Despite selling more albums than any rock band but the Beatles, Led Zeppelin could scarcely have done less to promote themselves in the 1970s. It would be inconceivable today, but the band never made American TV appearances of any kind. No performances on The Ed Sullivan Show, American Bandstand, Saturday Night Live -- or even Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. No interviews with Barbara Walters, Johnny Carson, Mike Wallace -- or even Mike Douglas. No music videos, either. They rarely even held press conferences.
"What that meant was there was very little video footage of the band, apart from when we tried to shoot it ourselves," guitarist Jimmy Page said.
Thankfully, the band successfully shot itself on stage at four critical junctures during its rocking reign (1968-80). And the fruits of those efforts finally hit stores this week, with the release of a Led Zeppelin DVD, a 5 1/2 -hour career retrospective. Almost all of it has never been seen before.
A separate three-disc CD, entitled How the West Was Won, hit stores at the same time. It culls the best of two classic performances in California in Advance sales were brisk. Atlantic Records says the two-disc DVD shipped quadruple-platinum, the CD platinum.
Previously, the sole commercially released video or audio footage of Zeppelin in concert was the somewhat disappointing movie/soundtrack The Song Remains the Same, from their 1973 New York City concerts. Excerpts from that are pretty much all anyone has seen of the group on stage.
"There are so many Zeppelin fans, there really are," Page said. "And it was just important to give everybody the opportunity to see exactly how we did it throughout our career."
Lucky for everyone, then, that the band filmed its 1970 gig at London's Royal Albert Hall, and videotaped its 1975 Earls Court and 1979 Knebworth concerts. Zeppelin diehards will eat this stuff up. The band was at its best, performing numerous scorching versions of a slew of standards not included on The Song Remains the Same. The digitally tidied images and punched-up sound make it all the better.
Page spent six months last year jumping between sound and video studios in London to refurbish the decaying material. Despite all that work, he has no regrets about the band's long-ago decision to boycott the media.
"At the time, it was a very valid thing to do, because most of the time when musicians were on TV they were just talking bull . . . any way," he said. "To fit in the mainstream, you'd put out a single, and you'd be on the television miming the record and all that. It's still done now. But we wanted to sidestep the mainstream and really stick to our guns and not cave in."
Almost a quarter-century since the group disbanded in 1980 following drummer John (Bonzo) Bonham's death, the irony is that the three surviving members -- Page, singer Robert Plant and multi-instrumentalist John Paul Jones -- probably have done more Zeppelin publicity in the last few weeks than they did in the '70s combined.
Jones said he was taken aback by the audience's reaction at the May 15 gala screening in London of the DVD.
"It was brilliant," he said. "It was like going to an actual Led Zeppelin concert and I've never been to one of those.
"For me, it was great to see so much of Bonzo. It reminded me how much Led Zeppelin revolved around him. I think he kept the band really tight . . . Sitting there watching him on the big screen at the premiere, I really, really missed him. As a matter of fact, the people cheered at the end of his drum solo on Moby Dick. It was like, 'Play some more.' "
Just over a year ago, it appeared there would never again be a musical reunion of surviving Led Zeppelin members.
However, time apparently heals all Zep wounds.
While all three have no desire ever to reunite as Led Zeppelin -- or reunite just to play old Zep standards -- a Page, Plant and Jones band that breaks new musical ground is no longer a pipe dream.
Page and Jones say they're open to that idea.
"There has been all this water under the bridge," Page said. "But if the music is bringing us together in a bond that is honest, that has the heart behind it that originally brought us together, then OK."
Said Jones: "We'd have to play together before we could even think about forming a band of any sort. I just don't know if we'd still click."
Jones was coy when asked if he'd broach the idea with Plant and Page: "We'll see how we feel about each other after we've done all these promotional appearances."
TRACK LISTINGS
How the West was Won CD
1. L.A. Drone
2. Immigrant Song
3. Heartbreaker
4. Black Dog
5. Over The Hills And Far Away
6. Since I've Been Loving You
7. Stairway To Heaven
8. Going To California
9. That's The Way
10. Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp
11. Dazed And Confused
12. What Is And What Should Never Be
13. Dancing Days
14. Moby Dick
15. Whole Lotta Love (Medley)
16. Rock And Roll
17. The Ocean
18. Bring It on Home
Led Zeppelin DVD
Royal Albert Hall, January 1970
1. We're Gonna Groove
2. I Can't Quit You Baby
3. Dazed And Confused
4. White Summer
5. What Is And What Should Never Be
6. How Many More Times
7. Moby Dick
8. Whole Lotta Love
9. Communication Breakdown
10. C'mon Everybody
11. Something Else
12. Bring It On Home
Madison Square Garden, July 1973
13. Black Dog
14. Misty Mountain Hop
15. Since I've Been Loving You
16. The Ocean
Earls Court, May 1975
17. Going To California
18. That's The Way
19. Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp
20. In My Time of Dying
21. Trampled Underfoot
22. Stairway To Heaven
Knebworth Festival, August 1979
23. Rock And Roll
24. Nobody's Fault But Mine
25. Sick Again
26. Achilles Last Stand
27. In the Evening
28. Kashmir
29. Whole Lotta Love
