Early Days

Led Zeppelin

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 7, 1999)
• ASIN: B000046PSZ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (152 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,204,723 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
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

Product Description
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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Zep Head, July 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Early Days: The Best of Led Zeppelin, Vol. 1 (Audio CD)

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.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Music, But..., June 18, 2000

By	VoodooLord7 (Oklahoma, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Early Days: The Best of Led Zeppelin, Vol. 1 (Audio CD)

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!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great CD, but RELEASE YOUR LIVE MATERIAL!, December 13, 1999

By	"pinkleadarrow" (Orland Park, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Early Days: The Best of Led Zeppelin, Vol. 1 (Audio CD)

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...