Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page on the story behind the Led Zeppelin Remasters.
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:11 Hello there, this is Jimmy Page, and you're
00:12 watching Classic Rock.
00:14 Well, it's interesting that you said, is there an archive
00:20 that's carefully annotated?
00:22 That's exactly how it started out.
00:24 I started annotating my own archive, listing everything
00:29 that went back to the very earliest--
00:31 it was all analog tape that I was doing.
00:34 And it went back to the early little 3 and 1/4 inch reels
00:39 that were done at home when I did my parents.
00:41 And it goes to a 5 inch reel, and hit home demos.
00:46 And I was going all the way through,
00:47 and it got through all the material that I had.
00:51 I was logging it, and collating it, and making notes,
00:53 all through the yard birds.
00:55 And then, of course, it gets to Led Zeppelin.
00:57 And I'd started to do some of that.
01:01 But I must say that I'd had an idea that
01:06 was along the lines of the project
01:09 that we were all now familiar with, the re-releases.
01:11 But somehow, these sort of gems that were sitting around
01:17 could come out.
01:18 I had another plan, but this was far more ambitious, and much
01:23 lengthier, and far more relevant, I think,
01:25 to the whole picture of what was needed
01:29 to be presented, an audible picture of what
01:33 went on in the studio.
01:35 When it comes to the Led Zeppelin aspect of it,
01:38 it was hundreds of hours, literally hundreds of hours,
01:41 of listening to tape.
01:43 Because you've got to listen to it in real time.
01:45 And then, say you've selected a title,
01:47 and you're going and listening to everything
01:49 you've got around that title.
01:51 And there's copious notes being made.
01:53 And it's a lengthy project.
01:56 But I knew it was worthwhile.
01:58 Yeah, I had a good idea of the sunset sound mixes,
02:05 things like that, alternate version of "When the Levee
02:08 Breaks," et cetera, different versions of "In the Light."
02:12 I knew there was a wonderful version on the Led Zeppelin
02:15 3.
02:16 Or what I had was an early version of "Since I've
02:21 Been Loving You," the track of "A Whole Lot of Love."
02:25 I mean, they're just total gems.
02:27 So to actually be able to put them out in context
02:32 with the release of the studio albums is great.
02:36 It's a good way to do it.
02:37 There was one surprise that came up,
02:46 because I thought we might have a gap.
02:50 And it would be a bit of a nail-biting gap for presence.
02:56 And I thought there'd been something that had been mixed
03:01 down at the time, rough mixes, and some songs that
03:05 didn't make it on presence.
03:08 And I was relieved to find it.
03:10 It actually wasn't labeled, the box.
03:12 I had to go through all manner of things,
03:14 whatever was on tape.
03:17 I had to listen to it if it didn't have a problem.
03:19 But even if it did, I had to check it was in the right box.
03:22 Anyway, the material for presence turned up.
03:25 So that was like a breathing a sigh of relief
03:28 and wiping the forehead.
03:30 It was like, oh, thank you, God.
03:32 Because without the material for presence,
03:36 it would have been tricky, as was the first album.
03:40 We had to use a live performance,
03:44 because there just wasn't the material left over
03:47 to make up a companion disc.
03:49 But now there was for everything, so it was cool.
03:51 I'd always intended to make Physical Graffiti's
03:57 companion disc a single disc, because the pure nature of why
04:03 the studio album of Physical Graffiti
04:05 was a double disc, or two vinyls, or whatever,
04:10 was a simple reason that that's what it was.
04:13 And this is what it is, as far as a companion disc.
04:17 There was no point in trying to just put things on there,
04:20 because it was too close to something that was already
04:25 on there, 10 years gone.
04:27 There was no point.
04:28 Sometimes there just wasn't another version
04:30 to actually pull out.
04:32 So with whatever there was, I made the best compilation
04:36 I felt, showing the band really at work and at play,
04:41 and these sort of passionate performances
04:43 from each of the individuals and collectively.
04:46 And it's cool.
04:47 [MUSIC - PHYSICAL GRAFFITI, "BREAKING DOWN"]
04:51 [MUSIC - PHYSICAL GRAFFITI, "BREAKING DOWN"]
04:55 [MUSIC - PHYSICAL GRAFFITI, "BREAKING DOWN"]
04:59 [MUSIC - PHYSICAL GRAFFITI, "BREAKING DOWN"]
05:02 you