LED ZEPPELIN: 2 MEGA-RARE LP Bob Ludwig's HOT MASTERING

$

153

altulga Store

Led Zeppelin II

Label:  ATLANTIC  SD 8236

Grade: EX+/EX+

A/A MATRIX ( FIRST PRESSING)

Notes: THIS IS THE ORIGINAL BOB LUDWIG MASTERING; HIS INITIALS (R)OBERT (L)UDWIG ARE STAMPED IN THE DEAD WAX / TRAIL-OFF VINYL.  All the wonderful elements of Bob Ludwig’s trademark mastering style are here: incredible clarity and balanced channel separation, vivid and spacious “ambience” sound, as well as wide dynamic and frequency range of the sound spectrum.  As is almost always the case with Bob Ludwig’s masterings, the Bob Ludwig-mastered pressings of this album are CONSIDERABLY rarer than the regular, non-Ludwig copies of this album.

Atlantic  SD 8236 RARE original '69 press "1841 Broadway" label. The legendary "hot mix" pressing done by Robert Ludwig. His initials "RL" are etched in the dead wax on side 1 and 2.. Considered by many audiophiles as THE TOP VERSION. Supposedly it was re-mastered  afterwards because most cheap cartridges in cheap stereos couldn't handle the loudness, causing the LP to skip and causing many returns of the "defective" LP.

ALSO: TRAIL OF VINYL (DEAD WAX) IS CONSIDERABLY SHORTER ON ONE SIDE THAN ON THE OTHER, WHICH CAN ONLY BE FOUND ON BOB LUDWIG-MASTERED COPIES.
Yes this is the 1st Press...no barcodes, No reprint, Not a reissue..The Real Deal..
Please Note: THIS IS NOT A REISSUE WITH A CATALOG NUMBER OF SD-19127:
ORIGINAL FIRST PRESSING OF CATALOG NUMBER SD 8236

Led Zeppelin II is the second studio album by English rock band Led Zeppelin, released in October 1969 on Atlantic Records. Recording sessions for the album took place at several locations in the United Kingdom and North America from January to August 1969. Production was entirely credited to lead guitarist and songwriter Jimmy Page, while it also served as Led Zeppelin's first album to utilise the recording techniques of engineer Eddie Kramer.

Led Zeppelin II furthered the lyrical themes established on their debut album, creating a work that became more widely acclaimed and influential than its predecessor. With elements of blues and folk music, it also exhibits the band's evolving musical style of blues-derived material and their guitar and riff-based sound. It is one of the band's heaviest albums.

Upon release, Led Zeppelin II earned a considerable amount of sales and was Led Zeppelin's first album to reach number one in the United Kingdom and United States. In 1970, art director David Juniper was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package for Led Zeppelin II. On 15 November 1999, it was certified 12x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales in excess of 12 million copies. Following its initial reception, it has been recognised by writers and music critics as one of the greatest and most influential rock albums ever recorded.

Led Zeppelin II was conceived during a hectic and much-travelled period of Led Zeppelin's career from January through August 1969, when they completed four European and three American concert tours.  The album furthered the lyrical themes established on their debut album, Led Zeppelin (1969). This progress helped create a work that became more widely acclaimed and influential than its predecessor. With elements of blues and folk music, it also exhibited the band's evolving musical style of blues-derived material and their guitar and riff-based sound.

Each song was separately recorded, mixed and produced at various studios in the United Kingdom and North America. The album was written on tour, during periods of a couple of hours in between concerts, a studio was booked and the recording process begun, resulting in a sound with spontaneity and urgency through necessity.Bassist John Paul Jones recalled that "We were touring a lot. Jimmy [Page's] riffs were coming fast and furious. A lot of them came from on-stage especially during the long improvised section of 'Dazed and Confused'. We'd remember the good stuff and dart into a studio along the way."

Some of the recording studios used by the band were not the most advanced. One studio in Vancouver, credited as "a hut", had an eight-track set up that did not even have proper headphone facilities. The group's lead singer Robert Plant later discussed the writing and recording process, stating "It was crazy really. We were writing the numbers in hotel rooms and then we'd do a rhythm track in London, add the vocal in New York, overdub the harmonica in Vancouver and then come back to finish mixing at New York."

"Thank You", "The Lemon Song" and "Moby Dick" were overdubbed during the tour, while the mixing of "Whole Lotta Love" and "Heartbreaker" was also done on tour. Page later stated "In other words, some of the material came out of rehearsing for the next tour and getting new material together."

Album sleeve design

The WW1 photograph on which the album sleeve was based
The album sleeve design was from a poster by David Juniper, who was simply told by the band to come up with an idea that was "interesting". His design was based on a photograph of the Jasta 11 Division of the German Air Force during World War I, the famed Flying Circus led by Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron. After the picture was tinted, the faces of the four members of the band were airbrushed on from a 1969 publicity photograph, as well as the faces of band manager Peter Grant and tour manager Richard Cole. The woman in the picture is Glynis Johns, the mother from Mary Poppins. Her presence in the photo is an obvious play on the name of recording engineer Glyn Johns. Contrary to popular belief, the guitarist Blind Willie Johnson is not featured on the album cover. There is only one known photo of Johnson in existence, and it is not the same face as the one shown on the album cover. The cover also pictured the outline of a Zeppelin on a brown background, which gave the album its nickname "Brown Bomber".

Composition

The finished tracks reflect the raw, evolving sound of the band and their ability as live performers. The album has been noted for featuring a further development of the lyrical themes established by singer Robert Plant on Led Zeppelin's debut album, creating a work which would become more widely acclaimed and arguably more influential.  "Whole Lotta Love" and "The Lemon Song" both feature sexual themes, as the latter contains a metaphor, which, according to one music writer, implores "unnamed ladies to squeeze his lemon 'til the juice runs down my leg.'"  As was later observed by Plant himself:

    Led Zep II was very virile. That was the album that was going to dictate whether or not we had the staying power and the capacity to stimulate. It was still blues-based but it was a much more carnal approach to the music and quite flamboyant. It was created on the run between hotel rooms and the GTOs, and that was quite something.

Led Zeppelin II also features experimentation with other musical styles and approaches, as on the alternately soft-and-loud "What Is and What Should Never Be" and "Ramble On" (which featured Page's acoustic guitar), or the pop-influenced ballad "Thank You". With its mysterious atmospherics, "Ramble On" helped develop hard rock's association with fantasy themes, which had been partly derived from the psychedelic rock genre of two to three years before, but also from Plant's personal interest in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. This musical direction would later culminate on the band's untitled fourth album (and countless subsequent groups would later carry the influence to further extremes). Conversely, the instrumental "Moby Dick" features an extended drum solo by John Bonham, which would be extended further during Led Zeppelin concert performances sometimes for as long as half an hour

Jimmy Page's contribution to this album was significant, as his electric guitar solo on the song "Heartbreaker" was emulated by many younger rock guitarists, and exemplifies the group's intense musical attack. Led Zeppelin II is the band's first album to feature Page playing a 1959 Gibson Les Paul, the electric guitar he helped make famous. Page's innovative recording and drum miking effects on tracks such as "Ramble On" and "Whole Lotta Love" also demonstrated his considerable skill, resourcefulness and originality as a producer.Rolling Stone magazine later called Page's guitar riff for the latter song "one of the most exhilarating guitar riffs in rock & roll." Band member and multi-instrumentalist John Paul Jones later discussed Page's contributions:

    Jimmy started coming into his own as a producer around "Whole Lotta Love". The backwards echo stuff. A lot of the microphone techniques were just inspired. Everybody thinks he goes into the studio with huge walls of amps, but he doesn't. He uses a really small amp and he just mic's it up really well, so it fits into a sonic picture.

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SS Still Sealed

M- The record itself is in near mint condition with no surface marks or deterioration in sound quality. The cover and any extra items such as the lyric sheet, booklet or poster are in perfect condition.

EX+ Clean covers without ringwear or seamwear nice but not new. Close to like new with only superficial signs of use that don't affect play.

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