The Godfather Records is planning to announce their newest release, Welcome Back: How The West Was Won Tapes Revisited (Complete Californian Summer 1972 Diaries).
This massive, limited box set will consist of three separate deluxe gatefold covers, housed in a hard glossy box (similar to their previous massive box sets), also adding a special booklet with detailed 1972 North American Tour story and small pin.
The first part is double disc set titled Berdu and presents San Bernardino June 22nd, 1972 show in the best quality ever, sourced from pure genuine low gen tapes that haven’t been released anywhere else. The cut in “Stairway To Heaven” is filled with an alternate tape and another edit in “Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp” is smoothly repaired. Also, the tape hiss is slightly less annoying and overall spectrum is wider than on previous releases, including Empress Valley’s Swinging In San Bernardino.
The second part is three-disc set and a famous A Night At The Heartbreak Hotel, covering well-known Los Angeles June 25th, 1972 ‘monster’ show, sourced also from the best possible low gen sources. All edits are removed to provide the most complete and clearest sounding version of this legendary performance in stunning quality.
The most interesting is the third part, also spread over three discs, titled Wild Beach Party and covering (for the first time ever!) the complete version of (in)famous Long Beach June 27th, 1972 show in excellent quality! It is reported that for this release Godfather used at least four different sources, of which the basic one is full dimensional stereo recording that was released only partially in the past. It was also said that their mix differs significantly from already released titles from Wendy (How I Won The West) and Empress Valley (Burn That Candle) that are supposed to be sourced from similar sources, and thus this will be the most definitive and best sounding version of this show ever. As a bonus, this set also contains three songs taken from soundboard.
All in all, it seems that this newest release is something that all the collectors waited for a long time, especially as it comes for the Long Beach performance. It’s also very nice to see this title as a supplement to officially released How The West Was Won album, which was commonly criticized of being heavily edited and released only as a mix, instead of presenting both shows in their original lengths.
9 Comments
I’d never heard Berdu or Long Beach before so its great to have them in 1 box set. As with the PF Rainbow release earlier this year, Godfather have maintained their high standards and this is well worth getting.
happy holidays everyone and i’ve been absent for health reasons. so far i’ve listened to the San Bernardino (Berdu) and part of the L.A. show. I like what I hear and hope to leave additional comments soon.
I would like to listen to the entire box at least 2 times……
OK, so far I bought both the Floyd boxes, the Springsteen live box, the Neil Young box, and as late as today the Kiss box.
And now … this news. Man, this IS going to be expensive. I really look forward to the Zeppelin box! This sounds like a fantastic release! :-)
I’m certainly looking forward to this one too! Considering Godfather is no slouch when it comes to kicking out Zep titles, a nice box set is overdue. Though, I wouldn’t consider it “massive”, at least not in size! ;>)
This is great news. Zepp at their best deserve treatment like this. Now I’m waiting for the Bon Scott treatment :-)
After all the Springsteen & Floyd box sets finally a Zep one, whats more i havent heard San Bernadino nor Long Beach so a nice little package
Thanks a lot for this info! The service is getting better and better on this site. This will be a great Christmas present for Zep collectors.
It has the potential to be the best Zep boot this year. Not only for the Long Beach show, but for the San Bernardino show as well.
Thanks to AA and his great site for the above scan and notice…
I’ll be the first to say that I’m very much looking forward to this release!