Led Zeppelin: How the West Was Won Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Led Zeppelin: How the West Was Won Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 24, 2018

There may be no band more made for turning the volume “up to eleven”, a la the immortal pronouncement of one Nigel Tufnel in This Is Spinal Tap, than Led Zeppelin. While initially at least not the sensation they would later become, Led Zeppelin ultimately were feted as one of the most iconic bands of the seventies (at least), and these 1972 performances from the L.A. Forum and Long Beach Arena capture the band at a rather important juncture of their careers, sometime after the release of Led Zeppelin IV, and just a bit before the release of what is arguably one of their best remembered album, Houses of the Holy. There’s a bit of a “sneak preview” of that album included in these concerts, but the quartet also offers a number of their earlier legendary tunes, including of course “Stairway to Heaven”. How the West Was Won was unearthed by Jimmy Page himself, at least according to a brief attribution included on the packaging of this Blu-ray audio outing, and one which kind of tangentially refers to the previous 2003 release which was put out on both CD and DVD. The performances here are generally quite winning, but there are a few niggling qualms the increased resolution of the Blu-ray audio some listeners who do like to turn things up to eleven may notice.

The band's set lists and performance locations are listed as follows:

1. LA Drone (Long Beach Arena)
2. Immigrant Song (Long Beach Arena)
3. Heartbreaker (Long Beach Arena)
4. Black Dog (L.A. Forum)
5. Over the Hills and Far Away (L.A. Forum)
6. Since I've Been Loving You (Long Beach Arena)
7. Stairway to Heaven (Long Beach Arena)
8. Going to California (Long Beach Arena)
9. That's the Way (L.A. Forum)
10. Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp (Long Beach Arena)
11. Dazed and Confused (L.A. Forum)
12. What Is and What Should Never Be (Long Beach Arena)
13. Dancing Days (Long Beach Arena)
14. Moby Dick (L.A. Forum)
15. Whole Lotta Love (L.A. Forum)
16. Rock and Roll (Long Beach Arena)
17. The Ocean (L.A. Forum)
18. Bring it on Home (L.A. Forum)

Led Zeppelin: How the West Was Won Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

This is the rare ostensible "audio Blu-ray" that actually has a video component. A set of stills culled from the concerts is delivered via the AVC codec in 1080p and 1.78:1 (for the most part) and plays as a sort of limited slideshow as the songs progress, and the screenshots included with this review offer a representative sampling of what's in store. Perhaps because of this fact, this audio Blu-ray "works" a little differently than some others I've personally reviewed. For example, pressing Pop Up Menu only brings up a list of songs, no other submenus (i.e., audio options). Audio can still be toggled using the buttons on your remote.

Led Zeppelin: How the West Was Won Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Led Zeppelin: How the West Was Won features three robust audio options touted as 96/24 outings, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and LPCM 2.0. I may raise a few hackles with this analysis, but Zeppelin has always been a band that I personally love to "turn up to 11", and my one issue with this release (other than a bit of a diffused quality to the surround track, which I'll address in a moment) is a noticeable high frequency whine that's kind of "silver" sounding that is quite evident on a number of tracks, especially those that begin relatively quietly like "Over the Hills and Far Away" and "Stairway to Heaven". You can hear what I'm talking about fairly clearly even on the low res version of "Over the Hills and Far Away" that is currently on YouTube, but I have to say it's arguably even more noticeable at the higher resolution of the audio Blu-ray, and I found it actually a bit painful when I was really blasting some of the material. That issue aside, the fidelity here is quite striking, and both the stereo and surround separations are wide and lifelike. I'm assuming the audio imaging mimics how the guys were placed on the stage, and so for example you'll frequently hear Jimmy's guitar in the right channels in both the stereo and surround iterations. There's good dynamic range here and none of the clipping that some thought afflicted previous releases. I personally thought Robert Plant's voice got just a trifle buried in the surround mix, since there's obviously a wider soundfield and some elements tend to kind of wash over the vocals unabated. Still, all three audio options offer excellent clarity and some really powerful midrange and low end. To my ears, the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix sounded a trifle less brash and/or brittle in the upper registers than the LPCM 2.0 mix.

Led Zeppelin: How the West Was Won Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While there's no real supplemental material included on the disc, this is a handsomely packaged set housed in a slipcase, and which includes a glossy insert booklet filled with stills (but no writing other than song, band and production credits).

Led Zeppelin: How the West Was Won Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Led Zeppelin may be giving Pink Floyd a run for its Blu-ray money, what with this release and the upcoming Led Zeppelin: The Song Remains the Same, due in just a few more weeks as this review is being published. This release offers the band at the peak of their powers, and if a couple of the longer songs might be thought of as a bit on the indulgent side, there's such continually amazing musicianship on tap (spinal or otherwise) here, that's it hard not to just surrender and go with the rather powerful flow. I personally found the high frequency whine a bit problematic, but even that tends to get "swallowed up" by the sheer mass of sound the band puts out. Recommended.