For the longest time I successfully resisted the urge to go down the Led Zeppelin live recordings rabbit hole. I picked up the two Blueberry Hill CDs back in the 90s, but otherwise stuck with the official releases. That is until I unexpectedly came across a batch of nice condition live records a while back, at a time when I had a few bucks burning a hole in my pocket, and the next thing I knew I was kind of on the Led Zep live train. I don’t run across these too often here in the US, but in other countries the copyright laws on live recordings are different, and in many cases these are perfectly legal to produce and sell. Which is how I ended up coming home from a recent trip to Italy with a few in my bag.1
Usually the sound quality of these records is garbage. However, The Hard Way To Heaven is quite good. Eight of the nine songs comprising the first three sides were recorded in Cleveland, Ohio on June 24, 1977 (the ninth song of this group, “Hey Hey, What Can I Do” is a studio outtake), and the recording is surprisingly clear and shows good range – no muddy low end, no fried out guitars, no distant vocals. Instead it all comes together beautifully. Yes, there are a few spots where the volume suddenly dips down for a few seconds and the opening part of “Stairway To Heaven” is a bit off, but all in all this is one of the better unofficial Led Zeppelin records I’ve heard.
Side D features three songs (the entire set, actually) recorded at the band’s 1985 Live Aid reunion in Philadelphia, with Phil Collins and Chic’s Tony Thompson taking on the drumming duties, a show Robert Plant described as “horrendous” and “a fucking atrocity”. Things get garbled for a few seconds at the start of “Rock ‘N’ Roll”, but after that the sound cleans up. Is the set any good? I’m not sure it’s as awful as the band thought it was, though given that they barely practiced and felt very ill prepared (Jimmy Page said he was handed a guitar that was out of tune, and Phil Collins indicated he prepped by listening to “Stairway To Heaven” on the flight over from London) I can understand why they’d be disappointed. “Whole Lotta Love” definitely is off – the guitar part sounds like it’s from a different song (though the solo is OK), and whoever is doing backing vocals isn’t doing us any favors. As for “Stairway,” it’s decent – might even be better than the other version from 1977 that’s also on the record. All in all, I’d listen to these Philly songs again.
This one doesn’t seem to come up for sale too often. It’s blocked on Discogs, and Popsike only reports one sale in the last 2.5 years, and that copy went for €80. That being said, it’s definitely one of the better sounding Zep live records, so if that’s what you’re into, it’s worth it.
- Often these live records are referred to as “bootlegs”, and indeed that’s what my friends and I used to call them back in the day when we’d drive across the border to Canada and come home with records. But really a bootleg is an illegally made copy of an existing, legally produced record. For example, someone making copies of Led Zeppelin IV and selling them as originals. What we’re talking about here are more accurately “unofficial” records – usually recorded from live performances and produced without the band or label’s permission. Almost every country prohibits the creation of bootlegs, but in many a person who records a live show can put it out so long as they pay royalties to the rights holders of the music. Now, whether or not that is actually done is a different question… ↩︎