Resources
Here I’ve gathered together the best Led Zeppelin resources that I know of on the web:
Seems obvious, right? Well, you may be surprised at just how much you really can find on the official site. Exclusive pictures, videos, and not to mention the forums, where you can find info from Zep experts (and admittedly, some people you should probably ignore) a plenty.
The Official Led Zeppelin Youtube Channel
There are videos here that you simply will not find anywhere else. Period. And don’t complain about the lack of officially released video until you’ve watched all that’s available here.
Never take for granted just how much you can learn from this site. The main page for the band and then those for each of its members are great for new fans looking for objective “biographies” without too much detail. In my opinion, one of the very best ways to learn about the band is to read the articles on every single album and every single song. Even better if you listen to the songs while you read about them! Led Zeppelin is one of the biggest bands and history, and because of that, we’re lucky to have information on every song like this, take advantage of it!
I’m not trying to be facetious here by giving you these basic sites. Honestly, if you don’t know something, google it. Looking for a bootleg? Google it. Hell, looking for new pictures? Try typing in different words with a band member’s name in the image search. You’d be surprised at the results.
This time I mean youtube as a whole. Firstly, every single Zeppelin studio song is here. Secondly, there are hundreds, if not thousands of Zeppelin bootlegs on the site. If you can’t find what you’re looking for by using “Led Zeppelin”, try using “The Nobs”. A pseudonym once employed by the band is now used by hardcore fans to make it harder for the videos to be taken down for copyright violation. The titles they come up with (“The Precipitation Ballad”, instead of “The Rain Song” for instance) are clever enough to warrant a search on their own.
This website puts any other Zeppelin related site to shame. I almost always have it open in a tab.
This website contains every known performance with a plethora of information about each one.
- The songs performed at that concert
- Pictures, if there are any
- Memorabilia, if there is any
- Whether or not the show is bootlegged
- Who else was on the bill
You can access information on this site in numerous ways
- By year
- By date (and then by scheduled status, recording status, outdoor dates, festival dates)
- By location (venues, cities, metropolitan areas, states/provinces, countries)
- By documents from that show (advertisements, clippings, handbills, posters, ticket stubs, programs)
- By shows with photos available
And then there’s a menu for music
- Artists (shared billing with or covered)
- Songs (primary songs, covered songs, instrumentals, pseudo songs [like the bow solo, for example], never performed)
- Recordings (Official releases, boot labels, boots [CD, CR-R, DVD, DVD-R, single show releases, compilations], sources [audio, video])
And you can even search for specific words or phrases said in “Plantations” or view what the other three members have ever said on stage.
I cannot overstate how beneficial it is!
This site really should be required reading for Zeppelin fans interested in officially released live albums and footage. I am actually shocked that some people believe that The Song Remains The Same’s footage is taken from a single concert. Reading this stuff doesn’t make me any less impressed with the band (nobody’s perfect!), it makes me more impressed at how well they’ve pieced this stuff together!
In one year, this guy listened to every single available Zeppelin bootleg in chronological order and reviewed them. I like to read his reviews to see if the sound quality of the boots are worth downloading in the first place. Plus, you simply have to admire his successful goal!
An absolutely fantastic site for those new to information about the band. Quite a handy photo archive (though it is filled with rather common photos) and some interesting articles to read. The news on the front page is often kept very up to date as well. Always good to have bookmarked.
One highly organized resource for bootleg album art! There’s almost always at least two different covers per boot. Great for adding artwork to your music library or just browsing the covers. Sometimes—not often—they’re quite clever!
This is a site with multiple things going for it, but most notably, transcriptions of Robert’s “Plantations” from just about every single bootleg available!
Simply put, the best Led Zeppelin forum on the internet without competition. I greedily haven’t shared this one in the past because of its picture thread alone, but honestly, a few hours pursuing this site and you will learn more than you can from any published Zep biography.
