The Beatles - Stairway To Heaven (1963)

While 'Stairway To Heaven' is undoubtedly one of Led Zeppelin's most famous songs, it's not generally know that they took the basis of their recording from a previously unknown song by The Beatles. They may have given it a new arrangement, and slowed down the pace, but lyrically it was pretty much identical. The Beatles only ever performed the song live a few times, later recycling the intro for 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', but a tape of one of the performances has recently come to light, and so we can now hear where Zep got the inspiration for their iconic recording. I don't usually post videos, but this was such an amazing find that it needs to be shared. 

Led Zeppelin - Blues (1970)

I'm sure that a lot of obsessive LZ fans will have made compilations of their favourite tracks into themed albums, and so it's now my turn. I'd always loved the two slow blues tracks from their first and third albums, and after I found a rare un-issued track from 1969 which was too good not to share I decided to compile an album of my favourite pure blues tracks from their early years. 'I Can't Quit You Baby' and 'You Shook Me' showed right from the start where their roots lay, and to mix it up a bit I've used a longer and more raw take of 'You Shook Me' for this album. 'Baby Come On Home' has a hint of R'n'B to it, it's still a great bluesy track which I've pieced together from two of the three takes which are out there, and it sounds pretty good to me. I've also patched the intro to 'Travelling Riverside Blues', which was only ever recorded for the BBC, and had an annoying fade-in at the beginning. This was one of many songs they recorded for the Beeb which never appeared on a studio album, despite being a superb take of the Robert Johnson original, and similarly, this remix by KLAPE of Buddy Guy's' 'Sitting And Thinking' was played live just the once in 1969, and also never made it into the studio. As this album is a mixture of studio recordings, radio sessions, out-takes and live tracks then hopefully it will be worth a listen for even the most seasoned Led Zep fan.   

Track listing

01 I Can't Quit You Baby
02 Bring It On Home
03 You Shook Me
04 Babe I'm Gonna Leave You
05 Baby Come On Home
06 Since I've Been Loving You 
07 Sitting And Thinking
08 Travelling Riverside Blues

Led Zeppelin - Out Through The In Door (1982)

I think that even the most avid Zep fan would have to admit that 'In Through The Out Door' and 'Coda' were not among the best of the band's output, but knock them together and dump the chaff and you end up with a reasonable swansong (!) to the band's career. 
'In Through The Out Door' was predominantly recorded by Jones and Plant, with Page and Bonham dropping by when their addictions allowed, and 'Coda' was mostly made up of out-takes from the latter album. Compiling them into one good album makes more sense than having two mediocre ones, so that's what Album Fixer did. I've used one of the alternative 'In Through The Out Door' sleeves for my cover, so it's still recogisable as the Zep album, but with a bit of a twist.

Track listing

01 In The Evening 
02 Darlene
03 All My Love (long version)
04 South Bound Suarez 
05 Ozone Baby 
06 Hot Dog 
07 Bonzo's Montreux 
08 Wearing and Tearing 
09 I'm Gonna Crawl 
10 Fire (Say You're Gonna Leave Me)