The music on this Compact Disc was originally recorded on analog equipment. We have attempted to preserve, as closely as possible, the sound of the original recording. Because of its high resolution, however, the Compact Disc can reveal limitations of the source tape.
Yeah, my arse. Most CDs had this note on the back in the 1980s. Curiously the labels were able subsequently to remaster the recordings, overcome the limitations and emulate the the originals rather better. I can't believe any vinyl copy of this album ever sounded as crap as this CD. Was it miserable copies like this that first drove Jimmy Page to start remastering the old stuff?
Never a big Zep fan, this was for a long time the only album I had of theirs (after I sold on my vinyl copy of The Song Remains the Same at school). Immigrant Song sounds absolutely fantastic in School of Rock, but, sadly, here it sounds hissy, thin and emasculated. I really love Gallows Pole too. Robert Plant did it as part of the encore when we saw him at Somerset House this time last year. But the version on Odetta at the Gate of Horn is vastly preferable to this one.
What's really shocking is that we put up with this stuff at the time without a murmur. Well, I did.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
|
After reading this entry, it's clear why to me why you wouldn't be a big Led Zeppelin fan. "The Song Remains the Same", would turn anyone. In my Zeppelin collection, that is the one album I don't have.
Posted by: Fred Stagg | 23 January 2011 at 07:28 PM