Led Zeppelin and Genesis LP Re-Issues from Classic Records

First published in The Absolute Sound. Copyright © 2001 by Absolute Multimedia. Reprinted with permission.

Led Zeppelin (Classic Records SD 8216)
Led Zeppelin II (Classic Records SD8236)
Led Zeppelin III (Classic Records SD 7201)
Untitled (also known as the "Zoso" album) (Classic Records SD 7208)

(Re-issues of the original Atlantic Records LPs with identical catalog numbers)

Genesis: Nursery Cryme (Classic Records CAS 1052)
Genesis: Foxtrot (Classic Records CAS 1058)
Genesis Live (Classic Records CAS 1666)
Genesis: Selling England by the Pound (Classic Records FC 6060)

(Re-issues of the original Famous Charisma Label LPs with identical catalog numbers)

The importance of British rock in the history of rock and roll is well known, and undeniable. Classic Records has recently re-issued a number of seminal albums from two of the UK's best and most important bands ever: Led Zeppelin and Genesis.

Both bands began in the late '60's and were pioneers in their respective genres—hard rock and progressive rock. Led Zeppelin and Genesis both were trailblazing musical innovators who possessed remarkable musical creativity and virtuosity (in the case of Genesis, I'm speaking of the earlier lineups with Peter Gabriel as front man, not the post-Gabriel insipid-top-forty-hits iteration). Both bands have had a lasting, and incalculable, impact on rock music. Though inspiring legions of imitators, no one has ever come close to duplicating them. To this day, I listen to their albums in awe.

The Readers Digest condensed review version: If you're a fan of either band, the Classic Records vinyl re-issues are cause for rejoicing, and you owe it to yourself to hear them.

Classic has done yet another exemplary job with these re-issues, truly labors of love in the literal sense—Classic head honcho Mike Hobson's enthusiasm for this music is boundless. Hobson and I have had many rabid conversations about our admiration for these two bands since we've known each other, and Hobson has dreamed of doing these re-issues for many years. Please don't think I'm a shill or a friend of Mike's who wants to flatter him, or a mesmerized audiophile reviewer issuing Pavlovian praise of anything his company does—these re-issues are uniformly brilliantly done, and improve upon the sonics of the originals, in some respects significantly.

The improved sonics are not surprising, considering Classic used the original two-track analog master tapes as source material for all these re-issues—not the EQ'd production masters used to create many of the original LPs. According to Hobson, all the production masters sound different than the original two-track tapes, many of which sound as "if a blanket were thrown over the speakers." (A truism, but in this case true.)

And, indeed, the single most dramatic differentiating sonic characteristic of the Led Zeppelin and Genesis re-issues is their greatly increased resolution and clarity. Flaws of the original recordings aside—there were many; though good in many respects, they're overall dynamically constricted, tonally uneven, and lacking in spaciousness, transparency and "air." The sonic shortcomings are more or less severe depending on the particular recording; no surprise there considering we're talking about several albums recorded over the course of several years by different people in different studios.

The mastering chain used to create the re-issue LPs is the stuff of audiophile nocturnal fantasies: the original master tapes were played back on mastering engineer Bernie Grundman's Studer A-80 analog two-track tape deck, fitted with a one-Henry-impedance head that matches the Ampex 300 tube tape machine electronics. Judicious, mild application of EQ was used in spots, particularly on the Led Zeppelin releases, where Jimmy Page himself gave guidance (among other advice, he told them to use the recently-issued Led Zeppelin CD boxed set [Swan Song 82526] as a reference; which itself had little EQ used in its production). From there, the signal went to a Haeco stereo tubed cutting amplifier powering a Westrex cutter head mounted on a Scully mastering lathe. The records are pressed from "better than 180-gram" vinyl—averaging around 185 grams or so. The surfaces are so clean I almost couldn't tell if the needle was dropped at the beginning of a record.

There's simply more "there" there, and you can hear subtleties in the original recordings virtually inaudible in the original LPs, from Robert Plant's vocal asides in Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" (Led Zeppelin II) to Phil Collins' whisper-quiet snare drum at the beginning of Genesis' monumental "Watcher of the Skies" (Foxtrot). If the whole raison d'être of this crazy, wonderful audiophile thang we're so hopelessly obsessed with is to get us closer to the original music and original performance, then these re-issues succeed brilliantly.

***

While I don't subscribe to the oft-repeated gospel that Led Zeppelin invented heavy metal—the MC5, Steppenwolf, Ted Nugent's Amboy Dukes, the Stooges and many others were all mining the same musical territory at the time Zeppelin launched—there's no question that they largely defined and solidified the hard rock style.

As legions have noted, Jimmy Page's virtuoso guitar playing went light years beyond anything anyone else, including himself in the Yardbirds and as a session player, had ever done previously in hard rock. His bone-crunching power chords, dazzling and imaginative lead guitar work, astonishingly varied electric and acoustic guitar sounds and styles, and sophisticated production techniques took Led Zeppelin far beyond the stylistic constraints of blues-based rock. Complemented by the unbridled power of John Bonham's drumming, Robert Plant's soaring, incendiary voice and John Paul Jones' surprisingly funky, syncopated bass playing (clearly heard on the Classics, instead of that undifferentiated rumble you're used to not hearing) and tracking on a variety of keyboards and instruments, Led Zeppelin exhibited remarkable musical breadth, from the balls-out, high-energy rocking of songs like "Rock and Roll" and "Communication Breakdown" to the epic splendo of "Stairway to Heaven," the perennial Number One choice of rock radio listeners.

Although they possess that analog sonic "realism" common to even the most poorly recorded all-analog LPs, the first three Led Zeppelin albums are not great recordings—somewhat opaque and dimensionally flat. Yet the Classic re-issues effect dramatic improvements. You can hear the instruments more clearly in the mix; as noted, the electric bass is much more solid and distinct; the acoustic guitars have more body; the many and varied guitars Page used are more distinct in their sonic seasonings; the cymbals have somewhat more delineation and extension, and Plant's voice is much more realistic and natural-sounding with far greater presence. There's more air and openness in Led Zeppelin II (Mike, did you goose the upper mids a bit?), although nothing's gonna fix the whole lotta tape overload at the end of the psychedelic middle section in "Whole Lotta Love"—but so what? The distortion adds to the impact of the band coming back in and I don't care if the audiophile purists want to hang me for saying that.

The sonics get better with Led Zeppelin III, a largely acoustic-based album (that I think is far from their strongest). However, there's also more track-to-track variation here, and somehow the re-mastering makes the album sound a little more "polite," although "Since I've Been Loving You" is hugely improved. And the sonics get a whole lot better with Led Zeppelin IV, truly one of the greatest rock albums of all time. I've never heard "Stairway to Heaven" sound so wonderful—the acoustic, 12-string, electric 12-string and lead guitars are way more distinct and character-full; you can clearly tell the electric piano is a Wurlitzer, not a Rhodes; the acoustic guitars and cymbals "pop" more, and Plant's voice has much more inflection. I shouldn't torture you, but the not-commercially-available 45-rpm test pressing single of "Stairway" I was lucky enough to audition is even better—not immensely so, but it's a little smoother and more dynamic, and vocal sibilants are more natural. (Hey, Bill Gates gets to count his billions—I get to listen to an unobtainable test pressing once in a blue moon.)

***

It's a disservice to call the Peter Gabriel-era Genesis a mere "rock band"—they were so much more than that. A true progressive rock band from the days when that appellation was something other than a marketing category, Genesis's music embodied complex song structures with lengthy musical interludes, remarkably varied instrumentation and orchestration including Mellotrons, flutes, synthesizers, every type of acoustic and electric guitar imaginable and many and varied additional instruments—all capped by Peter Gabriel's often plaintive, often joyful, always evocative voice, singing, with lyrics mythological, poetic, mysterious. Few bands can even come close to one-tenth to their scope and vision—at times, the early Genesis line-up makes Yes and King Crimson sound primitive by comparison.

Truly one of the most remarkable bands in history, the music of these albums, with Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, Mile Rutherford, Tony Banks and none other than Phil Collins on drums, is astonishing in creativity and musical inventiveness. Everyone on this planet should listen to Selling England by the Pound, a breathtaking masterpiece that has long resided on my personal Top Five list of all-time greatest albums.

The sound of the original LPs, as noted is compromised, although overall much more refined than the Led Zeppelin discs, and Selling England is actually quite good, smooth and sweet overall if not the last word in resolution or dynamic impact. The born-again improvements in low-level detail, dynamic range, transparency and delicacy on the Classic re-issues particularly well serve the Genesis discs—much of the music is subtle, delicately orchestrated and quiet, although the band could generate immense power when called upon.

I could list example upon sonic example; to name a few—the greater dynamics and "swirl" of the Mellotron (a defunct keyboard instrument that used loops of tape, cycling for each key, to produce instrumental and vocal sounds) in the beginning of "Watcher of the Skies" (Genesis Live); the more abundant overtones and of Collins' cymbals; the ability to distinguish different types of fuzz boxes and effects pedals on Steve Hackett's guitars in "Get 'Em Out By Friday" (Foxtrot); the magnanimous low-frequency bass pedals in the middle of "Firth of Fifth" (Selling England by the Pound): the heightened intimacy of Gabriel's voice (everything) and more, oh so much more.

Genesis fans will be thrilled.