Customer Reviews

Early Days: Best of Led Zeppelin 1

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(26)

 

 

I was torn between 4 stars and 3 and decided to give it 3 because I really wouldn't like to steer anyone wrong by getting them to think this is a great CD. It is decent, and thats it. Just decent. Led Zeppelin is a great band, lets get that point across right away. But the producers of the two CD's named Led Zeppelin's greatest hits volumes one and two gave themselves the dubious task of condensing such a great, and influention rock band into just 23 songs (13 earlier days, 10 latter). Its just not possible. I guess if you just like the song "Stairway to Heaven" and are a rather casual fan, this does the job. But for those of us who are serious fans looking to really get to know the essence of Zeppelin, I'd say bust out the big bucks and either buy all of Zeppelin's original releases, or just buy the box set. The Greatest hits of the early years does the job for a casual fan. But a serious fan should opt for the boxed set or each individual album.

There is a good selection of great music on here, so I have to give it 5 stars by default. However, if you want to experience Led Zeppelin then either buy the albums or the other two boxed sets. Zep was an album band and is not served well by compilations such as this one. Besides, it is missing a few essential tunes (as is volume 2), Ramble On and Heartbreaker are missing from this collection. That is a crime! Those are two of Led Zeppelin's best songs. Babe I'm Gonna Leave You and Good Times Bad Times (not even included on the 60 track Led Zeppelin boxed set, but included here) are good songs, but should they be on this compilation? Not really. Could've been better.

On a sidenote: I wish Jimmy would stop releasing "best of" compilations of Zeppelin, God knows there is enough of them already. What all the fans want is official releases of classic Led Zeppelin concerts! So release them already!

This was the first Led Zeppelin CD I bought after I heard some of their music elsewhere and really liked it. After buying this CD and listening to it, I was very satisfied... for a while. I didn't have much knowledge (I really didn't have any) of Led Zeppelin at the time. Then I found out more about them and the very wide range of music they play. I have also listened to other songs of theirs and they are great. It is also a well-known belief that Led Zeppelin are the kings of album rock. I, myself, am thinking about buying a virtually complete box set of Led Zeppelin's music. The only reason I even gave this CD 3 stars is because the songs are great, and it might be a good introduction, but, if you're like me, you'll probably want a lot of their other albums or the box set, which will have all of these songs anyway.

As you can tell from the other reviews, typically the trend is that the die-hard Zeppelin fans think this is completely useless. Though I can assure you it is not. The main reason for this release is to bring Zeppelin into the CD players of a new generation, so that they can discover good music and throw away the Korn's and Limp Bizkit's of the 90's.

So if you already own everything Zeppelin has done, don't buy this and stop complaining. Let this be an opening of the door to Zeppelin for us children. And as far as the argument that it doesn't contain all the best songs, no one CD ever will. Eventually buy all their albums if you like them that much, but this is a great start.

This is a great CD for new LedZep fans. It has most of, but not all, of their good songs for their first four CDs. If you want all of their early good songs, get all of Led Zeppelin's first four albums. Everything but Hats Off to Harper is good. If you like those, get Physical Graffiti,HOTH, Presence and ITTOD. Then wait for Jimmy Page & Co. to release some more live stuff. Let's see... it took 28 yrs. for BBC Sessions to be released, if they release more live stuff at this rate (which is likely right now), we'll get the Royal Albert Hall video by 2025... So until then, you'll just have to be satisfied with this and all their other CDs...

No matter how many reviews say that LZ is just trying to make more money, or whatever, LZ is the greatest, and will be the greatest band ever to set foot on this pathetic planet. You cant' give a CD one star when it has the greatest songs of all time on it : "communication breakdown, Levee, Stairway, etc." I have every single LZ album and I bought this just because it's LZ. It's also a good album for those people who aren't big enough fans to buy the full albums, but they just want the "popular" songs. You can't say greatest hits, because every song on every Cd was an amazing piece of work. If they were to trully do a greatest hits CD, it would just be a box set of every CD. That's all I have to say, so give LZ their respect for being the greatest.

This CD is one that really did not need to be released. The material has been remastered before and is only good for the un-released video of Communication Breakdown on the multi-media portion of the disc. But, it is a great start for a new Zeppelin fan. Hopefully soon Robert Plant will allow Jimmy to release some of the live tapes that have been lying around in the vaults for years and really make the fans happy to hear a legit Zeppelin concert released and not the hacked up "Song Remains The Same." I can say that being a Zeppelin fanatic that I got this because it is a "new" Zeppelin disc and want to own everything that is out there. So, what I'm trying to say is that buy this disc for the rare video and pray that a true Zeppelin live album or even a studio outtakes release will see the light of day in th near future.

I agree that this release was completely pointless... I guess I bought it for the cool looking photo on the front and that's about it. At least when I bought the Complete Studio Recordings I could justify owning two copies of every album because the CSR tracks were remastered and did sound slightly better. But, with no remixes, no remasters, and nothing new, I don't know why they put this record out; I think we can all agree the release of the Royal Albert Hall '70 or Earls Court '75, or Seattle '77 or ... etc. would have been much better. Page et al need to get their act together and release more live material.

I'm relatively new to Led Zeppelin and certainly to heavy metal music, so it was with some reservation that I bought "The Early Years" to sample what has been represented as the best of the early works of this legendary group. Yes, while critic and fans alike have advocated listening to the original albums rather than compilations to really appreciate the music of this band, I wasn't about to splurge on four albums without getting a foretaste of what they had to offer....and what a discovery this has turned out to be. This is one masterful compilation. Sequenced chronologically according to their source, you sense their musical progression with each track. The four opening cuts (from their debut album) signalled a promising start but they are quickly overshadowed by what was to follow. Their hit singles, "Whole Lotta Love" and "Immigrant Song" sound as fresh and powerful today as they did three decades ago. Even "What Is and What Should Never Be" and "Since I've Been Loving You", which some reviewers consider less than adequate choices from their second and third albums respectively, seem perfect as they provide contrasting pace and relief from the rampaging hits they follow. But it is the final brace of five songs from their untitled fourth album that displays the group at its peak and in all its glory. They all sound like classics, from the full blooded howl of "Black Dog" to the heavy metal transformation of its self-titled subject "Rock and Roll", and the wistful musicality of "The Battle of Evermore" (featuring the guest vocals of Sandy Denny). What's more, the compilers have left the best to the last. Just when you think the music can't get any better are you served with the amazing "When The Levee Breaks", a masterful display of the collective musicianship and craft of the band members and finally, the magnificent opus "Stairway To Heaven", which has become the anthem for listeners on rock music radio stations. Wow ! This is one hellavu compilation album.... all great stuff except for the tiresome "Dazed and Confused" which goes on a bit. Led Zeppelin fans understandably regard "The Early Years" as a redundant product but for newcomers like me, there is probably no better way to start.

Every song is good.Especially Stairway to Heaven and Battle of Evermoor. I am 12 years old and this is a perfect introduction to a classic band. Jimmy Page is the best rock guitarist and Limp Bizkit SUCK.The drums are fast and cool.