SteveAJones Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 Toronto Globe & Mail, Sept. 6, 1971. Old Reliable Zeppelin Shows Usual Style - by Jack Batten Let us consider a problem in reviewing. Led Zeppelin, the enormously popular English rock band played a concert at Maple Leaf Gardens on Saturday night. That's the problem in general. Led Zeppelin performed for 2 1/2 hours, playing as usual, music that was heavy, bluesy, rhytmically stolid, filled with long but not necessarily unique improvisational passages. And the audience, a Gardens sellout, reacted in customary style of Led Zeppelin audiences, which is to say with plenty of ovations (particularly on a very long and genuinely inept drum solo), a great rush to the stage (during the band's anthem, Whole Lotta Love), and a tribute of matches lit up every row of the Gardens (a beautiful and exciting site). That's the problem in specifics: what do you say about a concert that produced everything that was expected and customary? Well, there's a remark a couple of years ago by a critic who suggested that Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin's lead singer, is rock's number one sex symbol after the late Jim Morrison. That may be so if, as Plant's stage posturing indicates, sex is something swift and merciless. Plant offers the last word in performing narcissism: he acts out his songs, not for his audience, but for his mirror. Okay then, how about the claim that Jimmy Page is one of rock's finest guitarists? There's more truth here. If nothing else, Page is efficient. He knows all the licks and he can execute them brilliantly. He's a master at handling all the climaxes of the rave-up guitar style that came out of the Yardbirds way back in the early 1960's. Which may be the trouble: there is something depressingly antiquated about the style. Psychedelic has lost its thrill, and surely Page would like to move on to new things. Led Zeppelin may be for him a straitjacket - a rich one, but still a straitjacket. What else can you say about a Led Zeppelin show? That the band makes good music to get stoned by? Certainly, there was a nice haze of marijuana hanging over the Gardens and the people of St. John's Ambulance had lots to do. One young man very appropiately chose the opening bars of Stairway To Heaven to freak out and collaspe in aisle in front of the box seats. Or you could say, on a purely simplistic level, that Led Zeppelin is at times the most overwhelmingly, stupefyingly loud band around. That's true up to a point, and the point is Grand Funk Railroad which really is the loudest band and is coming to the Gardens on Oct. 9. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveAJones Posted November 27, 2007 Author Share Posted November 27, 2007 I wonder what he thinks looking back ? There were more than a few journalists riding the Grand Funk Railroad bandwagon. Fast forward 35 years and it all seems a rather absurd comparison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadScreamingGallery Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 One of the best ever performed 'Stairway to Heaven' and 'Celebration Day' amongst a few more new tunes and this guy seems to think it's lackluster ? Geez... I wonder what he thinks looking back ? There were more than a few journalists riding the Grand Funk Railroad bandwagon. Fast forward 35 years and it all seems a rather absurd comparison. I think that, back in the day, many journalists missed what Zep was about. I was at the MSG concert the night before the Toronto one. Do you have a review of that one in your archives? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveAJones Posted November 27, 2007 Author Share Posted November 27, 2007 I was at the MSG concert the night before the Toronto one. Do you have a review of that one in your archives? No, unfortunately. However, I will make a note of this and go fishing for one. I have seen The New York Times archives are now, finally, online and fully accessible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadScreamingGallery Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 No, unfortunately. However, I will make a note of this and go fishing for one. I have seen The New York Times archives are now, finally, online and fully accessible. I just checked nytimes.com and the archives are free if the articles date from 1981 or later. I was able to preview the articles from 1980 and earlier, but there wasn't anything there that related to the '71 MSG concert. I am still interested so, if your fishing expedition uncovers anything relevant, please let me know. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ro_a Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 If I'm not mistaken some of this show can be heard on the Jenning's Farm Blues boot. This reviewer couldn't appreciate Led Zeppelin in their prime, but I sure can. Wish I'd been there instead of him. Steve, I like this type of post. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ally Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 It seems they got slammed alot by critics and yet most people I knew at the time were not into the band untill we convinced them to see their live shows. They were hooked by the time Immigrant Song/Heartbreaker was finished as we all had been _ _ _ _ the critics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PIPPIN Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 Sounds like he needed to join more with the crowd & the music (but critics seemly to have to be 'removed' somehow!!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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