soweto Gospel Choir was commonplace. “So you have the Led Zeppelin guy with a South African gospel choir doing a Fats Domino song,” said Bill Taylor, executive director of the Tipitina's Foundation and executive producer of the double album. “It’s an example of what happens here musically every day.”

Plant and Domino met again in the afternoon on Saturday, April 21, before the British singer joined the Lil' Band of Gold onstage for a half hour at Tipitina's. They were reported to have played both "It Keeps Rainin'" and "Valley of Tears," in addition to a few Elvis Presley songs, the blues song "Hoochie Coochie Man" made famous by Muddy Waters, and snippets of Led Zeppelin songs.

Led Zeppelin fans may best know Domino as the author of the song "Blueberry Hill," famous for a performance as an encore at a single Zep show 37 years ago this month. An unsanctioned recording of the concert by an audience member was released in the 1970s without authorization of the band, making it one of the very earliest bootlegs of a rock concert ever produced.

The double album, Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino, is to be released Sept. 25 by Vanguard Records. It is not the first musical release for which proceeds benefit the Tipitina's Foundation. It is preceded by Domino's independently released 2006 album, Alive and Kickin'.

Thumb-twiddling Led Zeppelin fans do the limbo and wait for possible notification

There's a lottery going on. More than a million entered. Upwards of 18,000 will win.

This makes for the odds of winning a little better than in most lotteries.

But it's a little unnerving to consider that winners will simply be notified somehow of their win, rather than being provided a method that would allow them to verify independently that they have won. Because in this lottery, it's not like you can check your numbers against some published winning numbers. It's not a raffle.

I'm speaking, of course, about the drawing for tickets at the upcoming Led Zeppelin reunion concert. Registration closed at noon today in London time, and an announcement now places the number of successful registrants in the past week at over 1 million.

Of these registrants, 982,000 will not hear anything official about the show at all. The others, that vast minority, will hear from a third-party vendor by e-mail between today and the end of the month.

For one thing, it would be nice to know exactly what to be watching for. Will I be able to recognize it if I see it? From what e-mail address will this be sent? What will the subject line say?

Like many Internet users, I have a spam filter in my e-mail account that sends anything suspicious to a folder where I can retrieve it. I check this folder quite often, usually sentencing all of its contents to Internet oblivion.

It is quite a scary thought to realize that I might accidentally blow my one and only chance ever to see Led Zeppelin in concert during my lifetime by glossing over it when I delete bulk collections of offers for Rolex watches and cheap medication.

Also, I'd really like to know the name of the third-party vendor that will be contacting fans. What is the process I will be instructed to complete? Will I be told to visit a certain Web site to purchase my tickets, and if so, what is it?

The reason this is important is fraud. My e-mail address is out there already, and plenty of people would correctly assume I've registered my name and e-mail address in this lottery. So, if I receive an offer telling me to go to some Web site and enter my credit card information to buy the tickets, how would I be assured that the e-mail I'm receiving is legitimate? Might it really be somebody who's just trying to rip me off?

Not only is it time for more than a million Led Zeppelin fans to twiddle their thumbs. It's also time for the organizers to get serious about this reunion. Give us a hint as to what to expect so that we can be assured we've been notified of our win.

In the event that further instructions aren't publicized ahead of time, I beseech you fans to let me know -- by e-mail at ledzeppelinhistory-owner [at] yahoogroups [dot] com -- what kinds of instructions you're receiving over the remaining 11 days of this month. Please describe your notification e-mails in great detail or, if you don't mind, forward the actual correspondence. Anything received here, unless marked confidential, will be shared with the rest of the world.

Uncle Earl, John Paul Jones protegees, enthusiastic in Virginia

Uncle Earl put on a great performance Sunday at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Va., a place they proclaimed as one of their favorite venues in the country. It's a place they attested they wouldn't miss their show, no matter how much trouble they had getting there, as they hilariously described for the audience between songs.

The all-female string band's set list was comprised of songs from the members' side projects and their two collaborative albums, the second of which was produced by John Paul Jones and also includes the Led Zeppelin musician on mandola, bass, piano, Papoose, wobbleboard, and a fair amount of background hollering.

What's really wonderful about this band is their versatility. Each g'Earl is proficient at her instruments -- Rayna Gellert on fiddle, Abigail Washburn on banjo, Kristin Andreassen on guitar, fiddle, harmonica, banjo and ukulele, and KC Groves on mandolin, guitar and mandola -- and each can sing. They trade off lead vocals from song to song, and their other individual talents, including Kristin's dancing and Abigail's keen sense of fashion, are all highlighted eventually. Onstage, they obviously displayed the same "enthusiasm, willingness and fine musicianship" to which Jones alludes in the liner notes to their March release, Waterloo, Tennessee.

At the Birchmere, Uncle Earl was joined onstage by the six-member King Wilkie, which Kristin proclaimed to be the object of her affection. Both groups are signed to Rounder Records. Several members made cameo appearances throughout Uncle Earl's set, and touring addition Laura Cortese played upright bass throughout it all.

One unexpected treat was a cover of the Police's "Canary in a Coalmine" in a nifty arrangement that could have been made by Rolf Harris. Another standout number can be found on Kristin's solo effort, Kiss Me Hello: "Crayola Doesn't Make a Color for Your Eyes." It's a children's song she cowrote and for which she won a songwriting contest earlier in the year. Immediately at the chorus, many audience members let out a noise that signalled either they had just recognized the song ("ahhhhh") or they thought its lyrics and harmonies were absolutely charming and angelic ("awwwww"). The song also benefited from Kristin's playful pattycake with Rayna, four-part harmony from the g'Earls, and a toy piano solo from King Wilkie's Reid Burgess. Uncle Earl's set concluded with an ensemble jam on the g'Earls' arrangement of the traditional "Black-eyed Susie."

After the show, I asked the gorgeous Rayna whether her group has taken a cue from Jones and enlisted Andy Manson in England to make them any acoustic stringed instruments. Rolling her eyes, she said, "I wish!" His equipment is a little pricey for the group, she suggested. One of Jones's instruments, a mandocello, is so large that she calls it the "water buffalo," she said, and it makes her jealous.

Then she really made me jealous. Kristin and Rayna said they have one more show in the United States this road trip and that Uncle Earl will be touring England this November. Their tour dates will end in time for the Led Zeppelin reunion concert in London on the 26th. Any plans to attend? First, Kristin stroked her chin and teased, "We'll see." Separately, Rayna's answer, however, was more direct. Maybe she doesn't have a water buffalo she can call her own, but she confirmed that indeed all of her band would be special guests of John Paul Jones at the Led Zeppelin show. Now who's jealous?

November reunion, outlasting previous ones six times over, needs to be preserved

It appears some real advance planning has accompanied the announcement of this upcoming concert performance by the surviving members of Led Zeppelin, scheduled to take place two months into the future.

When I speak of advance planning, certainly I am not referring to the lack of foresight that meant the announcement of a ticket registration process was uprooted by excessive demand within minutes. (After all, who could have predicted so many people would want to go to a little Led Zeppelin show in 2007? What does the proverb say absence does? Hmmmm.)

The advance planning that is becoming clearer has to do with Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham. For one thing, they told event promoter Harvey Goldsmith they were going to play for two hours, instead of the 30 minutes he asked for. There is no doubt in my mind that, unlike before the previous handful of reunion shows, they have been extensively talking over set list ideas and rehearsing material. By all accounts, this won't be another trouncing through 20 minutes' worth of songs with minimal prep time; instead, this is going to be something to do justice to the group.

A revelation in the Exeter Express & Echo lets slip that Led Zeppelin has had a "secret rehearsal venue in London." The article also quotes Hugh Manson, longtime manufacturer of electric basses for John Paul Jones and who is building new gear customized for the November reunion. "It is going to be absolutely fantastic," said Manson. "Rehearsals have been hard work but great fun. I have just finished making one new guitar for the concert and am now working on another, which will be a spare. It is a four-string bass which is extra long - at least that is the best way to describe it."

Manson -- who was my interview subject in the April 28, 2003, edition of "On This Day In Led Zeppelin History" -- proceeds to hint that some songs have already been determined, with rehearsals having dictated new keys and, therefore, new instruments. He tells the Express & Echo, "Some of the songs will be in a lower key than usual and, while you can tune a guitar to accommodate almost any note, the best way is to make an instrument to do the job - and that's what this is. In fact, all the basses used by the band in the concert will be ours."

Some fans have interpreted this quote to mean that Jones will not be the only member on bass. Specifically, they think Jimmy Page might play bass for a song like "When the Levee Breaks," allowing Jones to play the lead on his lap steel guitar as he has done in solo outings and other live ventures throughout this decade.

One as-yet unconfirmed rumor suggests that Page has been readying himself since April to play a live version of "Dazed and Confused," complete with a violin bow solo. He sped through a violin bow solo during a live performance of the song on Feb. 9, 2002 – one of only two times he attempted "Dazed" in the past 10 years. The alleged reading of the song this November might be more like the old days when Page thoughtfully prepared for his moment in the spotlight, center-stage.

In fact, prior to Led Zeppelin's shows at Knebworth in 1979 where Page played a violin bow solo to introduce "Achilles Last Stand," the guitarist jotted down stage notes on how he wanted the laser lights and smoke behind him to function during that moment. Those visual and musical cues for effects to be triggered by crew and by fiberoptic cable attached to his violin bow demonstrate how interested and involved Page has been in defining his own image.

Certainly, he has been the primary gatekeeper when it comes to controlling the group's image, given his direct involvement in the behind-the-scenes work of preserving Led Zeppelin. He has coordinated posthumous releases from 1982's Coda on through this November's reissue of The Song Remains the Same, with remastered CDs and box sets as well as live discs and BBC performances. During the band's existence, he labored at length to have great input in the Led Zeppelin film and several studio albums.

This leads me to another point: the documentation of this seemingly well-planned reunion concert. As of now, no plans have been announced to film this sole representation of live Led Zeppelin in the 21st century. If it comes off as well as is hoped, and indeed especially if this one-off show is all that is being considered, then it would be a horrible shame if the unique spectacle can be viewed only by the 18,000 ticketholders and special guests and is not captured on video.

Think of the possibilities: It could result in a massive television extravaganza. Proceeds from sales of a commercial release could be earmarked to benefit the Ahmet Ertegün Education Fund, the charity sowing the benefits of the concert ticket themselves. All this is achievable just by allowing the event to be shared with the millions of fans all around the world.

This is the subject of an online petition now circulating. If you feel the same way, you are urged to sign the letter. The wonderful and historically unique occasion of Led Zeppelin's November 2007 reunion must somehow make it to the masses, and fans must not sit back quietly while such an oversight takes place. Led Zeppelin is a band for the ages, and this should be a reunion for the ages -- not just for two hours on Nov. 26.

That all being said, it is possible that recording the show could be accomplished even as an afterthought. Those who learn from history know that this is how the last three nights of Led Zeppelin's North American tour of 1973 was filmed and came to be included in both The Song Remains the Same and the 2003 DVD. It's also how the last two nights of a 1999 mini-tour of Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes ended up being recorded and subsequently released via computer downloads and on a live album.

The latter circumstance is detailed on the Web site of Kevin Shirley's Cameman Productions; Shirley was the sound engineer for Led Zeppelin's DVD, and he produced, engineered and mixed Live at the Greek for Page and the Black Crowes. Page, who said their performance at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles was "one of those nights where everything just gelled beautifully -- one of those magical nights, so it was just tremendous," was reminded backstage after the show that Shirley had recorded it. "Yeah, that's right, we did record it," Page is quoted as saying. "Thank goodness."

Some history is meant to be repeated.