Led Zeppelin Announce Expanded ‘Complete BBC Sessions’
A year after Led Zeppelin issued their final catalogue reissues, the group has uncovered more rarities: eight unreleased recordings they made for the BBC, including a “lost” three-song session from 1969. These new discoveries will round out an expanded and remastered edition of the band’s 1997 release, BBC Sessions, which covers recordings made between 1969 and 1971, for what it has renamed The Complete BBC Sessions. It’s scheduled to come out on September 16th.
The previously unreleased tracks will complete a third disc of the previously two-disc compilation. These include two versions of “Communication Breakdown” and “What Is and What Should Never Be,” as well as “Dazed and Confused.” The lost, March 1969 session – once fabled to have been erased from its master tapes – contains the oft-bootlegged, boogieing blues rocker “Sunshine Woman,” a track that Zeppelin never formally released, and renditions of Willie Dixon’s “I Can’t Quit You Baby” and “You Shook Me.” The session took place the same month that Led Zeppelin, the band’s debut album, came out in the U.K.
As with Led Zeppelin‘s previous reissues, The Complete BBC Sessions will be available in a variety of formats. The most basic is a three-CD deluxe edition, the third disc of which contains the new sessions. There will also be a 180-gram, five-LP vinyl edition, a digital download and a super deluxe edition. The latter contains all the contents of the other versions, as well as a 48-page book that features photos and details on the recording sessions and a high-quality, limited edition print of the original album cover.
Led Zeppelin, The Complete BBC Sessions‘ New Disc Track List
1. “Communication Breakdown” *
2. “What Is and What Should Never Be” *
3. “Dazed and Confused” *
4. “White Summer”
5. “What Is and What Should Never Be” *
6. “Communication Breakdown” *
7. “I Can’t Quit You Baby” *
8. “You Shook Me” *
9. “Sunshine Woman” *
* Previously Unreleased
Ozzy Osbourne weighs in on last month’s Led Zeppelin trial. Watch here.