Presence [Deluxe Edition] [LP/CD]

by Led Zeppelin

Overview

Created at a time of intense turmoil for Led Zeppelin -- they scrapped a planned international tour in the wake of Robert Plant's car accident in Greece in August 1975 -- Presence is a strange, misshapen beast of a record that pulls upon its own tension. With Plant somewhat on the sidelines -- he recorded many of the vocals while in a wheelchair -- Jimmy Page reasserted himself as the primary creative force in the band, helping steer Presence toward a guitar-heavy complexity, perched halfway between a return to roots and unfettered prog. This dichotomy means it feels like Presence sprawls as wildly as Physical Graffiti even though it's half its length: the four epics tend to overshadow the trio of lean rockers that really do hark back to the Chess boogie and rockabilly that informed Zeppelin's earliest work. Each of these three -- "Royal Orleans," "Candy Store Rock," "Hots on for Nowhere" -- plays as snappily as the throwaways on the second half of Physical Graffiti, containing a sexy insouciance; the band almost seems to shrug off how catchy Page's riffs and how thick the grooves of John Bonham and John Paul Jones actually are. No matter how much fun this triptych is, they're lost underneath the shadow of "Achilles Last Stand," a ten-minute exercise in self-styled moody majesty and the turgid blues crawl of closer "Tea for One." In between, there are two unalloyed masterpieces that channel all of the pain of the period into cinematic drama: a molten blues called "Nobody's Fault But Mine" and "For Your Life," as sharp, cinematic, and pained as Zeppelin ever were. Added together, Presence winds up as something less than the sum of its parts but its imbalance also means that it's a record worth revisiting; it seems different upon each revisit and is always compelling. [A 2015 Deluxe Edition included a CD and an LP comprising the album and "reference versions" of "For Your Life," "Hots on for Nowhere," Royal Orleans," "Two Ones Are Won, and two alternate takes of the previously unreleased "10 Ribs & All/Carrot Pod Pod (Pod)."] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	07/31/2015
Label:	Atlantic / Swan Song
UPC:	0081227955724
Rank:	36283

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Achilles Last Stand
2. For Your Life
3. Royal Orleans
4. Nobody's Fault But Mine
5. Candy Store Rock
6. Hots on for Nowhere
7. Tea for One

Disc 2

8. Two Ones Are Won [Achilles Last Stand Reference Mix]
9. For Your Life [Reference Mix]
10. 10 Ribs & All/Carrot Pod Pod (Pod) [Reference Mix]
11. Royal Orleans [Reference Mix]
12. Hots on for Nowhere [Reference Mix]

Disc 3

13. Achilles Last Stand
14. For Your Life
15. Royal Orleans
16. Nobody's Fault But Mine
17. Candy Store Rock
18. Hots on for Nowhere
19. Tea for One

Disc 4

20. Two Ones Are Won [Achilles Last Stand Reference Mix]
21. For Your Life [Reference Mix]
22. 10 Ribs & All/Carrot Pod Pod (Pod) [Reference Mix]
23. Royal Orleans [Reference Mix]
24. Hots on for Nowhere [Reference Mix]

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Led Zeppelin   Primary Artist
Jimmy Page   Guitar
Robert Plant   Harmonica,Vocals
John Paul Jones   Guitar (Bass)
John Bonham   Drums

Technical Credits

Jimmy Page   Composer,Producer
Keith Harwood   Engineer
Peter Grant   Executive Producer
John Davis   Remastering Engineer
Robert Plant   Composer
Drew Griffiths   Engineer
John Paul Jones   Composer
John Bonham   Composer