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What is the best bootleg?


porca41

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I remember the days when a new Led Zeppelin bootleg was news, and nearly as easy to buy as the studio releases. Blueberryhill was everywhere in 1971, and I remember reading a review in the music press about the Going to California double album, which was for sale in the small ads in the same publication. It was easy to keep up with them in those days, but now there are so many that I have missed I was wondering if any fans could tell me their favourites, so I can reliably whitle it down to a few definitive ones.

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I only have three and their all on Vinyl.

The Rising Of The Zeppelin - Good stuff but not going to blow anyone away.

Soundcheck July 5, 1973 - Really good and unique. Very rockabilly. Not like anything else I've heard by Zeppelin.

Bonzo's Last Stand - Said to be the final time Led Zeppelin ever played together. A rehersal a few days before Bonham died. Not amazing, mainly for collectors. Still good stuff.

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For both performance and sound quality covering the gaps between those boots you mentioned and offical releases I'd say...

Filmore West - 27/4/69

Texas Pop Festival 31/8/69

Raleigh - 8/4/70

Toyko - 23/9/71

Osaka - 29/9/71

Osaka - 9/10/72

Offenbach - 24/3/73

LA - 25/3/75

Earls Court - 24/5/75

LA - 21/6/77

LA - 23/6/77

Knedworth 4/8/79

Obviously alot of personal prefference there, for me Mike Millards LA recordings beat the more recent drier soundboards that have been released and cover superior shows. The 70-73 shows are less perfect audience recordings but still very listenable by most peoples standards and are reguarded my many/most as some of the bands greatest shows.

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Those things happen. I stand by my statements. When a new person wishes to play thread police, they should first read the guidelines. Secondly, there are plenty of threads on what are the best bootlegs. Use the search function (also in the guidelines). Neither are unreasonable requests.

Thirdly, no one asked ledzepfilm to stick his 2 cents in regarding my response. I don't particularly care for him telling me what I should do. He had an opinion, and I had one for him. Simple as that.

Since the OP didn't qualify the meaning of "best" I will simply add that in terms of sound quality Four Blocks In The Snow is one of the best. Performance is from Feb 12, 1975 and it is a matrix of the SBD and one of the 2 AUD recordings available.

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Since the OP didn't qualify the meaning of "best" I will simply add that in terms of sound quality Four Blocks In The Snow is one of the best. Performance is from Feb 12, 1975 and it is a matrix of the SBD and one of the 2 AUD recordings available.

+1, this one sounds absolutely amazing...as does St. Valentine's Day Massacre 1975-02-14 <--my two favorite 75 shows

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I didn't delete shit. My response was to 2 new members who had something to say. I doubt they are new, probably just some current member trying to hide behind a new name. Their posts were deleted, as well. You and Melacore need to get over it. It wasn't addressed to either of you.

P.S. Melacore - no I am not a troll. I have been a member here since 2004, and I have contributed positively in a lot of threads.

To stay on topic, another great early bootleg is April 27, 1969.

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Getting back to the question Porka 41 originally asked:

To keep the list from being truly enormous, I've intentionally not included the following:

- Landmark shows that are only available as poor quality recordings

- Good performances that have major portions missing/unavailable

- Good sounding recordings of poor or undistinguished performances

- Shows available (even if only in edited form) on official releases

That said, this is by no means exhaustive.

Great Performances Available Complete (or Nearly Complete), in Decent to Excellent Sound Quality:

1969 01 05 Whiskey A Go Go (L.A.)

1969 04 24 Fillmore West (L.A.) ("Dancing Avocado" show)

1969 04 27 Fillmore West (L.A.)

1969 08 31 Texas Int'l Pop Festival

1969 10 10 Paris Radio

1970 03 07 Montreux

1970 09 04 L.A. ("Blueberry Hill" show)

1970 09 19 NYC (evening show)

1971 08 31 Orlando FL

1971 09 14 Berkeley ("Going to California" show)

1971 09 23 Tokyo

1971 09 29 Osaka

1972 10 02 Tokyo

1973 01 15 Stoke, UK

1973 01 22 Southampton, UK

1973 03 24 Offenburg, West Germany

1973 05 13 Mobile, AL

1973 05 31 L.A. ("Bonzo's Birthday Party" show)

1973 06 02 San Francisco ("Vibes are Real" Show)

1975 02 12 NYC

1975 02 12 Uniondale, NY

1975 03 05 Dallas

1975 03 19 Vancouver, BC

1975 03 24, 25, 27 L.A. (Mike Millard recordings)

1975 05 24, 25 London Earls Court

1977 05 30 Landover MD

1977 06 21 L.A. ("Listen to this Eddie" show)

1977 06 23 L.A. ("For Badgeholders Only" show)

1979 07 24 Copenhagen

1980 06 29 Zurich

1980 06 30 Frankfurt

2007 12 10 London

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copenhagen 5.3.71, cleveland 4.27 and 4.28.77, houston 5.21.77, landover '77 (all 4 shows), inglewood 6.25.77, copenhagen 7.23.79, dortmund 6.17.80, rotterdam 6.21.80

The quality of the recording of the 25/5/77 Landover show is atrocious, I wouldn't recommend it to someone who is just wanting to start getting more shows. The 28/5 show is also pretty subpar imo, the band (especially Bonzo and Jimmy) seem wasted/lazy and as a result the performance is sluggish and sloppy. A better choice for me would be Birmingham AL 18/5/77, Houston 21/5/77, Fort Worth 22/5/77 and Landover 30/5/77 if you want four shows from May.The last Landover gig is really the only great gig of the four imo.

I'm just about to go to bed so I'll post a list of shows I think would be good to start off on tomorrow for ya porca.

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The quality of the recording of the 25/5/77 Landover show is atrocious, I wouldn't recommend it to someone who is just wanting to start getting more shows. The 28/5 show is also pretty subpar imo, the band (especially Bonzo and Jimmy) seem wasted/lazy and as a result the performance is sluggish and sloppy. A better choice for me would be Birmingham AL 18/5/77, Houston 21/5/77, Fort Worth 22/5/77 and Landover 30/5/77 if you want four shows from May.The last Landover gig is really the only great gig of the four imo.

I'm just about to go to bed so I'll post a list of shows I think would be good to start off on tomorrow for ya porca.

bamf4k - many of the shows you listed are definitely worth listening to - 05 03 71 Copenhagen in particular, but also 04 27 & 28 77 Cleveland, 07 23 79 Copenhagen, and 06 17 80 Dortmund.

But as tom kid says, I think the OP is looking to get started (again) with Zep boots. Copenhagen '71 is a really important show because of the debut of so many tracks from the then-unreleased 4th album. But the sound quality is pretty bad. Ditto for 04 28 77 Cleveland - great show, crappy tape source.

04 27 77 Cleveland, 05 26 & 26 77 Landover, and 07 23 79 Copenhagen are good tapes, but the performances are inferior to other dates a day or two later, in the same venues (05 30 77 Landover and 07 24 79 Copenhagen). And IMHO, Dortmund 1980 is interesting but quite rough performance-wise; 06 29 Zurich and 06 30 Frankfurt are really the only two shows that are decent throughout.

And tom kid - I agree 05 21 77 Houston is a good performance and a very nice sounding board tape. I know there's a whole thread devoted to 1977, but I have to say that while I love the '77 set lists, I find the performances so inconsistent that I usually just listen to the exceptional nights of 05 30 Landover, and 06 21 & 23 L.A. - everything else is a let-down.

That said, 05 18 77 Birmingham is the one show I haven't heard yet, so maybe it's an exception.

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