March 10, 2003
New York, NY -- To celebrate the thirty-fifth anniversary of Led Zeppelin's formation, Atlantic Records will release two exhaustive sets of Zeppelin rare live material on May 27th. The two collections -- one triple CD called How the West Was Won and one double DVD called Led Zeppelin DVD -- feature no overlapping material, and promise to render the band's only other official live set, the uninspired The Song Remains the Same, obsolete.
How the West Was Won is culled entirely from two 1972 Zeppelin shows in Southern California: one at the L.A. Forum on June 25th and one at Long Beach Arena two nights later. The set features a twenty-six-minute "Dazed and Confused," a twenty-three-minute "Whole Lotta Love," "Rock and Roll," and "Stairway to Heaven," as well as songs from the then-yet-to-be-released Houses of the Holy.
The DVD features more than five hours of career-spanning footage -- from a 1969 appearance on Danish television to 1979's Knebworth Festival, a year before drummer John Bonham's death. Other gigs documented include a 1970 performance at London's Royal Albert Hall, a 1973 set at Madison Square Garden in New York, and a five-night stand at London's Earls Court in 1975.
Written by AUGUSTIN SEDGEWICK for RollingStone.com News
