''How the West Was Won'' is a live

triple album A double album (or double record) is an audio album that spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically either records or compact disc. A double album is usually, though not always, released as such because the recording ...

by the English rock group

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...

, released by Atlantic Records on compact disc on 27 May 2003,

DVD-Audio DVD-Audio (commonly abbreviated as DVD-A) is a digital format for delivering high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. DVD-Audio uses most of the storage on the disc for high-quality audio and is not intended to be a video delivery format. The st ...

on 7 October 2003 and Blu-Ray Audio in 2018. The recordings are taken from two 1972 performances in California during their tour of North America:

L.A. Forum Kia Forum (formerly The Forum) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Inglewood, California, United States, adjacent to Los Angeles. Located between West Manchester Boulevard, across Pincay Drive and Kareem Court, it is north of SoFi Stadium and ...

(25 June 1972) and

Long Beach Arena The Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center is a convention center located in Long Beach, California. Built on the former site of the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium, the venue is composed of the Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach Ar ...

(27 June 1972).

Background

Guitarist Jimmy Page considers Led Zeppelin at this point to have been at their artistic peak, as is mentioned in the album's liner notes and in an interview he gave to ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' newspaper in 2010.James Jackson,
Jimmy Page on Led Zeppelin IV, the band's peak and their reunion
''

'', 8 January 2010 . For many years, recordings of these two shows circulated only in the form of bootlegs, such as '' Burn Like a Candle''. Though

soundboard recording A soundboard recording is a sound recording of a concert taken from a direct connection to the soundboard at the venue Venue is the location at which an event takes place. It may refer to: Locations * Venue (law), the place a case is heard * ...

s of

Led Zeppelin concerts From September 1968 until the summer of 1980, English rock band Led Zeppelin were the world's most popular live music attraction, performing hundreds of sold-out concerts around the world. History Throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, Led Zeppeli ...

were circulated among fans after being stolen from Page's personal archive in the mid-1980s, no such versions of the 1972 Long Beach or LA Forum shows were taken, meaning ''How the West Was Won'' was the first chance fans had of hearing the soundboard versions of these concerts. The songs from the two shows underwent extensive editing and audio engineering by Page at

Island Studios An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

in London before being released on the album. "It wasn't in our thoughts to try and outdo '' The Song Remains the Same''…" remarked engineer

Kevin Shirley Kevin Shirley (born 29 June 1960), also known as The Caveman, is a South African music producer, engineer and mixer for many artists,Spencer et al, (2007Shirley, Kevinentry. Retrieved 4 February 2010. such as the bands Journey, Iron Maiden, ...

. "The reason those performances still stand up now is because Jimmy really was a genius. He could create tempests, summon storms. He really was the master of light and shade. And the musicians around him allowed him to flesh out that vision. Especially John Bonham, without whom Jimmy and Zeppelin would never have been able to do what he did." The album was remastered and reissued on 23 March 2018 in many formats, including 3CD, 4LP, Blu-Ray Audio and a Super Deluxe Edition box set.

Reception

The album debuted on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart for the week ending 14 June 2003 at number 1, with sales of 154,000 copies. It remained on the chart for 16 weeks. It was certified gold and platinum by the RIAA on 30 June 2003. ''How the West Was Won'' received an overall score of 97 by review site ''

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

''.

Track listing

Notes: *The DVD-Audio version of the album has tracks 1–11 on disc one with tracks 12–18 on disc two. It features the whole album in 24bit/48 kHz for both 5.1 and Stereo. *The Blu-Ray Audio version of the albums has all tracks on one disc. It features the whole album in 24-bit/96kHz DTS-Master Audio 5.1, as well as two stereo tracks (PCM and DTS-MA) *The 4 LP version of the album has tracks 1–4 on Side A, tracks 5, 12 & 13 on Side B, track 6 & 7 on Side C, track 8–10 on Side D, tracks 11, 14 & 15 on Sides E, F & G respectively, and tracks 16–18 on Side H *The medley omitting "Hello Mary Lou" has a runtime of 20:59 in the 2018 reissue

Personnel

Led Zeppelin * Robert Plant – vocals, harmonica * Jimmy Page – guitars, mandolin *

John Paul Jones John Paul Jones (born John Paul; July 6, 1747 July 18, 1792) was a Scottish-American naval captain who was the United States' first well-known naval commander in the American Revolutionary War. He made many friends among U.S political elites ( ...

– bass guitar, double bass,

bass pedals Bass pedals are an electronic musical instrument with a foot-operated pedal keyboard with a range of one or more octaves. The earliest bass pedals from the 1970s consisted of a pedalboard and analog synthesizer tone generation circuitry packag ...

, keyboards, mandolin, backing vocals *

John Bonham John Henry Bonham (31 May 1948 – 25 September 1980) was an English musician, best known as the drummer for the rock band Led Zeppelin. Esteemed for his speed, power, fast single-footed kick drumming, distinctive sound, and feel for groove ...

– drums, percussion, backing vocals, co-lead vocals on "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp" Additional personnel *Jim Cummins – photography *James Fortune – photography *Drew Griffiths – sound assistant *

Ross Halfin Ross William Halfin (born 11 August 1957) is a British rock and roll photographer. Since the late 1970s he has worked for some of the biggest acts in rock and heavy metal, including Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, The Who, Kiss, Metallica, ...

– package creative consultant *

Eddie Kramer Edwin H. Kramer (born 19 April 1942) is a British recording producer and engineer. He has collaborated with several artists now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, including Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin ...

–

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

*Phil Lemon – design, artwork *Jeffrey Mayer – photography *

Michael Putland Michael Putland (27 May 1947 – 18 November 2019) was a 1970s English music photographer. Biography Born in 1947 just outside London, Putland took up photography at the age of 9. He is a portrait photographer and photojournalist most noted fo ...

– photography *

– engineering, mixing *John Davis – mastering (2018 reissue)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

''How the West Was Won'' from Led Zeppelin's official siteThe Garden Tapes
– analysis of live tracks edits for the album * * {{DEFAULTSORT:How The West Was Won (Led Zeppelin Album) 2003 live albums Albums produced by Jimmy Page Atlantic Records live albums Led Zeppelin live albums Live folk rock albums