COVER STORY
and to forge the bold, acousticdriven material that dominates Led
Zeppelin III (1970) – an album that
remains one of Page’s fondest studio
creations. Page took extra care with
III when he recently remastered the
entire Zeppelin catalog for a deluxe
reissue series, wherein he also found
a number of outtakes, demos, and
alternate mixes he finally felt worthy
of including as bonus material in the
companion double-CD and boxset
releases.
Page takes particular pride in what
he did on “Hangman,” which is how
he refers to Zep III’s “Gallows Pole”
– one of his most notable acoustic
tour de forces: “All of that rhythmic
guitar that’s underneath and sunk
down in the final mixes – that’s real
interesting. It’s interesting to hear
those cross-rhythms on the final mix.
Hearing it come out like that was
cool.”
The live extended blues workout
“Since I’ve Been Loving You” is
presented on the bonus disc for Zep
III in a completely different take.
Page explains, “It was done a few
days before we did the final one,
where we take it much cooler as far
as the approach is to the vocal and
the guitar, and all of it. That’s why we
recut it – because it’s really intense
and the guitar is really hard on it
there. If there had been another take
of that one, the guitar would have
been different again. I was exploring
the whole way through. I was always
trying to stretch it. But then so was
everybody else. You can tell that
from Robert’s vocals. He was really
on top of it on this one. The idea that
night was to go in and do something
that was quite radical when it came
to the blues. A lot of people were just
doing the blues as renditions. But I
think that while Zeppelin’s approach
on ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’ is
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DIGITAL EDITION
JUNE/JULY