At last we come to the ubiquitous boxed set. It used to be this
\nwas the last wave goodbye of bands long past their “use by” date.
\nNow it seems like every artist has one, even bands that probably
\ndon’t warrant it. They dump them on an unsuspecting public in
\nvarious guises — some are just bigger and more expensive “best of”
\ncollections and some are true treasure troves of alternate takes,
\nlive versions, b-sides and other unreleased material.<\/p>\n
In the case of Led Zeppelin, they released two box sets,
\ncleverly titled
\nBox Set Vol. 1<\/i> and
\nBox Set Vol. 2<\/i>. I guess that’s fitting for a band that only
\nused numbers for their first four albums, and the fourth one didn’t
\neven get an official number, just some weird runes. Sorry, I
\ndigress\u2026<\/p>\n
In the Rusk household, as we sit around the fire passing on the
\nancient wisdom of Rock & Roll, we teach the children that a
\ngood box set should serve one of two purposes:<\/p>\n
1. Compile an essential collection that offers the listener a
\nconcise snapshot of highlights of the artist’s career or, 2. Offer
\nhard to find material, or material not previously available
\nelsewhere<\/p>\n
\nVol. 1<\/i> does an excellent job of the first point. This
\ncompilation is a great collection of indeed, the best of Zep’s
\ncatalog. It includes their biggest hits like “Stairway To Heaven,”
\n“Black Dog,” “Whole Lotta Love,” and “Kashmir,” along with some
\ntrue gems that don’t get quite the exposure they deserve, songs
\nlike “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You,” “Ramble On” and “Over the Hills
\nand Far Away.” Mixed in no discernible order across four discs,
\nthis set would serve well for someone who wants a fairly
\ncomprehensive collection of Zep’s best work without buying their
\nentire catalog. Almost without exception, the songs selected (Jimmy
\nPage chose the tracks personally) truly are the best to be found on
\ntheir nine studio albums.<\/p>\n
As for my second point noted above, there isn’t a lot here that
\ndoesn’t appear elsewhere, but it does include the classic rock
\nradio staple “Hey Hey What Can I Do” for the first time on any
\nalbum, and a very nice live version of the instrumental “White
\nSummer\/Black Mountain Side.”<\/p>\n
On to
\nVol. 2<\/i>. This is a sort of collection of leftovers, most of
\nwhich is decidedly non-essential with some big exceptions. It
\nincludes a couple of stellar tracks like “The Rover,” “Out On The
\nTiles,” “Bring It On Home” and “Living Loving Maid (She’s Just A
\nWoman).” These songs should be on
\nVol. 1<\/i>, preferably replacing mediocre fodder like “Candy
\nStore Rock.” When set alongside
\nVol.1<\/i>, the band’s entire studio catalog is represented. In
\nthe end it is unnecessary to buy both of these; you’d be better off
\njust buying the entire catalog instead. However, if you want a
\nhealthy dose of Led Zeppelin to beef up your collection,
\nVol.1<\/i> fits the bill perfectly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":27149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5700],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-38495","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-led-zeppelin","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38495"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38495"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}