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List Price: $21.98 | | Label: Atlantic
Salesrank: 7483
Released: November 23, 1999 |
| Our Price: $19.46 |
| Used Price: $1.99 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Early Days: The Best of Led Zeppelin, Vol. 1 Track Listing:
1. Good Times Bad Times
2. Babe I'm Gonna Leave You - Led Zeppelin, Bennett, Paul
3. Dazed and Confused
4. Communication Breakdown
5. Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin, Bonham, John
6. What Is and What Should Never Be
7. Immigrant Song
8. Since I've Been Loving You
9. Black Dog
10. Rock and Roll
11. The Battle of Evermore
12. When the Levee Breaks
13. Stairway to Heaven
Editorial Review:
Limited edition polyprop box (like NIN's 'Fisted') with silkscreened artwork. Contains the 'Early Days' CD (a 13 track 'best of' of their first four albums), two tattoos, a printed t-shirt, a sticker and a numbered certificate. 500 copies only.
Description of Early Days: The Best of Led Zeppelin, Vol. 1:
Having previously released no less than four boxed repackages of their studio output, Led Zeppelin may well be the band who made redundancy redundant. Well, surprise! They've done it again. Culled from the band's first four albums by Jimmy Page himself (as if a fourth-grader with an FM radio would have been hard-pressed), this collection captures Page and company's blues-riff-ripping prime, relieved only by the folksy "Battle of Evermore" and the song that made Skynyrd's "Free Bird" (almost) tolerable, the ubiquitous "Stairway to Heaven." Strung end-to-end, this is pretty heady stuff, and a great introduction to Zep's core early work for anyone who's spent the last couple of decades hangin' with Gilligan and the Skipper. The rest of us may just grumble and fast-forward to the previously unreleased 1969 live video clip of "Communication Breakdown." The package includes a 24-page booklet with many rare photos. -Jerry McCulley
Early Days: The Best of Led Zeppelin, Vol. 1 Reviews:
A great inroad to Led Zep 
2008-10-10 - Led Zeppelin is one of those bands that makes incredibly solid albums. Sometimes, however, you just want to hear the hits. "Early Days" delivers, packing "Immigrant Song," "Stairway to Heaven" and most of the other Led Zep heavyweights onto a single CD. If you're looking for depth or are a Zeppelin fanatic, skip this and pick up their albums, but if you're just a passing fan who happens to like a few of their songs, this is a good option.
For casual Zeppelin fans
2008-03-11 - This Led Zeppelin set spans their early years, as the title says, from 1969-1971. That means 'Led Zeppelin I,' 'Led Zeppelin II,' 'Led Zeppelin III' and 'Led Zeppelin IV' all get coverage.
This is a great set to own, but what true fans like me really want is a single-disc career retrospective. They should just make a 'The Very Best of Led Zeppelin' compilation that spans ALL of their albums instead of their first four.
But, if you're looking for most of the early year hits, you'll find most of them here. 'Stairway To Heaven,' 'Communication Breakdown,' 'Immigrant Song,' 'Whole Lotta Love,' 'What Is And Should Never Be' and more all appear on this set. And, Atlantic did a great job remastering the set.
Despite all of that, there are some disappointments. Where are 'Living Loving Maid,' Ramble On,' We're Gonna Groove' and their cover of Robert Johnson's 'Travelling Riverside Blues'? These are all great early tracks, and yet, THEY ARE NOWHERE TO BE FOUND!
But, other than those few complaints, this is a great set to own if you're a casual Zeppelin fan. A great addition to your Zeppelin CD collection!
Highly recommended. ENJOY!!!
Makes You Hungry for More! 
2008-02-02 - Yet another compilation that I've since traded away. And, once again, I did so because a compilation simply isn't enough for a band of this caliber. Everything on this album was a winner, and it made me wonder what else I was missing.
Best of Early Zep
2007-12-08 - This CD collects the best of early Led Zeppelin, 1 through 4. Immigrant song and Stairway to Heaven are highlights.
Early Days
2006-07-19 - "In the days of my youth, I was told what it means to be a man, now I've reached that age, I've tried to do all those things the best I can" (Led Zeppelin). These are the first two lines in the song "Good Times Bad Times" By Led Zeppelin. The group's CD, Early Days introduced this song as it's first on the CD. This CD basically gathers what the band thought their favorite beginning tracks were and summed it all up in one CD. Atlantic Records is the recording studio that produced this CD. The CD came out in November of 2002 and is still one of my favorites until this day. The CD was $25 when I first bought it, but it had a special feature of coming with their CD Latter Days. On this day, there had been a total of one million copies sold and are ranked at 2,582 on the selling list. There aren't any hidden tracks, but they are a very well known band to everyone.
The artists had previously released 12 other albums consisting of these songs in them. They chose to make this album "Early Days" because the songs were all highly liked songs. The artist always keeps a hard rock genre to their songs. This album doesn't change anything from their past, but still brings a huge audience to its liking. "Led Zeppelin may well be the band who made redundancy redundant" (Jerry McGulley). Jerry wrote an editorial review for this CD and stated that Led Zeppelin can definitely pull off a repeat of songs on a new CD. I agree with Jerry because they are an old band that shows the people that just newly started listening to the CD what the older Led Zeppelin songs were like and if they are true fanatics, they should enjoy these songs too.
This CD definitely is a great one! It really makes me relax and I feel like almost all of the songs on the album distract me from my thoughts. I know this sounds bad, but it's a good thing. It helps me to take the stress off of what my real days in my life are and lets me focus on the different instruments and vocals in the songs. Of course, after I hear the CD once, I can't help but wanting to listen to it over and over again. I feel a force just pulling me in to want to reattach to the CD and listen to every word in every song again. Even though the band is unique, in a weird way, I think the band relates to the Beatles. Back then, a lot of the bands talked about drugs because they were doing them. I know that the Beatles definitely wrote songs about drugs as did Led Zeppelin. The CD may be same as ever, but in my mind, this definitely works. I believe it does because as a true Led Zeppelin fanatic, you can never get sick of any of their songs even the early ones. Every huge fan has to know all the songs by the artist in order to get the real characteristics of the band.
With all the great tracks on this CD, five of them are my favorite. Track number two, "Babe I'm gonna leave you" has many qualities that are interesting. The background guitar and the singing really got my attention because the beginning of the song, there's only the guitar and singing bringing attention to them. "We gonna go walkin' through the park every day. Come what may, every day" (Led Zeppelin). This quote shows that the singer has feelings for someone which reminds me of the feelings that I have for someone. "Dazed and Confused" which is track number 3 is also a much loved track of mine. Because of the rhythm that the song creates, it gives much relaxation to the listener. The lyrics tell of the struggle that one may go through which opens my mind to thinking about all the struggles everyone goes through. "I don't know but I been told, a big-legged woman ain't got no soul" (Led Zeppelin). This quote comes from track nine, "Black Dog". This example of humor is a main reason why I enjoy this song because it takes me back to a time and place and reminds me of my old boss. The different instrumental parts stand out to me especially the guitar parts. My most favorite song on this CD is "Stairway to Heaven". I've always liked this song for some reason and now I know it's because it was fate that I was going to propose to my fiancé while this song played in the background. "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" (Led Zeppelin). Everyone always has a decision to make so this quote embodies every day life and the decisions that you have to make.
Even though I love this CD, I have to admit that one song doesn't work in my opinion. I don't think it does because it doesn't seem to keep that same genre as the other songs on the CD. The track number is 11 and it's called "The Battle of Evermore". "Oh, dance in the dark of night, Sing to the morning light. The dark Lord rides in force tonight and time will tell us all" (Led Zeppelin). This line especially doesn't seem like it talks about anything significant. The lyrics don't make sense to me because they seem kind of out there. They don't seem to explain anything or go anywhere. Also, in my opinion, I don't see this song as a hard rock one like the band is supposed to be. The song seems too high pitched with their voices. Not only that, but the background guitar seems like it should be played down an octave or two. I like to hear bass and in this song, there isn't any. The guitar in this song is just very unusual because of how high they played it. At some points, in my eyes, they seem like they may have missed a note singing or so because it doesn't always flow. The other songs on the CD keep that hard rock theme to them even if they slow down, but with this one, the song just seems like they slapped it together. I know others may disagree with me, but that's what I notice.
I basically only see older men ever buying this CD because of how old the songs were. They had been from the 1960s so older men would know them. I believe the fans, like me, were very happy when this CD came out because it high lighted many great songs they had when they first began as Led Zeppelin. If I had to give this CD a rating out of ten, it would definitely be an eleven! "IT BASICALLY GIVES YOU AN OVERVIEW OF THE ORIGINAL 4" (foolishmortal12). This guy knows what the CD is all about and since Led Zeppelin changed, the CD shows how the four started off. The band has been here for many years and I believe they will always be here to stay. I don't think Led Zeppelin could ever die because people keep listening and start liking them right away. I think they will always be the hard rock band that they started off as, but I think they will always work harder to be the band they started out to be. "And she's buying a stairway to heaven" (Led Zeppelin).
