How the West Was Won (Led Zeppelin album)

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How the West Was Won
How the West Was Won cover
Live album by Led Zeppelin
Released May 27, 2003
Recorded June 1972
Genre Hard rock, heavy metal, blues-rock
Length 150:27
Label Atlantic Records
Producer Jimmy Page
Professional reviews
Led Zeppelin chronology
Latter Days: Best of Led Zeppelin Volume Two
(2000)		 How the West Was Won
(2003)		 Mothership
(2007)

How the West Was Won is a triple live album by English rock group Led Zeppelin, released by Atlantic Records on CD on May 27, 2003 and DVD-Audio on October 20, 2003. These original performances are from the band's 1972 concert tour of the United States, recorded at the L.A. Forum on June 25, 1972 and Long Beach Arena on June 27, 1972. Guitarist Jimmy Page considers Led Zeppelin at this point to have been at their artistic peak, as is mentioned in the album's liner notes.

For many years, live recordings of these two shows only circulated in the form of bootlegs, and even then only certain audience recordings were available to fans and collectors (for example, Burn Like a Candle). Though several soundboard recordings of Led Zeppelin concerts were circulated amongst fans after having been stolen from Page's personal archive some time in the 1980s, no soundboards of the 1972 Long Beach or LA Forum shows were taken, meaning the release of How the West Was Won was the first chance fans had of hearing the soundboard versions of these concerts.

The songs from the two shows underwent some extensive editing and audio engineering by Page at Sarm West Studios in London before being released on the album. A comprehensive analysis of live tracks edits for the album can be found at The Garden Tapes. Some songs which were played at the concerts, such as "Communication Breakdown" and a rare version of "Louie Louie" from the June 25 show, were left off How the West Was Won.

The album debuted on the Billboard 200 chart on June 14, 2003 at number 1, with sales of 154,000 copies. It remained on the chart for 16 weeks. It was certified gold and platinum record awards by the RIAA on June 30, 2003. The album became the first Led Zeppelin album since 1979's In Through the Out Door to reach the #1 position.

How the West Was Won is tied with SMiLE by Brian Wilson and Van Lear Rose by Loretta Lynn as the best reviewed album of all time by Metacritic, with an average score of 97%.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

[edit] Disc one

  1. "LA Drone" (Jones/Page) – 0:14*
  2. "Immigrant Song" (Page/Plant) – 3:42*
  3. "Heartbreaker" (Bonham/Jones/Page/Plant) – 7:25*
  4. "Black Dog" (Jones/Page/Plant) – 5:41**
  5. "Over the Hills and Far Away" (Page/Plant) – 5:08**
  6. "Since I've Been Loving You" (Jones/Page/Plant) – 8:02*
  7. "Stairway to Heaven" (Page/Plant) – 9:38*
  8. "Going to California" (Page/Plant) – 5:37*
  9. "That's the Way" (Page/Plant) – 5:54**
  10. "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" (Jones/Page/Plant) – 4:55*

[edit] Disc two

  1. "Dazed and Confused" (Page/Bonham) – 25:25**
  2. "What Is and What Should Never Be" (Page/Plant) – 4:41*
  3. "Dancing Days" (Page/Plant) – 3:42*
  4. "Moby Dick" (Bonham/Jones/Page) – 19:20**

[edit] Disc three

  1. "Whole Lotta Love" Medley (Bonham/Dixon/Jones/Page/Plant) – 23:08**
  2. "Rock and Roll" (Bonham/Jones/Page/Plant) – 3:56*
  3. "The Ocean" (Bonham/Jones/Page/Plant) – 4:21**
  4. "Bring It On Home" (Dixon/Page/Plant) – 9:30**
    • "Bring It On Back" (Bonham/Jones/Page/Plant)

* From the Long Beach Arena. ** From the LA Forum.

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Additional personnel

  • Eddie Kramer – engineer
  • Kevin Shirley – engineer, mixing
  • Drew Griffiths – sound assistant
  • Phil Lemon – design, artwork
  • Jim Cummins – photography
  • James Fortune – photography
  • Jeffrey Mayer – photography
  • Michael Putland – photography

[edit] Chart positions

Year Chart Position
2003 Billboard 200 1

[edit] Additional notes

  • Engineered and mixed at SARM West Studios, London, March 2003.
  • Catalogue: Atlantic 7567835872.

[edit] External links

Preceded by
14 Shades of Grey by Staind		 Billboard 200 number-one album
June 14 - June 20, 2003		 Succeeded by
St. Anger by Metallica
v • d • e
Led Zeppelin
John Bonham · John Paul Jones · Jimmy Page · Robert Plant
Studio albums
Live albums
The Song Remains the Same · BBC Sessions · How the West Was Won
Compilations
Singles
Films
Concerts
Related