Description "DAZED & CONFUSED" (Jimmy Page,1968) Been dazed and confused for so long, it's not true, Wanted a woman, never bargained for you. Lots of people talk and few of them know, Soul of a woman was created below. You hurt and abuse, telling all of your lies, Run around sweet baby, Lord, how they hypnotise. Sweet little baby, I don't know where you've been, Gonna love you baby, here I come again. Every day I work so hard, bringing home my hard earned pay, Try to love you baby, but you push me away. Don't know where you're going, only know just where you've been, Sweet little baby, I want you again. Been dazed and confused for so long, it's not true. Wanted a woman, never bargained for you. Take it easy baby, let them say what they will, Will your tongue wag so much, when I send you the bill? "Led Zeppelin" DEBUT LP, JUNE, 1969 ORIGINAL PRESSING FOR THE ORANGE LETTERING COVER. THE FIRST PRESSING WAS RELEASED MARCH,1969, WITH THE ATLANTIC LOGO AND 'Led Zeppelin' TITLE IN A TURQUOISE COLOUR, BUT ONLY AVAILABLE IN A REALLY LIMITED AMOUNT IN MARCH, 1969. This is the first ever red & maroon Atlantic label "Led Zeppelin" record in unplayed, true Mint, I have ever offered on ebay and I mightily proud to do so. In fact, the spindle hole has such substantial vinyl shavings, I might dislodge that if I played it myself, I would love to hear this immaculate record but I would never risk altering the appearance of a 'just pressed record,' even if it was made 49 years ago! Please see my close-up picture of Side 2's label, I have said this many times, there is no need to grade a record looking like this. When I listed an Excellent 'turquoise cover version' on ebay in 2007, I gave the true account of the history of the first / original "Led Zeppelin" album. 'Record Collector' finally acknowledged the true rarity of the UK turquoise cover. The '2008 Price Guide' previous £500 valuation, was at last brought into line with reality, or 'virtual reality' of ebay, where the buyers decide how much they are prepared to pay within an auction setting. I criticised 'Record Collector' but I was also the first to applaud them for observing and accepting the day to day activities on ebay, a Mint copy was re-valued at £1,000 in the 2,008 Price Guide and accompanied by a re-written, accurate major feature on the album in that month's magazine. The article took notice of my account and what I had been insisting in descriptions, "Superhype / Jewel Music "was NOT Led Zeppelin's first publishing company, because it was too early to have been set up by the release of their debut album or when the first pressings were being made! There were indeed orange lettering covers sold, in England in March, 1969, with "Warner Bros / Arts" credits on the labels, I only had my memory of that era, but I had been a follower of Jimmy Page since 1966. It now appears many others have stepped forward to challenge the incorrect assertion that only the turquoise colour cover was around when the album was first pressed / issued. The most likely scenario was a one-off run of covers and labels were printed and once sold, it was just a case of reverting back to those original orange lettering and 'Warner Bros' / 'Arts' /'Jewel Music' credits on the labels. Demonstrating how wrong it is to have a closed mind, one thing that will never change is how few were made with turquoise covers in comparison to the orange covers. The rarity was never in doubt, only the actual order of events, even now, I have to contradict those who insist only the 1969 covers had a grey band on the bottom of the covers! In this case, the cover here was just folded differently, factory assembling by hand created covers made at various angles, few covers are an actual square. The folding of this mid-1969 cover was made with the top lowered and the bottom section disappearing into the glued position, hence no grey border. You will rarely find the grey strip straight anyway, most are so angled, one side tapers into just a fraction showing. If you look at the top of this picture in my pictures, the orange "Led Zeppelin" title is much further down than normal and with that the whole picture is lower, with the Atlantic logo almost on the bottom edge. The left side of the bottom edge had black trees or buildings as the Zeppelin came down, you will see only the tops are visible due to the folding position in 1969, hence none of the grey strip is visible. However, these first issue covers have unique features and the actual shape of the spine endings are exactly the same as the turquoise covers. Unlike most sellers on ebay and websites, I personally have both versions and anything written here is both honest and accurate, so please do not send me emails on this subject...or even worse, a website link address. My knowledge was way ahead of Record Collector, who at least predated the internet, I do not want to read my descriptions info distorted to suit the few copies they have seen in person. As I have said many times, like this 1969, first ever orange lettering cover, that grey band is also still there on the 1970's later green & orange Atlantic label covers, if tucked underneath the fold of the bottom of the cover. This record only missed having a turquoise cover by a matter of a few weeks, my concern is all about the condition, a stunning unplayed, true Mint, 49 year old debut Led Zeppelin record, a very special record indeed. 1969 PRESSING ON THE RED & MAROON ATLANTIC LABEL: ‎5881711 The music company credits on the the labels are; 'Warner Brothers', 'Arts' & 'Jewel Music' MAITRIX: 588*171 A // 1 1 3 1 / 588171 B ▽ 4 1 1 6 *An amusing correction because it was machine stamped correctly in the first place! Side 1's prefix was indeed correctly stamped as '588171' but the sound engineer crossed out the last digit '8' and hand scribed '7' above. Realising the double error, he converted '7' into '8' by hand. A common event for records, becoming a positive method of identifying genuine 1969 pressing of "Led Zeppelin." Not that it means the record was actually pressed in June, 1969, it could easily be much earlier due to the change of the cover's colour after the turquoise lettering and Atlantic logo. On the other hand, possible a few weeks later, but I'm delighted to have June, 1969 as a minimal date, positively a 1969 pressing without any doubt at all. ORIGINAL 1969 ATLANTIC / POLYDOR INNER SLEEVE, UNUSED, LIGHTLY AGED WITH A RECORD IMPRESSION AND A FEW RELATED GENTLE CREASES. THIS INCLUDES A MANUFACTURING DATE PRINTED ON THE FRONT BOTTOM RIM; Made In England 609 = June, 1969. A 1960's format from Polydor, the decade was taken as obvious and the '6' was not printed before the central zero, the '9' was the year of the 60's decade and the '6' represented the month. What a bonus for this of all the late 60's albums, an unplayed record still in the original inner sleeve it was first inserted inside at Polydor's pressing plant, 49 years ago. I compiled a close up picture of the printed date and the inner sleeve. THE INNER SLEEVE IS IN NEAR MINT CONDITION. FIRST ORANGE LETTERING & ATLANTIC LOGO COVER, UNIQUELY SHAPED WITH TAPERED/ POINTED SPINE ENDINGS CREATING A BOWED EFFECT TO THE FRONT COVER. 'MacNeill Press Ltd.' PRINTED, FULLY LAMINATED COVER ON THE FRONT & BACK, CLOSE UP PICTURES CAN BE SEEN OF BOTH SECTIONS WITH THE ALBUM TITLE. The first issues had the printing positioned exactly where the flat section met the tapering, yet another exclusive feature of the red & maroon label pressings, some of the early 1970's green & orange label records also had pointed spines, but not the same printing positions. With an unplayed record inside, the cover was never used and as perfectly stored as the passage of time allows. The design was much to compact to the size of the records, with pointed ridged edged spines and that expanse of white on the front, today most originals are in a dreadful state, so even an unused cover simply has to have an impact just from standing in storage. For a white background, there is not of the usual severe stains and unpleasant discolouration, virtually without ageing and in reality, as my pictures show that is too minor to mention. A stunning looking front and back from non usage, so anything else is literally from standing. Please see my pictures for the pure white cover, the right side corners, the opening edges and the other edges are in superb unworn condition. The record impression was minimalised but nothing could prevent the related laminated edge lines, due to the shape of the spine and ridged edges, the laminate lines are as usual, next to and across the spine. For this cover the spine are in exceptional condition, allowing for the usual ripples that settle into the 60's designed spines, anything here was natural to holding a record for all those years. The ridges also contributed to a common event for fully laminated covers, the lamination was not smoothed right into the recess ridged edges create. So small eras adjacent to both spine meeting edges have those small eras where the laminate was wrapped around without making contact, not just for this album, I write the same for all covers designed with the mentioned 60's features. They come with the territory and I patiently explain the same over and over again, bear in mind I specialise in genuinely outstanding condition records, so this is nothing to do with turquoise or orange front colours, the design was exactly the same, a pure white front cover is extremely rare for any 1960's - 1970's "Led zeppelin" covers. Please see my pictures for the superb condition and that positively includes the whole of the back as well, only the extreme tips of the pointed spine endings have moderate rubbing and a few laminate crinkles that settle into the front and back. Grading covers that were not used to remove and play the records, is always difficult, this will be a really harsh verdict for an unused cover of this vintage: THE COVER IS IN A MINIMUM OF EXCELLENT+++ CONDITION. THE IMMACULATE LABELS HAVE NEVER BEEN ON A SPINDLE, THE 1969 RED & MAROON LABELS WERE TEXTURED AND THERE ARE DEFINITELY NO SPINDLE ALIGNMENT TRACES. I WILL LEAVE THIS AS A RARE UNPLAYED, 1969 UK PRESSED "Led Zeppelin." THERE ARE NO SCUFFS OR MARKS AT ALL OR HANDLING TRACES ON EITHER SIDE, THE VINYL HAS THE DEEPLY GLOSSY APPEARANCE OF JUST BEING PRESSED. THE RECORD IS IN UNPLAYED, MINT CONDITION. SIDE 1 "Good Times Bad Times" (John Bonham / John Paul Jones / Jimmy Page) "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" (Traditional, Arranged By Jimmy Page) "You Shook Me" (Willie Dixon / J. B. Lenoir) "Dazed And Confused" (Jimmy Page) SIDE 2 "Your Time Is Gonna Come"John Paul Jones / Jimmy Page) "Black Mountain Side" (Jimmy Page) "Communication Breakdown" (John Bonham /John Paul Jones) "I Can't Quit You Baby" (Willie Dixon) "How Many More Times" (John Bonham /John Paul Jones / Jimmy Page) Robert Plant - lead vocals, harmonica & bass Jimmy Page - acoustic, electric & pedal steel guitar & backing vocals John Paul Jones - bass, organ & backing vocals John Bonham - drums, timpani, percussion & backing vocals Recorded September - October, 1968, At Olympic Studios, London. Sound Engineer - Glyn Johns Produced By Jimmy Page. I am never sure if I should include the segment of "The Hunter" performed during "How Many More Times," as that was written by Otis Redding's backing band and Free gave the correct credit in the same 1969 on their debut album, I will. Free did record the whole track on "Tons Of Sobs" but such a great r&b / blues song cannot be denied or ignored, it was written by Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn, Al Jackson, Jr. and Carl Wells in 1967. That serves to inform anyone unaware of the massive influence of the Stax musicians and in particular, the great Otis Redding, who deserves recognition for shaping rock music. Talking about great musicians, such was the experience of the four individuals and the magical musical chemistry that developed immediately, Led Zeppelin's incredible debut album was recorded in just two weeks, maybe not that single day in 1963 managed by a young band from Liverpool, artists were no longer starved of studio time. Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones were veterans of recording studios and it was where they first became part of Led Zeppelin, Jimmy was playing on the same session as John Paul in 1968 for Donovan. Led Zeppelin actually owed it all to Donovan, because one half of the yet to be formed band, met and developed a musical empathy during the recording sessions for "Hurdy Gurdy Man." Record producer Mickie Most, had worked extensively with Donovan and a different singles. I had better not get into that now, "Hurdy Gurdy Man" has just staggering music on the backing and the track features Jimmy Page playing the awesome lead guitar. The other musician at the recording session who would shortly make one half of Led Zeppelin was John Paul Jones, he also arranged the track. Jimmy Page was still a session musician and he was in the process of putting a band together after leaving the Yardbirds, he mentioned that to John Paul Jones and how he was looking for a bass guitarist, John Paul Jones asked if he could join and the rest is history. This was before they got together with Robert Plant and John Bonham and were initially named as 'The New Yardbirds' and went on their first tour of Scandinavia, in September, 1968. I personally witnessed the first emergence of New Yardbirds / Led Zeppelin, I might as well tell how I found a couple of small easily missed lines in a 1968 "Melody Maker," a weekly music press paper. I was forever scanning the Classified Ads for upcoming gigs, especially at colleges and the smaller clubs and pubs around London and Essex. They were cheap to attend and the 1960's had unbelievable young talent rising from that circuit. Every Thursday you could plan your weekend's entertainment and I still have the music paper that informed me, 'The New Yardbirds' were playing in the back room of a pub in Crouch End, North London in two days, that was all I needed to read! Back to those 14 days recording their debut LP that would not be released until early 1969, they completed the tracks in London's Olympic Studios with Glyn Johns recording and engineering the tapes. Immediately followed by the mentioned short tour of Scandinavia in the same September, 1968. Returning to the UK they were still named the 'New Yardbirds', Jimmy had played with Keith Moon on the recording of a Jeff Beck B-side in 1967, he wrote "Beck's Bollero" and that sensational track can also be found on the Jeff Beck Group's debut album, "Truth." The band's name originated from a phrase used by the Who's Keith Moon to describe a bad gig,"Going down like a lead zeppelin" really appealed to Jimmy Page, he took that to use as their revised name, but very slowly at first. Dropping 'a' from 'lead,' their earliest British gigs were billed under, "The New Yardbirds featuring Led Zeppelin". They were very low key affairs and mostly in the same small back rooms of London pubs, Jimmy Page was not a household name in 1968, only musicians and record producers knew him. I remember buying an obscure 1968 LP on the Marmalade label with Jimmy Page and Brian Auger, none of my friends were interested in hearing it or his Yardbirds connections, that was true for most of Britain. My first interest in the new band revolved around the 1966 to 1968 Yardbirds and Jeff Beck connection's, Jimmy Page had succeeded Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton as their lead guitarist, after initially performing a double lead guitar role with Beck. I never saw the first gig under the name that would soon be filling up stadiums worldwide, in October, 1968, Led Zeppelin performed at Surrey University. Their debut album was mixed and completed but it still remained unreleased, Led Zeppelin were just not happening in England, I can't believe I am writing that but it is true, so for their first tour they headed to America. The birthplace of blues had given the Yardbirds the respect they deserved, both before Page and with him, two 1968 albums featuring Jimmy Page were recorded, "Little Games" and "Live Yardbirds," they were not even issued in the UK! Even some of the Yardbirds' greatest psychedelic singles ever made, were all but ignored except by a few enlightened here and when Led Zeppelin first formed, there was an icy cold reception in Britain. The first tour of America saw Led Zeppelin prosper and grow and become a live blockbusting powerhouse, the seeds were planted and the facts are there to check, Britain was just not in the slightest interested....yet! I followed their USA progress in the music press with interest, they were not headlining yet, as hard as it is to even conceive now, they had to battle through being a warm up band. The band were now firing on all cylinders and what you hear on this extraordinary debut album, was no different to their live sets, so something had to give! So much so, on the 31st January, 1969, when opening up for Iron Butterfly, a band who also rocked heavily and loudly, Led Zeppelin's crowd reaction was so intensive, Iron Butterfly refused to go on after them! I doubt very much this is well known, Led Zeppelin were now hitting fantastic heights and no longer could they accept second billing, anyone into boots will have tapes of that USA tour. Returning to the UK they signed to the Atlantic label in February, 1969 and released their first album in the March of that same very eventful year. Led Zeppelin's debut LP was first issued in the UK in a very rare cover, with the front LP title and Atlantic logo in a turquoise colour. There was only a very small run printed and just weeks later, the next cover had the LP title lettering and Atlantic logo changed changed to an orange colour. I have sold more than my share of turquoise and orange covers with maroon and red labels at record fairs and on ebay, some of the slow blues tracks become unlistenable from average condition's and just wait patiently for an even rarer event, a Mint original / first 1969 pressing like this stunning. Meanwhile I have also been looking out for a Mint first orange and green label, Kinney era pressing, CBS made fantastic records and their mastering was always an audio treat. Then the 1969 pressingsare nothing less than staggering for sound and the sheer impact of the music! "Led Zeppelin 1" was the perfect bridge between blues and rock, combining both was so effortless, there was even an acoustic folk interlude in Page's composition "Black Mountain Side", or as we knew it before, "White Summer." "Dazed" was performed by the Yardbirds in 1968 and Jimmy was playing his guitar with a violin bow at Anderson Theatre, New York, I cannot recommend the American Epic label "Live Yardbirds" enough, the earlier version of "Dazed & Confused" was sublime!" Make sure it has a yellow Epic label with a machine stamped maitrix or it will be a poorly pressed counterfeit pressing, oh yes, the cover was in colour and not black and white. Led Zeppelin formed when the 1960's decade was drawing to a close, the psychedelic era was over and heavy rock was to become the stepping stone into the 1970's. Led Zeppelin were far more than just an ultimate heavy rock band, their talent and music bordered many styles, from acoustic folk / ethnic traditional blues, to electric guitar based rock. This first album has it all, if remaining much closer to their blues roots, an astonishing debut album, for early fans they playing where the Yardbirds had just finished. The band members were seasoned studio musicians and for Jimmy Page, it was more a case of who's records hadn't he played on prior to this debut LP being recorded! {Roy} R & M RECORDS. My lifetime's love of music and records began at a very young age, the arrival of the Beatles and the 1960's decade in general had a very profound effect. It was only natural to bring all my first hand experience of collecting vinyl into becoming a professional record seller. Nearly thirty years ago we entered into the wonderful atmosphere of record fairs with the highest possible standards set. When the Internet became the world's new market place for vinyl, in 2001 it was time to join ebay. Those standards were rigidly adhered to as they will always continue to be, the basics of honesty and integrity were very much part of the era the music I love originated in, so here is our friendly and very efficient service we are proud to provide; EVERY RECORD IS FULLY PLAYED AND COMES WITH A 'NO ARGUMENT' MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. I USE GOOD OLD COMMON SENSE AS WELL AS A GLOBALLY ACCEPTED GRADING TERMINOLOGY FROM THE U.K. "RECORD COLLECTOR PRICE GUIDE" BOOK. THERE IT CLEARLY STATES "Sound Quality" AFFECTS EVERY GRADING LEVEL AND THAT IS THE ONE AND ONLY POSSIBLE WAY TO ACCURATELY GRADE RECORDS. i.e. COMBINING A STRICT VISUAL INSPECTION WITH VERY CLOSELY LISTENING TO EVERY SECOND, UNLESS PERHAPS IN THE CASE OF GENUINELY UNPLAYED VINYL. EVEN THEN WE STILL TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR A RECORD WHEN A CUSTOMER RECEIVES EITHER A SEALED OR AN UNPLAYED RECORD. 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