Having skipped Zep boots for many years (the sound quality eventually drove me to listen to all my CDs through a speaker stuffed between two pillows), I ventured back slowly, and Some Things Never Pass was one of my first forays. The cover is clever: Jimmy Page taking George Harrison’s place amid the gnomes. The rest of the packaging is the quality you expect from Smokey Joe (this time under the guise of Apple Music,).<p>
The sound is what I expected: a dull audience recording. But it was the performance that brought me back. While the band’s extended jamming and solos were a little overkill at this early stage in the career, the playing is FEROCIOUS. And while the sound is muddy, all the instruments can be clearly heard. “Heartbreaker” made my dog howl. “We’re Gonna Groove” had me looking for my blue suede shoes (turns out the dog ate ‘em). “Moby Dick” had me leaving the house to mow not only my lawn but also several of the neighbors', only to return about halfway through. “Whole Lotta Love” made me want, well, I can’t write that, can I?<p>
Final word: approach with caution, but if you can deal with the sound, you hear a band about to break, a band so full of itself it gave John Paul Jones an organ solo, and THEN played “Moby Dick.”<p>
The third disc contains a bunch of appearances by Jimmy Page in ’83 with Eric Clapton’s band (featuring Phil Collins on drums). The sound is fairly crisp, and the songs are jumping. Clapton takes the mother lode of the leads, but Jimmy is in there, cutting it up, years away from Coverdale-Page.
