LED ZEPPELIN's JIMMY PAGE Sheds Light On Rare BBC Tracks During Online Chat

According to The Pulse Of Radio, Jimmy Page took part in a live video chat on Facebook yesterday (September 14) to promote tomorrow's release of LED ZEPPELIN's "The Complete BBC Sessions". Page, who answered questions by BBC DJ Johnnie Walker, compiled and produced the BBC set featuring songs taped by ZEPPELIN in 1969 and 1971 for British radio. Page told Rolling Stone that the band's appearances on British radio were an indispensable form of promotion. "Because we spent so much time in the States in the beginning, we weren't able to do so much in England," he said. "It was slower catching up. And we didn't have radio here like what was called underground radio over there. So we got these little slots on the BBC."

In addition to such tried-and-true ZEPPELIN live classics as "Black Dog", "Communication Breakdown", "Dazed And Confused" and "Stairway To Heaven", the new collection boast three songs never officially recorded by the band.

"There was usually three, maybe even four songs that were recorded on the session, and we started making up numbers as well," Page said. "And across the package here, there are three numbers that are made up in the studio. And it's literally, 'Well, here's the riff — 1,2,3,4, let's go.' And there's the one called 'Sunshine Woman' and there's another one called 'The Girl I Love Has Long Black Wavy Hair', then there's one which is probably a little more familiar to people, which is the 'Traveling Riverside Blues'."

Page explained the short shelf life of the three tracks unique to "The Complete BBC Sessions". "They were literally made up in the studio and people were curious as to 'Well, how come you didn't record those afterwards, y'know, in the studio? Like here, or wherever?'" he said. "The simple reason is because we were creating music so freely, I guess. Y'know, it was just sort of pouring out. But those things were just for that moment and then we'd be moving on to something else. That was very much like LED ZEPPELIN's sort of ethos, really."