Your Time Is Gonna Come (The Roots Of Led Zeppelin 1964-1969)

Led Zeppelin lore is built upon the group's past as highly paid, highly sought-after sessionmen in the '60s -- that is where the group built the chops that turned them into conquerors in the '70s, that is where Jimmy Page learned how to produce and arrange. All this is true but somewhat misleading as Led Zeppelin really was two studio pros and a pair of young turks from the North Country, the former being Page and John Paul Jones, the latter being Robert Plant and John Bonham. Although it is hardly complete -- a fact David Wells readily admits in the liner notes -- Castle's superb 2007 compilation Your Time Is Gonna Come: The Roots of Led Zeppelin 1964-1969 is the first serious attempt to shed some light on that pre-history, culling highlights from the studio work of Page and Jones while finding some of the earliest recorded performances from Plant and Bonzo. This sampling of all four members' pasts distinguishes Your Time Is Gonna Come from the legions of pre-Yardbirds Page budget-line collections that have flooded the market over the years, but even this material is treated with more care than those recycled compilations, boasting better sonics and placed into a historical context where it's possible to hear the sound of Zeppelin build through these sessions. As Your Time Is Gonna Come unfolds over its chronologically assembled 25 tracks, pieces of Zeppelin fall into place: John Paul Jones reveals his cinematic flair on the opening instrumental single "Baja" (its flip, "A Foggy Day in Vietnam," is included despite speculation that he may not have appeared on the recording), Page cranks out color and muscle on a string of post-Beatles rock & roll singles, and the two eventually crossed paths as regulars for Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate label. This is where the sound of Zeppelin starts to gel, as the pair created drama for Nico's "The Last Mile" and lent "Beck's Bolero" a dark, majestic gallop. After that, other signatures begin to pop up, such as Page's lacerating guitar on Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man," just as Robert Plant makes his recorded debut singing with Alexis Korner -- cuts from 1968 but they feel like they belong to an earlier time, before the Stones brought blues out of the club. As the collection draws to a close, all four Zeps show up on P.J. Proby's forgotten B-side "Merry Hopkins," a tune that doesn't have much to do with what Zeppelin was soon to become; certainly the Screaming Lord Sutch tracks that complete this collection give a better idea of the roiling, lumbering blues skronk of Led Zeppelin, perhaps not so surprising as this was cut in the wake of its release. But the worth of Your Time Is Gonna Come is not hearing the band lurch forward with intention but rather hearing them inhabit the times, following fashion and pursuing interests. If they hadn't, they wouldn't have come up with all the elements that made up Zeppelin, and the great thing about this comp is hearing the group gather each of these individually. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine|