lzzoso Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Save for Japan 1971 and Seattle 1972, I think that the band's longer shows were a little too over the top, even for Zeppelin. The standard 1977 show was a great journey, as was the 1975 set. But on those shows like the last LA 77 gig or the last Earls Court gig, the energy doesn't really keep up. In nearly all cases, it's usually Page pulling out the stops and going on and on and on during Dazed and Confused (1975) or with his noise solo or some other aspect of the jams in 77. Some of them are great. But the whole "long show=legendary gig" thing really doesn't apply to any gig post 1972. And for those 1975 and 1977 gigs, Page's playing was nowhere near what it used to be in the previous years. So, those long solos don't do the show the justice that they used to. Besides, by that point, the band obviously knew that they had a reputation for playing for hours on end, and I think it was that very fact which kind of killed the spontaneity of their live show. They no longer played long gigs as a special thing, since it was now a part of their act. The best marathons of 1970-1972 were based around spontaneity, and you could hear the entire band in it together. Not the same at all for the 73-77 gigs. I have and have heard Led Zeppelin live "bootlegs" from every tour, not gigs, they did. I would have to disagree with about 90% of what you just said above. There is a reason that the later concerts (tours) were promoted as "An Evening with Led Zeppelin". Not just that but Led Zeppelin liked to say that these were more than concerts, they were "Events". Led Zeppelin made the Rules, they did not follow them. I would say that even back in the 1970's, playing for about an hour and a half was the norm for most Rock and Roll bands (most, not all). Led Zeppelin usually played for a minimum of two hours and at the very least for another hour or so. Can anyone imagine going to a concert Now and seeing any band play for 3 and/or 3 1/2 hours without an official intermission? I saw my second favorite group last September, Rush, and they put on one hell of a concert, however, even They had about a 15 - 20 intermission. I think that the bottom line is that the members of Led Zeppelin wanted to give all their fans there moneys worth and give a concert that they would remember for the rest of their lives. You also have to remember that Cocaine is a very powerful stimulant and I am sure that that may have played a part of the live Led Zeppelin three plus hours of Lunacy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookieshoes Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 I have and have heard Led Zeppelin live "bootlegs" from every tour, not gigs, they did. I would have to disagree with about 90% of what you just said above. There is a reason that the later concerts (tours) were promoted as "An Evening with Led Zeppelin". Not just that but Led Zeppelin liked to say that these were more than concerts, they were "Events". Led Zeppelin made the Rules, they did not follow them. I would say that even back in the 1970's, playing for about an hour and a half was the norm for most Rock and Roll bands (most, not all). Led Zeppelin usually played for a minimum of two hours and at the very least for another hour or so. Can anyone imagine going to a concert Now and seeing any band play for 3 and/or 3 1/2 hours without an official intermission? I saw my second favorite group last September, Rush, and they put on one hell of a concert, however, even They had about a 15 - 20 intermission. I think that the bottom line is that the members of Led Zeppelin wanted to give all their fans there moneys worth and give a concert that they would remember for the rest of their lives. You also have to remember that Cocaine is a very powerful stimulant and I am sure that that may have played a part of the live Led Zeppelin three plus hours of Lunacy. Well, I agree that the band were trailblazers in regards to their live show. But the point I was making was that a long live show doesn't automatically equal out to a "great" show. At least in regards to shows the band gave in 1975-1977. The band's shows were already being billed as "An Evening With..." in 1970. 1970 is when the magic truly happened. The summer 70 shows were as spontaneous as they ever got. The tours after that were a repeat of the format, and as a consequence they began to play the same covers in the Whole Lotta Love medley and the shows had much less spontaneity. 1972 was a perfection and extension of the 1970 format, but still with a standard set rather than the spontaneity of 1970. By 1973, the medley went away, the focus shifted to extended solos, but by 1975 the solos began to lose the quality that they had in previous years. Fast forward to 1977 and even the least interesting gigs of that year were still over 2 1/2 hours long. The live show at that point was still great, but the concept of a long show being a hallmark of the "better gigs" of a tour doesn't really apply at all to shows from 1975-1977. Some of the very best shows of both of those years actually turn out to be the "shorter" ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickZepp Posted May 21, 2011 Share Posted May 21, 2011 Can anyone imagine going to a concert Now and seeing any band play for 3 and/or 3 1/2 hours without an official intermission? I saw my second favorite group last September, Rush, and they put on one hell of a concert, however, even They had about a 15 - 20 intermission. Last year I went to a concert with Billy Joel and Elton John that was about 3 hours with no intermission, but that was cheating because it was Billy and Elton for about 3 or 4 songs, Elton for his set, Joel for his set, then Joel & Elton again for about 5 songs. But then again Zeppelin actually did have intermissions for the bands at times. Bonzo's solos didn't involve the rest of the band for the most part. JPJ solos went on for 10-15 minutes without the band. Jimmy Page solos went on for 30+ minutes sometimes. Acoustic sets gave Bonzo a complete rest for 10 or 12 minutes or so. Zeppelin didn't have intermissions for the audience I guess, they did have some for the band. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lzzoso Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Last year I went to a concert with Billy Joel and Elton John that was about 3 hours with no intermission, but that was cheating because it was Billy and Elton for about 3 or 4 songs, Elton for his set, Joel for his set, then Joel & Elton again for about 5 songs. But then again Zeppelin actually did have intermissions for the bands at times. Bonzo's solos didn't involve the rest of the band for the most part. JPJ solos went on for 10-15 minutes without the band. Jimmy Page solos went on for 30+ minutes sometimes. Acoustic sets gave Bonzo a complete rest for 10 or 12 minutes or so. Zeppelin didn't have intermissions for the audience I guess, they did have some for the band. You are correct in saying that They did have "intermissions for the bands at times". I think that They themselves called them "unofficial" intermissions for the other guys whenever One of them was performing His showcase. Jimmy in "Dazed and Confused", Jonesy for "No Quarter" and of course Bonzo bashing away on "Pat's Delight/Moby Dick/Over the Top". What I meant was an actual intermission where the whole Band went off/backstage for a certain amount of time during the actual concert. You know, a break of sorts. And I am not referring to encores which obviously come at the end of a concert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwa Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 Melody Maker's Roy Hollingsworth wrote a review after one of the two Nassau, New York shows during the 1972 tour. He wrote of the show being a mammoth 4+ hour affair. The bootlegs are fragmentary, so it's hard to corroborate. Adelaide, Australia, 1971. The band played for 72 hours, 25 minutes and 53 seconds (and that was only Dazed and Confused). They were probably angry after being ejected from their hotel room after aralditing all the furniture to the ceiling, including the beds (true story). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonzo_fan Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Same with the Seattle 6-19-72 show...the recording's got a few cuts, but that's an epic concert as well. "The one where we did a thousand encores" as Robert Plant put it. I got that show for Christmas and I listened to it today for the second time; by my count the existing recording is about 3 hrs 12 min long, and I figure the cuts could account for anywhere from 15-30+ min of lost music. These were my estimated cut lengths: 1. Start of show, beginning of 'Immigrant Song' (about 2 min) 2. Beginning of 'Going To California' (about 1 min) 3. Middle of 'Tangerine' (about 1 min) 4. In the coda jam of 'Dazed' (1-2 min) 5. Middle of 'Moby Dick' (2-5 min) 6. From the 'Goin' Down Slow' section to the end of the finale in WLL (3-5 min) 7. Middle of 'Money' to the first verse of 'Over The Hills' (5-15 min) I did a YouTube search of their other covers of 'Money,' and it usually ran 4 1/2-5 min long. On this recording it cuts off 2 1/2 min in, so that would be about 2 1/2 min cut, plus about 1 1/2 min for the beginning of 'Over The Hills,' and then say about a minute in-between the two for Plant explaining how it was a new one they're trying, that gets us to about a 5 min cut. I say 5-15 because there is a (albeit slight) chance that they played another song (or more) in-between the two. This would further explain Plant's "thousand encore" comment from a few years later--as it is there're eight encores (if you count the Organ Solo, 'Louie Louie,' and 'Let's Dance' as three separate songs). It would seem strange (to me at least) that he would single out this as having "a thousand encores" if it only had one more than 6/25/72 (seven). One other note I had about the show: when Robert is introducing Bonzo before 'Moby Dick' and he mentions his efforts to lose weight, he says that Bonzo was 210 lbs at the beginning of the tour (just 23 days prior) and is now 175 lbs! Maybe he could've made even more as a weight loss expert than he did as a drummer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonzo_fan Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Save for Japan 1971 and Seattle 1972, I think that the band's longer shows were a little too over the top, even for Zeppelin. The standard 1977 show was a great journey, as was the 1975 set. But on those shows like the last LA 77 gig or the last Earls Court gig, the energy doesn't really keep up. In nearly all cases, it's usually Page pulling out the stops and going on and on and on during Dazed and Confused (1975) or with his noise solo or some other aspect of the jams in 77. Some of them are great. But the whole "long show=legendary gig" thing really doesn't apply to any gig post 1972. And for those 1975 and 1977 gigs, Page's playing was nowhere near what it used to be in the previous years. So, those long solos don't do the show the justice that they used to. Besides, by that point, the band obviously knew that they had a reputation for playing for hours on end, and I think it was that very fact which kind of killed the spontaneity of their live show. They no longer played long gigs as a special thing, since it was now a part of their act. The best marathons of 1970-1972 were based around spontaneity, and you could hear the entire band in it together. Not the same at all for the 73-77 gigs. You have some valid points, but I would have to disagree with you if you mean to say that every marathon show from '75 &'77 was over-indulgent, etc. March 21, 1975 Seattle is one of my favourite shows of all time, and it's quite long (I believe in the 3 hr 20 min - 3 hr 30 min range). It also features some excellent playing from Page, including in the long solos. March 27, 1975 in L.A. is no slouch either and it's longer than the 21st in Seattle. For some examples from '77, look no further than L.A. Sure, they run out of gas a bit near the end on the 27th, but the other five are pretty damn strong all the way through, and as far as Jimmy's playing in the lengthy solos then: his solo in 'No Quarter' on the 23rd is among his best work in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jem1 Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Listen to Dancing Days from Southampton Jan 22 1973! It is killer! Bonzo plays very similarly to the album track. He just opens the hi-hat on the AND of 2 in each bar. Apart from that, it's the same...He felt the groove..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strider Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Listen to Dancing Days from Southampton Jan 22 1973! It is killer! Bonzo plays very similarly to the album track. He just opens the hi-hat on the AND of 2 in each bar. Apart from that, it's the same...He felt the groove..... Non sequitur. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick2632 Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 I've always heard Seattle 6/19/72 was about the longest show, I have heard about many shows in 72' being 4+ hours but it could just be rumors? But I've listened to both the Dancing Days on Seattle and before just surprising everyone with the same song again Plant says well we thought you guys enjoyed this one so much we thought we would do it again! Which at the time it wasn't released so new song to everyone! Great copy of Thank You with a 10 minute organ solo featuring Louie Louie, it was a great show even if the quality isnt great. And yes Jem1 Dancing Days from Southampton is great! I thought the whole band loved to play Dancing Days. Nonetheless I'm ready for 4 hours of Zeppelin any day of the week!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juxtiphi Posted March 25, 2014 Share Posted March 25, 2014 Last year I went to a concert with Billy Joel and Elton John that was about 3 hours with no intermission, but that was cheating because it was Billy and Elton for about 3 or 4 songs, Elton for his set, Joel for his set, then Joel & Elton again for about 5 songs. But then again Zeppelin actually did have intermissions for the bands at times. Bonzo's solos didn't involve the rest of the band for the most part. JPJ solos went on for 10-15 minutes without the band. Jimmy Page solos went on for 30+ minutes sometimes. Acoustic sets gave Bonzo a complete rest for 10 or 12 minutes or so. Zeppelin didn't have intermissions for the audience I guess, they did have some for the band. Hi Nick, I really dont think Jimmy's solos ever went more than 20 minutes tops, 3 minutes in the first bit (waving his guitar around) 2 more for the second bit with the toggle switch and 15 minutes for the bow solo. If you can point me to a date with an actual 30 minute solo I sure would like to know what it is cause to me that makes about as much sense as Martha Quinn's assertion that Jimmy would play 45 minute bow solos during dazed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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