Doubleshot Tuesday: Led Zeppelin Box/ Okonokos Box

[Today: Not gloating over the Civil War...]

My cousin Chris went to Oregon St, and because I like him a lot I promised myself that I wouldn’t gloat over Oregon’s soul-crushing, record-setting, Rose Bowl-denying, 65-38 victory over the Beavers on Saturday. So instead I’m going to brag about a couple of vinyl box sets that were waiting on my doorstep after work on a most glorious post-Civil War beat down Monday: Led Zeppelin’s self-titled, 6-LP box set from 1990, and My Morning Jacket’s live Okonokos album from 2006, which was released as a 4-LP box that almost instantly became collectible.

In September of 1990, a couple of friends and I headed to the Record Garden (RIP) in Eugene to purchase the just-released Led Zeppelin box set. As we lined up to buy our CD copies, the tattooed dude behind the counter said [and these words have been ringing in my ears for years now]: “You oughta buy this on LP. Six albums on virgin vinyl. Less than ten thousand pressed.† It’s how that music was meant to be heard.” It cost 15 bucks more on vinyl, plus I didn’t own a record player, so I dutifully bought the compact discs. I wore them out and got my money’s worth, but by the time I backtracked to buy the set on vinyl, it was impossible to find, and truly expen$$$ive. My just-received copy was sealed, and the sound of Zeppelin blasting off of untouched virgin wax was quite literally worth an 18-year wait…

Okonokos comes with a less tortured personal history – I just really like MMJ’s live act. The P and I have seen them a half dozen times and they never fail to put on a rip-roaring show. Many of the times we’ve seen them, they’ve played for nearly three hours, so a four-LP box seems about the right length to capture their live concert experience. Getting this set isn’t a life-changer, but finding it on my doorstep along with the Led Zep box? Well, that’s about as exciting as kicking the poop out of your in-state football rival. Or something like that…

Listen: Hey Hey What Can I Do [Led Zeppelin]

Listen: One Big Holiday [My Morning Jacket]

*****

†I don’t know if the 10K figure is accurate, but that’s definitely what he said, and it doesn’t seem far-fetched given vinyl’s low standing at the time…

Tags: Box Set, Go Ducks!, Led Zeppelin, My Morning Jacket, Okonokos, Oregon Ducks, Oregon Football, Oregon St. Beavers, The Civil War, University of Oregon