Zeppelin vs Queen reissues

The bonus EPs of the 2011 Queen remasters offered a few new pieces, but most of the tracks were previously released. The companion discs on the new Zeppelin reissues, on the other hand - 90% of them offer something new. They're different mixes, different takes, or embryonic versions. Furthermore, the Zeppelin reissues have garnered massive interest because Jimmy Page has done a swath of TV and magazine interviews explaining how important this project is. There were several Rolling Stone articles alone, never mind all the other publications. But the Queen reissues barely hit the map.

There is also the issue of Queen becoming a hits band by 1980, essentially abandoning their status as an album band. Led Zeppelin, on the other hand, didn't survive past 1980. We didn't get to hear Zeppelin adjust their sound to the whims of the business like everyone else had to. What ifs are usually pointless, but this is an angle that is definitely worthy of discussion.

Queen have indeed made some attempts to share their history. The Days Of Our Lives documentary was excellent, as was the Stormtroopers in Stilettoes exhibition. And the Rainbow 74 box set was riveting. But the 2011 reissues were a massive opportunity missed. Had they released a version of Bohemian Rhapsody with one of the alternate lead vocal tracks (as heard on the 24 track master that is now public), there would have been pandemonium in the press on both sides of the Atlantic.

But instead it's like studying ancient Egypt and watching someone burn scrolls and papyrus right in front of you.

So as someone who is an enthusiast and historian of this band, I just have one simple question:

Why?

They're saving it for the anthologies.

(lol)

Took u this long, wizard?

I thought everybody was mad (THEN) about it.

I simply didn't buy any of the rereleases.

I played the alternate DSMN and Dreamer's ball on a jukebox but that's about it. Oh and downloaded the piano FLASH tracks


The sad thing about it is. .... that every guy (like me) that didn'tbuy into em, gives further credence to the notion that nobody wants to hear their extras.

Which only begs the reasoning all around again. .. nobody bought them all over again BECAUSE of the omissions.

Chicken and the egg.

Aside from any extras, the LZ remasters got a lot of praise on the sound quality. Rightly so. Whereas the 2011 Queen remasters - aside from Queen II - not so much.

The Beatles remasters are also highly regarded for that reason.

Rainbow 74 is the best thing Queen fans have had in years.

The documentary excelent....mmm, the documentary said nothing about the recordings of A Kind Of Magic, so....

I'm still holding out a little hope on the 2015 vinyl remasters. Not much hope, but there's some. Sure, they're from a digital source, but so was the 2015 Rolling Stones Sticky fingers LP, and although I've not heard it, word is that the remaster is excellent.

[QUOTE] [b]matt z wrote:[/b]

The sad thing about it is. .... that every guy (like me) that didn'tbuy into em, gives further credence to the notion that nobody wants to hear their extras.

Which only begs the reasoning all around again. .. nobody bought them all over again BECAUSE of the omissions.

Chicken and the egg. [/QUOTE]

You may have a point.

Even with the tidbits that did come out, there was very little discussion of them.

Here were the new studio pieces:

Seven Seas Of Rhye - whole new ending
Feelings Feelings - different take from the one that leaked about 10 years ago
Don't Stop Me Now - guitar version
Dreamers Ball - early take
Sail Away Sweet Sister - take 1 (amazing listen - you can pinpoint the moment Brian listened back and realized he found the melody for the verse)
It's A Beautiful Day - original
Football Fight - piano version (this eats the studio version for breakfast)
The Kiss - early take
A Kind of Vision - early take
The Invisible Man - Roger guide vocal
Headlong - Brian guide vocal
Ride The Wild Wind - Roger guide vocal

This amounted to about a half hour of new music. And nothing from SHA/Opera/Races, which to me is criminal.

I guess this just hits home after hearing all the wonderful things on the Zeppelin reissues.

I think the situation behind the scenes is more complicated ( ego-wise). The Bulsara family and of course John can vetoing things if they want to do it.
After MIH the quality of their releases lowerd in my opinion...Queen Rocks, GH3, Greatest FLIX 3 and lots of akward mixes, all that stuff makes me almost run away from that band at that point.

But in the end I didn`t have a correct or suitable answer to your question...sometimes it`s odd

I think the only reason they put bonus tracks on the Queen reissues was to convince the fans to buy Queen's discography all over again (didn't work for me!) And I wasn't too excited about the bonus tracks on the LZ reissues, I don't particularly care about alternate mixes or rough mixes. The live songs on LZ1's bonus disc and the unreleased "La La" on LZ2 were cool, though!

...and I'm starting to think that some of the Queen reissues "bonus tracks" are merely advertising other releases (Live at Wembley, Rock Montreal...) for casual fans who don't already own these.

Maybe the problem is that they tried to target everyone with the bonus tracks :
- They tried to target die-hard fans by putting some unreleased tracks;
- They tried to target casual fans by putting some "unreleased" tracks (as in "not released on OFFICIAL releases")
- And they put not too much unreleased songs to keep an interest for an eventual Anthology.

I didn't think the alternative/rough mixes were that exciting on the Zep remasters, but then again I'm not hardcore Zep fan. The audio quality was fantastic though. Queen remasters had some good stuff but it was really daft not to put in all the 12" versions for example. And naturally most people already had those live songs from already released live albums and the single versions of the songs. All the songs could have fitted the one CD versions anyway, so I guess it was just another money making exercise for Queen Productions.

[QUOTE] [b]Bike It 80 wrote:[/b]
- And they put not too much unreleased songs to keep an interest for an eventual Anthology.
[/QUOTE]

What makes you think there'd be an Anthology?

[QUOTE] [b]Day dop wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]Bike It 80 wrote:[/b]
- And they put not too much unreleased songs to keep an interest for an eventual Anthology.
[/QUOTE]

What makes you think there'd be an Anthology?[/QUOTE]

We can all live in hope mate.

I guess they were in a rush after they left EMI to Universal.
The new Box Set is disappointing, too. So much money to spend and you don't even get download codes for the (disappointing) bonus tracks from 2011. Wtf? Shall we buy everything three or four times?