‘BBC Sessions’ Has Zep Flying

Is the 1976 concert film soundtrack “The Song Remains the Same” one of your favorite Led Zeppelin albums?

Well, the surviving members of the classic British rock group would beg to differ.

That’s one reason guitarist Jimmy Page and his bandmates Robert Plant and John Paul Jones are apparently so excited about “Led Zeppelin: BBC Sessions,” a two-CD package that will be released Nov. 18 by Atlantic Records.

The recently unearthed master tapes of the 1969 to 1971 British Broadcasting Corp. programs, recorded in the BBC’s Playhouse Theatre, capture the British rock demigods in all their raging, gut-rumbling glory.

“The band was never really happy with ‘The Song Remains the Same,’ which is why it’s great that we now have this,” says “BBC Sessions” engineer Jon Astley, who worked on the tapes in collaboration with Page. “When we first sat down to listen to the original tapes, Jimmy and I looked at each other and laughed, ‘cause it sounded so good. He was quite surprised, actually, at how great the band sounded.”

Although these live recordings have circulated in bootleg form, they’ve never sounded this pristine before. “Technically, the project was a nightmare,” Astley says. “The high end was really raucous, and the bass parts would sort of fade in and out. I just tried to smooth the sound out a bit, and splice in a few tape drop-outs that existed.”

The result is the sound of a young band still willing to take risks with its majestic heavy-rock formula. Hence, the inclusion of multiple versions of Led Zep standards such as “You Shook Me,” “Dazed and Confused” and “Communication Breakdown.”

“Everyone thinks of ‘Communication Breakdown’ as a three-minute single, but live, the band really took it somewhere else,” Astley says. “You can really hear the sense of adventure the band had. They’re really relaxed, and allowed themselves to stretch out a bit. Jimmy and I were particularly impressed by his guitar playing.”

This batch of BBC sessions is just the tip of the iceberg. Page has a king’s ransom of live recordings in his archives, so you can bet more will be rolling our way.

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MORE LIVE: As soon as the Beastie Boys announced their ambitious plans for two 1996 Tibetan Freedom Concerts in San Francisco, you knew that an album of the all-star event would eventually be on the way.

Well, the Beasties’ Adam Yauch and the other project organizers didn’t rush, waiting until they’d staged two more concerts last summer in New York. But the hefty three-disc package, which focuses primarily on the New York concerts, will arrive in stores Nov. 4.

Among the artists who’ll be featured on the Grand Royal/Capitol release: Beck, Rage Against the Machine, the Foo Fighters, Alanis Morissette, Oasis’ Noel Gallagher, Rancid, R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe and Mike Mills, A Tribe Called Quest and the Beasties themselves. Proceeds will go to the Milarepa Fund, the organization that Yauch founded in 1994 to foster universal compassion and nonviolence, with a particular emphasis on Tibet.

“Tibetan Freedom Concert” also includes an enhanced CD that features an audiovisual history of Tibet, an interview with the Dalai Lama and concert video footage.

“It was great to see the artists at the shows observing all these monks walking around, and becoming educated about the situation,” Yauch says. “They got a real taste of the culture.”

But don’t think the album represents the end of the line for Yauch and the Milarepa Fund. They’ve also produced a documentary of the San Francisco concerts that was directed by Sarah Pirozek. Titled “Free Tibet,” it’ll have its premiere in New York on Nov. 6.

“We don’t have a distribution deal yet, so we’re gonna show it in various cities like a band going on tour, and see what happens,” Yauch says.

There’s also a third Freedom Concert to be held in Washington, possibly next spring.

Although Yauch is currently in the studio working on a new Beastie Boys album, he’s going to find time to head to Washington on Wednesday to join the Students for a Free Tibet demonstration against Chinese President Jiang Zemin’s White House visit. He also continues to lobby Congress on behalf of the Tibetan people, and oversees the Milarepa Fund’s various works along with co-founder Erin Potts.

“I’m just trying to get the word out any way I can,” Yauch says. “I figure if I can use my celebrity to talk about this issue, maybe it will start to have an effect on people.”

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STONE TURNOVER: Rolling Stone continues to gather no moss in the editorial department. Sid Holt, the magazine’s managing editor since 1993, has been replaced by articles editor Robert Love, just two weeks after music news editor Mark Kemp’s job was given to Details senior editor Joe Levy.

The moves come at a time when Rolling Stone, which has just published its 30th anniversary issue, is viewed in the music industry as being hotly challenged by Spin and Vibe, both of which are owned by the Miller Publishing Group and are perceived to have more cutting-edge sensibilities.

Still, Stone’s circulation dwarfs that of its rivals.

“Rolling Stone is organic, and like any organic institution it needs to change every once in a while,” says Warner Bros. senior vice president of worldwide corporate communications Bob Merlis, who has had dealings with the magazine for more than 20 years. “The magazine is like a TV network at this point; it’s gonna have good seasons and bad seasons. I think Spin has really given them a wake-up call, and hopefully their music coverage will be maintained at a high level.”