HOW THE WEST WAS WON

Awesome! Led Zeppelin in the progarchives! I knew they would add them sooner or later, I mean, they had to. I always wondered why they weren't considered in this site, they had their progressive sound with them, although not entirely prog. But, anyway, here they are! I'll start with a review on this amaing 3cd set, "How the West was won".

OK, this is a live album taken from performances in California, June 1972. The band was at its peak and was working on "Houses of the Holy", at the time. The sound quality is great and the performances themselves are great, as well.

1. La Drone: A guitar chord which makes a 14 second introduction.

2.Immigrant song: This one's one of my favourites. The guitar and bass, those energetic drums, the screams from Robert Plant. This is not really a prog song, but it surely has this feel to it that reminds me of progressive music.

3.Heartbreaker: A cool rock and roll song, with the band delivering a very powerful sound. There's a guitar solo, in the middle, by Jimmy Page, where he does what he knows in about 4 or 5 minutes. A bit of Bach's Bouree can be heard.

4.Black Dog: A great track with a lot of energy. I especially like how the guitar and bass are combined here, and how the main riff changes a couple of notes (which really changes the mood of the song). There are some tempo changes, too.

5. Over the hills and far away: This one's a more "poppy" track, but it still has those wonderful guitar sounds by Jimmy Page, and the vocals are really good.

6. Since I've been loving you: A blues track. But, man, no ordinary blues track. I would call this "progressive blues". Why? First, normal blues songs are not usually that long, and you can hear a more complex structure, changes (I would say I feel this is kinda divided into different sections) from the quiet beginning to the exploding ending. Plant sings his soul out on this one, and there are some great keyboards by John Paul Jones (when he plays electric piano, you can't hear it that much, but, when he jumps to the hammond organ, dude, you can hear it!).

7. Stairway to Heaven: Well, everyone knows this one. I wonder why some of you don't consider it progressive. Man, this is full-blown prog! Those arpegios on the 12-string guitar, the mellotron, the lyrics, the feeling! It has different sections and the progression of chords is really progressive. This one's really awesome, and should be appreciated by prog fans.

8.Going to California/ 9. That's the way: Two more peaceful and calm songs. They've got nice acustic 12-string guitars and mandolin, which are combined nicely. These are just like those typical acustic prog songs of the 70's. Quite folky, though.

10.Bron-Yr-Aur-Stomp: A country-like song with really fast guitar and awesome bass playing.

11. Dazed and confused: A 25-minute version of the originally 6-minute blues song opens disc 2. This is a more prog version. The instrumental part is brutally enlarged. Page grabbs a violin bow and plays guitar with it. This sounds extremely psychedelic and progressive. Robert Plant does some backing vocals there, making it sound even stranger. Then, when the whole band comes in again, they extend the instrumental part with excerpts from "Walter's walk" and "The crunge". The tempo changes are done spectacularly, especially when they go back to the soft part in the end. Just listen and enjoy.

12. What is and what should never be/ 13. Dancing days: 2 shorter rock songs, with great guitars and vocals.

14. Moby Dick : John Bonham's moment. The originally 2-minute drum solo, is turned to a freakin' 17-minute one!!! This guy was just awesome. How could he manage to play a totally insane drum solo for such a long time?

15. Whole Lotta Love Medley: The legendary guitar riff opens the third CD. There's a part with very psychedelic effects done by Jimmy's guitar, and screams from Robert Plant. This is interesting. In the middle, there's a medley of old rock and blues songs by other artists such as Gene Pitney, Leiber, Stoller and John Lee Hooker. Great!

16. Rock and Roll/ 17. The Ocean: A pair rock tracks with the band delivering great sounds. Full of power and energy.

18. Bring it on Home/ Bring it on Back: Robert Plant plays harmonica on this one. That's all I can say. If I keep on describing it, I wound be redundant. This is what you can expect from this awesome band.

So, although not FULLY prog, this is a must for your collection and it's a really important piece in the history of rock and progressive rock. I would not only recommend this to Led Zeppelin fans, but to rock fans in general, and prog fans should really give it a chance. If your looking for the proggy feeling, you've got it here!