Jimmy Page Promises ‘Substantial’ Rarities on New Led Zeppelin Remasters

On the fence about buying those upcoming Led Zeppelin remasters even though you already own the band's entire catalog? Here, let Jimmy Page try and make you feel better about that.

Promising that the results of his remastering efforts "will be coming out, bit by bit," Page sat down recently with Rolling Stone to divulge a few hints about what fans could expect from the band's latest round of reissues when they hit store shelves next year.

The primary benefit, according to Page, is improved sound quality. "The catalog was last remastered 20 years ago," he pointed out. "That's a long time. Everything is being transferred from analog to a higher-resolution digital format. That's one of the problems with the Zeppelin stuff. It sounds ridiculous on MP3. You can't hear what's there properly."

But freshly scrubbed audio won't be the only reason to buy the remasters -- Page also says they'll include "added sonic and visual thrills." While we shouldn't expect much in the way of unreleased material, he pointed out that "there was an overage of material -- different versions of things, different approaches to the mixes ... there were a lot of different approaches. It will be fascinating for people to witness the work in progress."

This all might sound like another round of barrel-scraping by a rock legend, but Page swears, "I'm not just throwing on any old flotsam and jetsam. This will be really substantial stuff." He also teased the release of classic live performances, saying, "There are concerts that were recorded -- some that might have appeared on bootleg in some shape or form -- and a certain amount of footage, though not a lot."

As for when we might be able to hear all this, well, that might be a little more complicated. As Page ruefully pointed out, "You've got to get to the point where all of the members of the group are in agreement. I would hope it is sooner rather than later. But it will be in the course of next year and going on for awhile."