Led Zeppelin To Receive Kennedy Center Honors, Release 02 Show

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now. It's just a spring clean for the May queen. Or something.

Led Zeppelin's lyrics may mystify occasionally. But there's no doubting that the British heavy-metal gods knew how to wring pure dramatic power out of Jimmy Page's intricate guitar fingerings, Robert Plant's tenor shrieks, John Paul Jones' ferocious basslines and the late John Bonham's brilliant baroque drumming.

So there's a certain poetic justice in the fact that Led Zeppelin is being honored this December by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts alongside another musician known for his primal urgency, Chicago bluesman Buddy Guy. Whether loudly bemoaning his woman troubles or bringing his guitar down to a hushed confessional, Guy has been praised by Page himself (among many others) as "an absolute monster" and master of the genre.

Led Zeppelin and Guy are among the class of 2012 that will receive the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors, joining Dustin Hoffman, David Letterman and Natalia Makarova, a former Kirov Ballet dancer during the Soviet era who later joined the American Ballet Theatre.

The honorees will receive their medals December 1 at a State Department-sponsored dinner, followed by a next-day White House reception and Kennedy Center performance.

In other Led Zeppelin news, the band is finally releasing the long awaited 02 reunion show from 2007. According to Britain’s Sun newspaper, the powerhouse English blues rockers will release the concert on DVD, Blu-ray and CD this Nov. 22.

The project was recorded and filmed at Led Zeppelin’s reunion gig on December 10, 2007, which featured Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham, son of the late Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. In a show staged to raise money for the Ahmet Ertegun Education Fund, the legendary musicians ripped through a set that included classics like ‘Good Times, Bad Times,’ ‘Dazed and Confused,’ ‘Black Dog’ and ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ finishing up with ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and ‘Rock and Roll.’

It appears the long-rumored official release of that concert is actually set to see the light of day. ‘That Metal Show’ co-hosts Eddie Trunk and Jim Florentine have been hinting at big Zeppelin news, and while the band have made no announcement, they  have been teasing fans with a countdown on their Facebook page. There is speculation that the band will have a big announcement on Thursday, which is perhaps not coincidentally the fifth anniversary of the day they announced the 02 Arena show. The group updated the countdown by posting a II this morning, and have also posted a teaser clip to YouTube that appears to be the lead-in to ‘Good Times, Bad Times,’ the opening song from the 02 gig.

A source allegedly told the Sun the project is a done deal, saying, “Jimmy has been in the studio making sure everything is perfect. The band want it to remain true to their exceptionally high standards. It’s coming out on November 22 as part of a simultaneous global release.”