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Customer Reviews of How The West Was Won

Certainly not "the best live album ever"
This bloated collection of especially pompous versions of inherently pompous songs is definitely not the apex of live rock music. It is certainly exciting and thunderous, but any live album that includes an absolutely pointless 20-minute drum solo ("Moby Dick"--wow, listen to all that monotonous drum pounding...obviously, all the Zep fans who are impressed by this song have never listened to drummers such as Bill Bruford or Michael Giles, who were so much better than Bonham), a second-rate hippie ballad ("Going to California"--wonder if Robert Plant dressed up like a poor man's John Phillips to record this one?), and a rather anemic rendition of "Stairway to Heaven" is not the best ever. All the reviewers here who brashly proclaim that anyone who doesn't adore Zep's musical ability should either: 1)die or 2) go listen to Duran Duran (which in many ways is not even an insult) are myopic to the point of hilarity. There are so many bands, both past and present, who are more talented than Led Zeppelin (and it doesn't take much...all you have to do is write original songs), but somehow they get shafted in favor of this self-indulgent foursome. I will concede that all of Zep's members (perhaps with the exception of Robert Plant) had considerable chops--yet this virtuosity serves only to dress up monotonous blues jams (none of which can touch, say, the Allmans' concert at Fillmore East...none of the guitar here is on the untouchable level of Duane's slide playing). This is not a terrible album--but its numerous uninspiring moments certainly deny it the title of "the best live album ever."

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Live In California Warts And All!
Fans of Led Zeppelin for years have been asking for live material to be released from the vaults. Other than bootlegs, the only previous live material released was the soundtrack from "The Song Remains The Same" movie which was somewhat disappointing and the "BBC Sessions" which contains mostly earlier material. "How The West Was Won" is a 3 cd set that contains material from concerts at Los Angeles and Long Beach in 1972. The masterial included is from their first 5 albums. The disks sound ok considering the tapes are over 30 years old but are somewhat muddy in places. John Paul Jones bass could have been mixed a little more prominently. Jones versatility proves a drawback in the live setting as he can not play the bass and keyboards at the same time. The dual role is alleviated in the studio by the use of overdubbing. Interestingly the songs that sound the clearest are the three song acoustic set at the end of disk one. "Going To California" (ironic?) and "That's The Way" never sounded better. Other highlights include moving versions of "Stairway To Heaven" and "Since I've Been Loving You". I was glad lesser known favorites like "Over The Hills And Far Away", "Bring It On Home" and "The Ocean" were included. The rock and roll/blues medley in "Whole Lotta Love" is an interesting look at the band's influences.

There are a few drawbacks. It sounds as if Jimmy Page is having tuning problems during "Black Dog" and with the exception of "What Is And What Should Never Be" disk two is a disappointment. "Dazed And Confused" spends a lot of time going nowhere. The interpolation of "Walter's Walk" was the most interesting part. These guys weren't as adept at jamming as Cream, the Allman Brothers Band, the Grateful Dead, King Crimson or Quicksilver Messenger Service". While in no way a knock on Jimmy Page he tends to play his solos note for note like they are on the album with little room for improvisations. Some people may like this but I favor a little more improvisation to keep the songs sounding fresh otherwise you might as well listen to the album version at home. John Bonham while one the great rock drummers as evidenced on this set does not hold my interest for 20 minutes of "Moby Dick". While most bands from this era features long drum solos this loses my interest after about five minutes. In addition each disk is less than an hour. It would be great to hear more inspired versions of "Celebration Day", "No Quarter" and "Rain Song" than the ones included on the "Song Remains The Same" soundtrack. I had hoped they would include more later period material from the post "Houses Of The Holy" albums like on the DVD. Maybe they will release another live set with material from this later period. All in all, a worthy purchase for fans and a better representation of their live sound but by no means perfect.

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"The Best Live Recording"
This is Led Zeppelin's Long Beach/LA performences at describes Jimmy Page their peek of their career doing their best. You hear a variety of songs that everyone just loves. I like hearing Dancing Days, and The Ocean live as well as the twenty minute Dazed And Confused. This is the best live recording out their. This has been bootlegged for so many years being a crappy recording until this three disc set came out this crappy recording turned out to be a masterpiece. This is the best live recording Led Zeppelin had...... worth 100 stars.