Features

Led Zeppelin Press Conference: Official Audio & Video + Analysis

Will they ever tour again? Not likely. (sigh) Photo Soren Starbird.

Over the course of 16 songs and two hours of music, the band delivers astonishingly strong takes of “Trampled Under Foot,” “Since I’ve Been Loving You” and “Dazed and Confused,” among others.

While Led Zeppelin cribbed many a song’s basic structure from the blues— Plant acknowledges as much in the film prior to “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” —their version of the blues is typically a high-fueled romp with sharp turns and sudden stops. Point being: it would be hard to fake their way through material that often has multiple sections. There’s no opportunity to simply vamp in G and hope no one notices the train has temporarily gone off the rails. The six weeks of rehearsal paid off.

Moreover—and we hate to sound too sycophantic—but the individual members sound good. Plant’s voice is truly in fine form as his recent solo records have attested. Page, perhaps the quietest member of the group as of late, can still stagger listeners with guitar-god heroics all the while displaying his signature bravado without looking like a fool. Jones, whose bass work remains as fluid and toned as ever, also reminds viewers just how much keyboards were an essential part of the band’s sound. (Check “Stairway to Heaven” and “The Song Remains the Same” in particular.)

Jason Bonham, as you’ll hear in the press conference clips, saw this gig as an opportunity to prove himself on his own merits rather than being chosen out of respect and sympathy. His noted knowledge of the band’s history via an extensive bootleg collection and his ongoing Led Zeppelin Experience project made him particularly well-suited for the task. With Celebration Day, he proved himself to be a very good rock drummer to those that might have doubted. Is he at the level of his father or someone like Neil Peart? No. But he isn’t trying to be (nor does he ever suggest that he his).

If the 1988 Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary Concert and 1995 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony were less than fans hoped for, then this gig is all those expectations finally met.

Unlike their contemporaries—The Rolling Stones and The Who—Led Zeppelin have chosen not to tour following a founding member’s death. (John Bonham died in 1980 amid tour rehearsals.) While there have been various amounts of acrimony over the years, notably between Jones and the Page/Plant camp, they currently seem quite affable with one another.

What Celebration Day makes clear, in bittersweet fashion, is that should they return to the road, it wouldn’t be a nostalgia act—it would be a vital group of musicians chasing the same muse we’ve seen in “The Song Remains the Same” and “How the West Was Won”.

As I sat watching Celebration Day, all these thoughts running through my head, the words I’ve heard Plant singing countless times during “Stairway to Heaven” took on a new meaning:

Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run/ There’s still time to change the road you’re on/
And it makes me wonder

Click here for more official videos from the New York City press conference!

Click here for more official videos from the New York City press conference!