Led Zeppelin "How the West Was Won"

How the West Was Won is a live triple album by the English rock group Led Zeppelin, released by Atlantic Records on compact disc on 27 May 2003, and DVD-Audio on 7 October 2003. The recordings are taken from two 1972 performances in California during their tour of North America: L.A. Forum (25 June 1972) and Long Beach Arena (27 June 1972).

Guitarist Jimmy Page considers Led Zeppelin at this point to have been at their artistic peak, as is mentioned in the album's liner notes and in an interview he gave to The Times newspaper in 2010.

For many years, live recordings of these two shows only circulated in the form of bootlegs, and even then only certain audience recordings were available to fans and collectors (for example, Burn Like a Candle). Though several soundboard recordings of Led Zeppelin concerts were circulated amongst fans after having been stolen from Page's personal archive some time in the mid-1980s, no soundboards of the 1972 Long Beach or LA Forum shows were taken, meaning the release of How the West Was Won was the first chance fans had of hearing the soundboard versions of these concerts. The songs from the two shows underwent extensive editing and audio engineering by Page at Sarm West Studios in London before being released on the album.

The album was remastered and reissued on 23 March 2018 in many formats, including 3CD, 4LP, Blu-Ray Audio and a Super Deluxe Edition box set.

The album debuted on the Billboard 200 chart for the week ending 14 June 2003 at number 1, with sales of 154,000 copies. It remained on the chart for 16 weeks. It was certified gold and platinum by the RIAA on 30 June 2003. How the West Was Won received an overall score of 97 by review site Metacritic.

Track listing

Disc one

1. "LA Drone" John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page 27 June, Long Beach Arena 0:14
2. "Immigrant Song" Page, Robert Plant Mixed from both nights 3:42
3. "Heartbreaker" John Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant Mixed from both nights 7:25
4. "Black Dog" Jones, Page, Plant Mixed from both nights 5:41
5. "Over the Hills and Far Away" Page, Plant Mixed from both nights 5:08
6. "Since I've Been Loving You" Jones, Page, Plant 27 June, Long Beach Arena 8:02
7. "Stairway to Heaven" Page, Plant Mixed from both nights; Mellotron from Southampton University, Southampton, England, 22 January 1973 9:38
8. "Going to California" Page, Plant 27 June, Long Beach Arena 5:37
9. "That's the Way" Page, Plant 25 June, LA Forum 5:54
10. "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp" Jones, Page, Plant 27 June, Long Beach Arena 4:55

Disc two

1. "Dazed and Confused"
2. "Walter's Walk"
3. "The Crunge" Page (inspired by Jake Holmes) Page, Plant  Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant 25 June, LA Forum 25:25
4. "What Is and What Should Never Be" Page, Plant 27 June, Long Beach Arena 4:41
5. "Dancing Days" Page, Plant Mixed from both nights 3:42
6. "Moby Dick" Bonham, Jones, Page 25 June, LA Forum 19:20

Disc three

1. "Whole Lotta Love"
2. "Boogie Chillun"
3. "Let's Have a Party"
4. "Hello Mary Lou" (omitted from 2018 reissue)
5. "Going Down Slow" Bonham, Willie Dixon, Jones, Page, Plant  Bernie Besman, John Lee Hooker  Jessie Mae Robinson  Cayet Mangiaracina, Gene Pitney  James B. Oden 25 June, LA Forum 23:07
6. "Rock and Roll" Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant 27 June, Long Beach Arena 3:56
7. "The Ocean" Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant 25 June, LA Forum 4:21
8. "Bring It On Home"  Dixon
9. "Bring It On Back" Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant 25 June, LA Forum 9:30

Notes:

The DVD-Audio version of the album has tracks 1–11 on disc one with tracks 12–18 on disc two. It features the whole album in 48 kHz/24bit for both 5.1 and Stereo.

The Blu-Ray Audio version of the albums has all tracks on one disc. It features the whole album in 96kHz/24-bit DTS-Master Audio 5.1, as well as two stereo tracks (PCM and DTS-MA)

The 4 LP version of the album has tracks 1–4 on Side A, tracks 5, 12 & 13 on Side B, track 6 & 7 on Side C, track 8–10 on Side D, tracks 11, 14 & 15 on Sides E, F & G respectively, and tracks 16–18 on Side H

The medley omitting "Hello Mary Lou" has a runtime of 20:59 in the 2018 reissue