Early Days and Latter Days

On this day in 1999, Led Zeppelin released the first half of a 2-CD collection called Early Days and Latter Days. Both discs focused on a chronological segment of Led Zeppelin's studio output.

The cover art, which laughably depicted the band members' faces superimposed over astronaut suits, has been the subject of much criticism, some of which comes from Jimmy Page himself. For a 2007 radio show on Led Zeppelin's studio work, Page stated:

"We had a piece of product which was going to be in two sections -- one called Early Days and [another called] Latter Days. And then, of course, in true sort of marketing spirit, they were sort of shunted together as Early Days and Latter Days, two CDs now, and ... Personally, I felt that there was quite a deterioration with the quality -- not the music of course -- but with the quality of the packaging, I just thought that it was worse and worse and worse, when you compared it to any of the other Led Zeppelin product, it just didn't really have that stamp of authority about it, you know?"

The Early Days and Latter Days CDs were discontinued when, eight years later almost to the day, Led Zeppelin released a similar 2-CD collection of Led Zeppelin's best studio output.

Titled Mothership, this new release on Nov. 13, 2007, took on Page's idea to improve on the packaging -- and also the sound, as the tracks chosen for that 2-CD set were enhanced for the second time in the digital age.