It appears that Led Zeppelin’s Bombay Sessions will get an official release as part of the remastered versions of the band’s final three albums.
The infamous sessions will be released alongside their final album Coda, with their two previous albums Presence and In Through The Out Door also getting remastered versions. The band’s last three albums will all be re-released along with previous unheard recordings and these sessions on July 31st.
During the 70’s in what was then Bombay (now Mumbai), Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were said to have played an impromptu gig at a local pub. The story may have changed over the years but the general idea behind it is still the same.
Supposedly back in 1972, they had a night off on tour and went to a local joint called the Slipped Disc. They were eventually recognized and asked to go up on stage to play a few songs. They cheerfully obliged, rolling through a quick set that included ‘Whole Lotto Love’.
They were reportedly in the area four times in that year, trying to linking up with a few local musicians. Page’s friend, the famed sitar player Ravi Shankar, introduced him to an Indian flautist named Vijay Raghu Rao. In Mumbai, Rao put together an ensemble of Indian classical musicians that also included the world-renowned sarong player us tad Sultan Khan.
They then decided to record new versions of Zeppelin songs ‘Friends’ and ‘Four Sticks’, along with a few other tracks. The recordings were never officially released – it would seem that Page and Plant weren’t impressed with the results – though bootlegs do exist.
Photo Credit: vinylmeister