Today is something of an anniversary for Led Zeppelin.

On May 14, 1988, the band — Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham (the 2007 Celebration Day lineup) — reunited for Atlantic Records’ massive 40th anniversary party at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.

Below, you’ll find a video of Led Zeppelin’s complete set from that night, starting with “Kashmir,” moving into “Heartbreaker” (complete with a variation on Page’s famous guitar solo), followed by an updated version of “Whole Lotta Love” (Note the change in the riff). After that, you’ll find “Misty Mountain Hop” and other goodies; in all, it’s 30-plus minutes of pure, late-’80s Led Zeppelin.

On a personal note, I watched their set on TV that night, and I remember the horrible mix the band — or maybe it was just the viewers — were subjected to. The faulty mix is most obvious on “Kashmir.” (Can anyone hear Jones’ keyboards? I can’t.) Luckily, the more guitar-heavy tracks sound much better.

Other acts performing that night included Foreigner, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Genesis, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Wilson Pickett and Ben E. King.

Three years earlier, the band got together for Live Aid; maybe we’ll revisit that blessed event sometime this summer … maybe not.

To celebrate his new Metal Camp, Appice put together his list of the top six heavy-metal drumming songs of all time:

1. “When The Levee Breaks, ” Led Zeppelin
“I always loved the sleazy, heavy drum groove together with the bluesy harp. Just a really cool song with great production.”

2. “We Rock,” Dio
“When I used to go see my brother play that song–and when I heard it on the album–I was blown away. The tempo was great. Ronnie’s voice, the solo, great arrangement–kickass metal!”

3. “Bark at the Moon,” Ozzy Osbourne
“When I played the song live with Ozzy and was involved with the mix, I loved this song. Great hook idea, and the very visual lyrics by Daisley are awesome. Great bass and guitar, and Ozzy sang the crap out of it. Lots of energy in that one.”

4. “Valley of the Kings,” Blue Murder
“John Sykes is a great songwriter. When I heard the demo of this song, I immediately loved it. I used to listen to the demo just for fun. Then after we actually recorded it, the sound that Bob Rock and Mike Fraser got was amazing. Then I liked it even more!”

5. “In the Still of the Night,” Whitesnake
“A great song again with Sykes as a writer. Real cool arrangement, and very ’70s in approach–except very heavy. I still turn the radio up when it comes on!”

6. “Highway To Hell,” AC/DC
“I always liked the simplicity of that song. And the chorus is infectious. The whole band just sounds so great together, with each instrument jelling perfectly to create this amazing heavy groove. Great production as well.”

For more information about Carmine Appice’s Rockaholics Metal Fan Camp, please visit http://carmineappicefancamp.com/.

The former Dream Theater drummer — and current skinsman for Adrenaline Mob — has always been drawn to covers. He’s such a fan, in fact, that Adrenaline Mob will be releasing Coverta, an EP packed with eight covers of songs ranging from Dio to The Doors.

“I’m a huge fan of covers,” Portnoy says. “Doing covers is a chance to pay tribute to a favorite band, bring new life to an obscure gem, or perhaps help make a new generation of listeners aware of your influences. In any case, whether you play it safe and remain faithful to the original or completely rework and reinterpret the song, it’s always fun!”

Revolver asked Portnoy to list his favorite covers:

1. Metallica, “Mercyful Fate Medley” “I was always a huge Mercyful Fate fan and Metallica did the ultimate tribute with this amazing medley of riffs from the classic Melissa and Don’t Break the Oath albums. Tackling King Diamond’s vocals could’ve been impossible, but James did some great reinterpretations.”

2. Iron Maiden, “Cross Eyed Mary” “In the early days of Maiden, they would always record covers and extra B-sides for their 12-inch singles. This Jethro Tull cover was the B-side to “The Trooper” and tipped off Steve Harris’ appreciation of classic prog.”

3. Tool, “No Quarter” “Not many bands can cover Led Zeppelin and equal the original’s greatness, but I think Tool came damn close with this amazing version of Zeppelin’s moody and haunting classic.”

4. Anthrax, “Bring the Noise” “Anthrax have always done so many great covers through the years, ranging from the expected (Kiss and Sabbath) to the not so expected (Radiohead, Journey and Boston). Here’s an example of taking a cover that completely crosses over genres. Anthrax took this Public Enemy classic, gave it some serious balls and energy and kickstarted a metal and rap revolution that would reverberate for years. Forget about Run DMC doing “Walk This Way” … this is where metal and rap really crossed over!”

5. Judas Priest, “Diamonds and Rust” and “The Green Manalishi” “Two great examples of covering songs and making them your own. How many of you out there didn’t even realize these weren’t written by Priest? That’s right, these Judas Priest classics are actually covers of Joan Baez and Fleetwood Mac!”

Proving once again that someone, somewhere, might just have too much time on his/her hands, a mashup featuring the Beatles and Led Zeppelin has turned up online.

This new creation, known as “Whole Lotta Helter Skelter,” mixes, well, Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” with the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter.” For the most part, it puts the Beatles’ vocals against Led Zep’s music, although there are some notable changes to keep it interesting. Both songs were recorded in the key of E.

The mashup was created by someone who goes by the name of “Soundhog.”

Check it out below.

Last night, Led Zeppelin — Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Robert Plant — appeared on CBS TV’s Late Show with David Letterman, where they were interviewed by Letterman, a fellow Sunday-night Kennedy Center Honors honoree.

The venerable trio chatted with Letterman about their influences, the Kennedy Center Honors event in Washington, D.C., and the good old days of shirtless aviation, a conversation prompted by Letterman holding up a picture of Led Zeppelin outside their “Starship” jet in 1973.

“You’ve got your own airplane, and you don’t need to button your shirts for takeoff,” Letterman joked.

Plant responded, “Some would say, ‘What went wrong?’” Check out the video below.

Over the past 20 years, Brad Tolinski, editorial director of Guitar World, Revolver and Guitar Aficionado magazines, has interviewed Jimmy Page more than any other journalist in the world. Those interviews have led to a new book, Light & Shade: Conversations With Jimmy Page, which was published October 23. Get your copy here!

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Jimmy Page acknowledged that Led Zeppelin were considering touring after their December 2007 show at London’s O2 Arena.

However, Robert Plant was busy at the time.

“He was busy,” Page says. “He was doing his Alison Krauss project. I wasn’t fully aware it was going to be launched at the same time. So what do you do in a situation like that? I’d been working with the other two guys for the percentage of the rehearsals at the O2. We were connecting well. The weakness was that none of us sang.”

Page goes on to say that he, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham rehearsed together in 2008. “We didn’t do any professional recording,” Page says. “We just had a little digital recorder. I thought it was good. I wasn’t going to away from it. But the weakness came up again. It was, ‘We gotta have a singer.’”

Apparently, several vocalists rehearsed with the band, although Plant won’t say exactly who, although he doesn’t deny that Alter Bridge frontman Myles Kennedy stepped in. Steven Tyler also said he jammed with the band.

“The timing wasn’t the best,” Page says. “We had put so much toward the O2. And the three of us were catching up with stuff. It was very good, seriously promising. But there was this other thing going on.”

Read the rest of this story at RollingStone.com.

Celebration Day, the album and DVD of the band’s 2007 concert, was released November 19.

With the physical release of Celebration Day less than a week away, Led Zeppelin have posted a live performance clip of “Black Dog” from the film online. Watch below!

Celebration Day was filmed in December 2007 at the band’s storied reunion show at London’s 02 Arena. Ever since the DVD’s release was announced, the band have had to field the usual barrage of reunion questions. Jimmy Page recently told BBC’s Jools Holland that he had been hopeful that the band might convene again after the show, but that “it doesn’t look very likely.”

Page has stated, however, that next year will see some new projects from the Zeppelin camp, likely in the form of remastered versions of the band’s back catalog.

“There are different versions of tracks that we have that can be added to the album,” he said, “so there will be box sets of material that will come out starting next year. There will be one box set per album with extra music that will surface.”

Celebration Day will be released on CD, DVD and Blu-Ray on November 19. Pre-order it here.

Brad Tolinski, editorial director of Revolver, Guitar World and Guitar Aficionado magazines, has interviewed Jimmy Page more than any other journalist in the world.

Those interviews have led to his new book, Light & Shade: Conversations With Jimmy Page, which was published today, October 23, by Crown Publishing.

Light & Shade is drawn from the best of more than 50 hours worth of conversations that touch on everything from the music scene of the ’60s; Page’s early years as England’s top session guitarist working with The Who, The Kinks and Eric Clapton; his time with The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin and his post-Zep projects. The book provides readers with the most complete picture of the media-shy guitarist ever published.

Below is an excerpt from the book, where Page discusses the work that went into recording Led Zeppelin’s self-titled 1969 debut album. For another excerpt that focuses on Page’s time in The Yardbirds, check out the December 2012 issue of Guitar World. It’s available on newsstands now and at the Revolver Online Store.

]

“I WANTED ARTISTIC CONTROL IN A VISE GRIP…”
Page leaves the Yardbirds, forms Led Zeppelin and records their first two albums.

BRAD TOLINSKI: Right from the beginning, you were able to translate the extreme dynamism of Led Zeppelin’s live act into a dynamic studio recording: What was your secret?

JIMMY PAGE: That is interesting, isn’t it? One usually thinks of a dynamic album being translated into a dynamic live performance, but in the early days, it was the other way around for us.

I think part of the key was that we miked John Bonham’s drums like a proper acoustic instrument in a good acoustic environment. The drums had to sound good because they were going to be the backbone of the band. So I worked hard on microphone placement. But then again, you see, when you have someone who is as powerful as John Bonham going for you, the battle is all but won.

So the way to capture a dynamic performance is, essentially, to capture the natural sound of the instruments.

PAGE: Sure. You shouldn’t really have to use EQ in the studio if the instruments sound good. It should all be done with microphones and microphone placement. The instruments that bleed into each other are what creates the ambience. Once you start cleaning everything up, you lose it. You lose that sort of halo that bleeding creates. Then if you eliminate the halo, you have to go back and put in some artificial reverb, which is never as good.

That’s particularly true of the blues. Playing the blues is not a cerebral experience. Its often said that musicians try to summon the spirit of the blues when they play. But how can that be done when there is no room, no space? And space is also essential if If you want to capture the mojo created by musicians playing together, live.

PAGE: And that’s probably the biggest difference between the music made in the Fifties and music made from the Seventies on—everything suddenly had to be cleaned up. You do that and you take that whole punch out of the track.

Along with that strong musical vision you had in those early days, you also took a unique approach to handling the business aspect of the band. By producing the first album and tour yourself, was it your intention to keep record company interference to a minimum and maximize the band’s artistic control?

PAGE: That’s true. I wanted artistic control in a vise grip, because I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the band. In fact, I financed and completely recorded the first album before going to Atlantic. It wasn’t your typical story where you get an advance to make an album—we arrived at Atlantic with tapes in hand. The other advantage to having such a clear vision of what I wanted the band to be was that it kept recording costs to a minimum. We recorded the whole first album in a matter of 30 hours. That’s the truth. I know, because I paid the bill. [futureusgallerylaughs] But it wasn’t all that difficult because we were well rehearsed, having just finished a tour of Scandinavia, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do in every respect. I knew where all the guitars were going to go and how it was going to sound—everything.

The stereo mixes on the first two albums were very innovative. Was this planned before you entered the studio, as well?

PAGE: I wouldn’t go that far. Certainly, though, after the overdubs were completed I had an idea of the stereo picture and where the echo returns would be. For example, on “How Many More Times,” you’ll notice there are instances where the guitar is on one side and the echo return is on the other. Those things were my ideas. I would say the only real problem we had with the first album was leakage from the vocals. Robert’s voice was extremely powerful and, as a result, would get on some of the other tracks. But oddly, the leakage sounds intentional. I was very good at salvaging things that went wrong.

For example, the rhythm track in the beginning of “Celebration Day” [futureusgalleryfrom Led Zeppelin III was completely wiped by an engineer. I forget what we were recording, but I was listening through the headphones and nothing was coming through. I started yelling, “What the hell is going on?” Then I noticed that the red recording light was on what used to be the drums. The engineer had accidentally recorded over Bonzo! And that is why you have that synthesizer drone from the end of “Friends” going into “Celebration Day,” until the rhythm track catches up. We put that on to compensate for the missing drum track. That’s called “salvaging.”

The idea of having a grand vision and sticking to it is more characteristic of the fine arts than of rock music. Did your having attended art school influence your thinking?

PAGE: No doubt about it. One thing I discovered was that most of the abstract painters that I admired were also very good technical draftsman. Each had spent long periods of time being an apprentice and learning the fundamentals of classical composition and painting before they went off to do their own thing.

This made an impact on me because I could see I was running on a parallel path with my music. Playing in my early bands, working as a studio musician, producing and going to art school was, in retrospect, my apprenticeship. I was learning and creating a solid foundation of ideas, but I wasn’t really playing music. Then I joined the Yardbirds, and suddenly—bang!—all that I had learned began to fall into place, and I was off and ready to do something interesting. I had a voracious appetite for this new feeling of confidence.

You’ve often described your music in terms of “light and shade,” which are definitions used in painting and photography rather than rock music.

PAGE: “Structure,” as well; architecture plays a part, too.

“Good Times Bad Times” kicks off Led Zeppelin. What do you remember about recording that particular track?

PAGE: The most stunning thing about that track, of course, is Bonzo’s amazing kick drum. It’s superhuman when you realize he was not playing with a double kick. That’s one kick drum! That’s when people started understanding what he was all about.

What did you use to overdrive the Leslie [futureusgallerya rotating speaker used primarily for organs] on the solo?

PAGE: [futureusgallerythinks hard] You know…I don’t remember what I used on “Good Times Bad Times.” But curiously, I do remember using the board to overdrive a Leslie cabinet for the main riff in “How Many More Times.” It doesn’t sound like a Leslie because I wasn’t employing the rotating speakers. Surprisingly, that sound has real weight. The guitar is going through the board, then through an amp that was driving the Leslie cabinet. It was a very successful experiment.

How did you develop the backward echo at the end of “You Shook Me”?

PAGE: When I was still in the Yardbirds, our producer, Mickie Most, would always try to get us to record all these horrible songs. During one session, we recorded “Ten Little Indians,” an extremely silly song that featured a truly awful brass arrangement. In fact, the whole track sounded terrible. In a desperate attempt to salvage it, I hit upon an idea. I said, “Look, turn the tape over and employ the echo for the brass on a spare track. Then turn it back over and we’ll get the echo preceding the signal.” The result was very interesting—it made the track sound like it was going backward.

Later, when we recorded “You Shook Me,” I told the engineer, Glyn Johns, that I wanted to use backward echo on the end. He said, “Jimmy, it can’t be done.” I said, “Yes, it can. I’ve already done it.” Then he began arguing, so I said, “Look, I’m the producer. I’m going to tell you what to do, and just do it.” So, he grudgingly did everything I told him to, and when we were finished he started refusing to push the fader up so we could hear the result. Finally, I had to scream, “Push the bloody fader up!” And, lo and behold, the effect worked perfectly. When Glyn heard the result, he looked bloody ill. He just couldn’t accept that someone knew something that he didn’t—especially a musician.

The funny thing is Glyn did the next Stones album, and what was on it? Backward echo! And I’m sure he took full credit for the effect.

When people talk about early Zeppelin, they tend to focus on the band’s heavier aspects. But your secret weapon was your ability to write great hooks. “Good Times Bad Times” has a classic pop hook. Did playing sessions in your pre-Yardbirds days hone your ability to write memorable parts?

PAGE: I would say so. I learned things even on my worst sessions—and believe me, I played on some horrendous things.

Did your friends ever tease you for playing jingles?

PAGE: I never told them what I was doing. I’ve got a lot of skeletons in my closet, I’ll tell ya!

How did “How Many More Times” evolve?

PAGE: That has the kitchen sink on it, doesn’t it? It was made up of little pieces I developed when I was with the Yardbirds, as were other numbers such as “Dazed and Confused.” It was played live in the studio with cues and nods.

John Bonham received songwriting credit for “How Many More Times.” What was his role?

PAGE: I initiated most of the changes and riffs, but if something was derived from the blues, I tried to split the credit between band members. [futureusgalleryRobert Plant did not receive any songwriting credits on Led Zeppelin, as he was still under contract to CBS.] And that was fair, especially if any of the fellows had input on the arrangement.

You also used a violin bow on the stings of your guitar on that track.

PAGE: Yes, like I said, we used the kitchen sink. I think I did some good things with the bow on that track, but I really got much better with it later on. For example, I think there is some really serious bow playing on the live album . I think some of the melodic lines are pretty incredible. I remember being really surprised with it when I heard it played back. I thought, Boy, that really was an innovation that meant something.

How did you come up with the idea of using a violin bow on an electric guitar?

PAGE: When I was a session musician, I would often play with string sections. For the most part, the string players would keep to themselves, except for a guy who one day asked me if I ever thought of playing my guitar with a bow. I said I didn’t think it would work because the bridge of the guitar isn’t arched like it is on a violin or cello. But he insisted that I give it a try, and he gave me his bow. And whatever squeaks I made sort of intrigued me. I didn’t really start developing the technique for quite some time later, but he was the guy that turned me onto the idea.

Your bow playing, especially on “Dazed and Confused,” is really enhanced by echo.

PAGE: It was actually reverb. We used those old EMT plate reverbs.

That’s a little surprising, because there are areas that sound like you’re using tape echo. In fact, Led Zeppelin was the first album that I can think of that employed such long echoes and delays.

PAGE; It’s a little difficult to remember, and I can’t tell you on exactly which tracks, but there was a lot of EMT plate reverb put on to tape and then delayed—machine delayed. You were only given so much time on those old spring reverbs.

Another interesting aspect of the first album is your use of the acoustic guitar, which was something that separated you from other guitar heroes of the day like Clapton or Hendrix.

PAGE: Our acoustic songs were designed to create dynamics both on the albums and in live performance. The harder songs wouldn’t have had as much impact without the softer ones. It was funny to us that everyone made such a big deal out of the fact that we used acoustic instruments on Led Zeppelin III, because they were there from the beginning.

The first album featured two folk-oriented songs, “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” and “Black Mountain Side,” but the critics just never noticed. It makes you wonder. I think they just got completely absorbed in the second album, which was more high energy. But even the second album had its quiet moments in “Ramble On” and “Thank You.”

Our performance of “Babe I’m Gonna Leave” showed how original the band was. There weren’t many hard rock groups who would have the nerve to play a song originally recorded by [futureusgalleryfolk singer] Joan Baez!

Your arrangement of the traditional British folk song, “Black Mountain Side” was also an interesting choice. It was a tune recorded by revivalists like Anne Briggs and Bert Jansch, but you saw the potential as a rock song.

PAGE: As a musician, I’m only the product of my influences. The fact that I was listening to folk, classical and Indian music in addition to rock and blues was one thing that set me apart from so many other guitarists at the time.

How did the Indian and Middle Eastern elements heard on songs like “Black Mountain Side,” “White Summer, “Friends” and “Kashmir” take form?

PAGE: Eastern music was always appealed to me. I went to India after I came back from a tour with the Yardbirds in the late Sixties, just so I could hear the music firsthand.

Let’s put it this way—I had a sitar before George Harrison got his. I wouldn’t say I played it as well as he did, though; I think George used it well. The Beatles’ “Within You, Without You” is extremely tasteful. He spent a lot of time studying with [futureusgalleryIndian musician] Ravi Shankar, and it showed. But I can remember going to see Ravi in concert very early on. To show you how far back it was, there were no young people in the audience at all, just a lot of older people from the Indian embassy. This girl I knew was a friend of his, and she took me to see him. She introduced us after the concert, and I explained that I had a sitar but I didn’t know how to tune it. He was very nice to me and wrote down the tuning on a piece of paper.

But it’s really hard for me to say exactly where I got my technique, because it’s a combination of a lot of things that were floating around. Sometimes I tell people it’s a product of my “C.I.A. connection”—which is shorthand for Celtic, Indian and Arabic music.

You recorded “Baby Come On Home” during the Led Zeppelin I sessions, but it didn’t see the light of day until 1993’s Boxed Set 2.

PAGE: I don’t think we finished it—the backing vocals weren’t very clever. And, at the time, we thought everything else was better. Simple as that really. But don’t get me wrong, the track is good and Plant’s singing is excellent. It’s just that we set such high standards for ourselves.

How did Atlantic react when you presented them with the first album?

PAGE; They were very keen to get me. I had already worked with one of their producers and visited their offices in America back in 1964, when I met [futureusgalleryAtlantic executives] Jerry Wexler and Leiber and Stoller and so on. They were aware of my work with the Yardbirds because they were pretty hip people, so they were very interested. And I made it very clear to them that I wanted to be on Atlantic rather than their rock label, Atco, which had bands like Sonny and Cher and Cream. I didn’t want to be lumped in with those people—I wanted to be associated with something more classic. But to get back to your question: Atlantic’s reaction was very positive—I mean they signed us, didn’t they? And by the time they got the second album, they were ecstatic.

I was looking at some old photos of the band recently, and I noticed you were using an assortment of fairly bizarre amplifiers and guitars around the time of the first album. What were you using before you switched to the Marshall Super Lead/Les Paul combination that most people associate you with?

PAGE: It was basically whatever we could afford at that time. I didn’t really make any money when I was with the Yardbirds, so I was pretty broke in the beginning. I actually had to finance the first Zeppelin album with money I had saved as a session musician. What I had as equipment was very minimal. I had my Telecaster that Jeff Beck gave me, a Harmony acoustic, a bunch of Rickenbacker TransSonic cabinets left over from the Yardbirds, and a hodge-podge of amps—Vox and Hiwatts, mostly.

I also had a black Les Paul Custom with a tremolo arm that was stolen during the first 18 months of Zeppelin. It was lifted at the airport. We were on our way to Canada and, somewhere, there was a flight change and it disappeared. It never arrived at the other end.

What are you playing on the first album?

PAGE: Primarily the Telecaster.

That Tele sported quite a spectacular psychedelic custom paint job.

PAGE: I painted it myself. Everyone painted guitars back then.

]

Top photo: Chuck Boyd

Led Zeppelin’s new live film, Celebration Day, hit theaters earlier this week. If you haven’t been enticed into checking it out just yet, the band have posted yet another teaser clip from the movie, this one featuring several crowd shots and an all-too-brief listen at a live version of “Whole Lotta Love.” Check it out below.

The film — which chronicles the band’s 2007 reunion show at London’s 02 Arena — may very well have been just the project guitarist Jimmy Page needed to reinvigorate his interest in recording and performing live.

“I’m starting to work next year, to be seen to be playing live,” Page told BBC6. “I’ll definitely be doing an album at that point in time.”

He would add, “I want to be playing. I want to be out there playing. That’s what you’ll understand from seeing this.”

Celebration Day is out November 19 and can be pre-ordered right here in the following formats: CD, DVD, digital, vinyl and Blu-Ray.

Over the past 20 years, Brad Tolinski, editorial director of Guitar World, Revolver and Guitar Aficionado magazines, has interviewed guitarist Jimmy Page more than any other journalist in the world. Those interviews have led to a new book, Light & Shade: Conversations With Jimmy Page (Crown Publishing), which will be published October 23. Click here for more info.

1. Guns N’ Roses circa 1987 “The greatest example ever from the greatest rock debut, Appetite for Destruction, in music history. No explanation necessary.”

2. Led Zeppelin “Truly, the only band to ever have four complete cornerstone members.”

3. AC/DC with Brian Johnson “Even though Bon Scott is one of my idols, Back in Black was the combination of everything AC/DC individually ever did with so much more and a lot of Mutt Lange thrown in!”

4. Metallica “Bottom line, the best example of the chemistry of egos and how Kirk Hammett balanced out both Lars and James so this band could become what they became.  They would have imploded by keeping Dave Mustaine in the fold.”

5. Korn circa 1994 “Not even sure these guys knew at the time how important what the five of them were doing naturally on their first record. It would influence an entire generation of rock and metal fans. It wouldn’t have happened that way unless it was those specific five guys.”