Led Zeppelin II on vinyl

If you like live albums, as I recall "How The West Was Won" is great on vinyl.

@slaw cool

Here’s a story for you all…

So I get my Zep 2 in mail today. I’m all excited. Washed it and it’s in decent shape, a solid VG/VG+

Throw it on the table and my heart sinks. It sounds like dog schiit compared to my scratched up LP that was gifted to me. I mean the difference in sound quality is night and day, staggering! I listen to both sides. Massive disappointment. I’m in pieces…
 

So I pull my wifi microscope that I just got 2 days ago to periodically inspect the stylus, and I look at the LP runout of the copy I just received from discogs. Nothing out of the ordinary. The numbering matches the label.
And then I take the microscope to the scratched up LP that I originally had, and what I saw immediately explained the difference in sound quality.
The LP I had is the damn RL!!! Both sides RL on the runout.
The first side is badly scratched up and I won’t even play it.
Side 2 is playable with surface scuffs nothing deep. Has crackles but still enjoyable 
So there…I’m a dumba$$. Lol 

But in my defense (sort of) I didn’t make out RL on this record with a naked eye and because of its shape I didn’t bother with the magnifying glass. Good news bad news…now I need to find an RL with destroyed side 2 but good side 1, and I have the whole album. 

@audphile1 

Please remind me...

Which Zep II release did you just have delivered that sucked?

Sorry about your bad purchase.  I think that we can all empathize with your disappointment.  I have dumped many such albums of many bands.  But I guess that when it is a special purchase, your expectations are set higher.

And it begs the question:

Who at the record company listened to that lousy sounding Zep II release and thought: "Yep.  This is ready for prime time.  Start the presses.  We have a winner"?

Are the record company's personnel deaf, or is it that they could not care less how it sounds?

@seymour-krelborn 

I bought the second pressing, which, according to the story, was mastered from a cassette. And after hearing the sound quality yes it does sound like a cassette and not a very good one either. 
But it’s not a big deal it was only $30. What hurts is the beat up copy I have is THE one to have - it is the first pressing RL. It’s still playable on side 2 but side 1 as I mentioned earlier, has a good size scratch. 
The sound of the RL is not just the best you ever heard Zeppelin, it’s probably the best Rock & Roll recorded album. Period.