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Over the Hills: sung in high register?


Tripmender

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Apart from 25.6.72, I don't think I've ever heard Percy sing OTHAFA in high register. Haven't heard 27.6.72 or 28.6.72, but he was singing it low by Japan 72....anyone heard any 73 or later shows when he sings it properly?

Edit: wrong! Osaka 72 was still high. But after Japan, I think he pretty much gave up on it - unless of course anyone knows otherwise?

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He attempted to do it on 13-6-77.

:P Yes...key word, "attempted". And he almost succeeded, but not quite. IIRC he tries again on the 14th as well. Goes to show how much our boy's voice changed over the years...

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  • 7 years later...

I was wondering this myself recently, mostly focusing on the very difficult part after the intro when the band comes blasting in.  "Many times" ... etc.    He misses it early in the Japan 72 tour but on the last night Oct 10 1972 he nails it.

Are there any recordings of Montreux late October 1972?  I don't know of any.

Newcastle Nov 30 1972 he does that part pretty well, but the first few notes are buried in the instrumental blast so I cannot be really sure.  Same goes for Birmingham Dec 16 and London Dec 22.

Dec 23 London he strains a bit and then goes a bit lower.  

Dec 8 Manchester he goes high but on the tape sounds a bit weaker.

Jan 7, 1973 oxford he is really straining - the flu I guess, same for Liverpool Jan 14

Jan 15 Trent he is much better on this very difficult part - to sing those notes with the power needed to be heard through that instrumental blast off !!

That may be the last time.  By Southampton Jan 22 everything in that part is lower and I think it stayed that way except for a few valiant attempts in 1977 as noted above.

What is so sad is that they didn't do this song until the end of the 1972 US tour.  Or maybe it is just not on the available recordings?   That HTWWW version is killer.  In the audience tape he sounds great too.

 

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2 hours ago, John M said:

What is so sad is that they didn't do this song until the end of the 1972 US tour.  Or maybe it is just not on the available recordings?   That HTWWW version is killer.  In the audience tape he sounds great too.

 

I think the first known version is 6/19/72 Seattle during the encores.   The first half of the song is missing from the tape but it’s a killer version.   

It was performed the next show in Denver but no tape of it so far.   It was probably played in San Diego as well but sadly no tape of that show either  

The 1972 Osaka show I was so surprised that he could still sing it so well considering how is vocals were changing at that time.  

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3 hours ago, John M said:

I was wondering this myself recently, mostly focusing on the very difficult part after the intro when the band comes blasting in.  "Many times" ... etc.    He misses it early in the Japan 72 tour but on the last night Oct 10 1972 he nails it.

Are there any recordings of Montreux late October 1972?  I don't know of any.

Newcastle Nov 30 1972 he does that part pretty well, but the first few notes are buried in the instrumental blast so I cannot be really sure.  Same goes for Birmingham Dec 16 and London Dec 22.

Dec 23 London he strains a bit and then goes a bit lower.  

Dec 8 Manchester he goes high but on the tape sounds a bit weaker.

Jan 7, 1973 oxford he is really straining - the flu I guess, same for Liverpool Jan 14

Jan 15 Trent he is much better on this very difficult part - to sing those notes with the power needed to be heard through that instrumental blast off !!

That may be the last time.  By Southampton Jan 22 everything in that part is lower and I think it stayed that way except for a few valiant attempts in 1977 as noted above.

What is so sad is that they didn't do this song until the end of the 1972 US tour.  Or maybe it is just not on the available recordings?   That HTWWW version is killer.  In the audience tape he sounds great too.

 

He actually attempted to sing it high one final time in Paris 4/1/73, probably because his voice was the strongest it had been in months. Sadly, he seems to all but give up by the end.

 

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I've become so used to the lower register over the years, it doesn't really bother me. What irks me far more about Plant's vocals on OTHAFA in concert is his not singing the original opening lyrics "Many have I loved, many times been bitten" in the hard-rocking part. By essentially repeating the second lyric twice he sounds stupid and it ruins the questing nature of the song's meaning.

And I keep WAITING for some journalist to point this out and ask him "Why?" Why did he drop that opening line? It makes no sense.

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29 minutes ago, Strider said:

I've become so used to the lower register over the years, it doesn't really bother me. What irks me far more about Plant's vocals on OTHAFA in concert is his not singing the original opening lyrics "Many have I loved, many times been bitten" in the hard-rocking part. By essentially repeating the second lyric twice he sounds stupid and it ruins the questing nature of the song's meaning.

And I keep WAITING for some journalist to point this out and ask him "Why?" Why did he drop that opening line? It makes no sense.

Maybe his wife didn't like the verse.

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17 hours ago, ZepHead315 said:

He actually attempted to sing it high one final time in Paris 4/1/73, probably because his voice was the strongest it had been in months. Sadly, he seems to all but give up by the end.

Thanks.  I never listened to that show before.  I went back and listened to this bit in Seattle 6-19-72 and it was strong - according to the set lists I have in Luis Rey's book that may be the first time the song was played live?  Of course Rey only has set lists for shows where he had a recording.  Tuscon June 28 is very strong.  I don't see OTH at San Bernadino 1972 in any of the recordings I can find.

Oct 3 1972 at Budokan is strong.

34 minutes ago, Strider said:

I've become so used to the lower register over the years, it doesn't really bother me.

I agree.  I love every version of the song.  I was just curious about how quickly the change took place.   

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18 hours ago, gibsonfan159 said:

Maybe his wife didn't like the verse.

Which is a pretty poor excuse. I've actually heard that reason mentioned before but I can't remember where I saw it and I couldn't readily find it among my Zeppelin books or magazines.

But come on...Mick Jagger or David Bowie didn't allow their wives to dictate what they sang. They realized that a rock star is a performer performing a role. It's not biographical. If Robert did change it for that reason it goes a long way towards explaining why the critics never gave him the respect they did to Bowie and Jagger.

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4 hours ago, Strider said:

Which is a pretty poor excuse. I've actually heard that reason mentioned before but I can't remember where I saw it and I couldn't readily find it among my Zeppelin books or magazines.

But come on...Mick Jagger or David Bowie didn't allow their wives to dictate what they sang. They realized that a rock star is a performer performing a role. It's not biographical. If Robert did change it for that reason it goes a long way towards explaining why the critics never gave him the respect they did to Bowie and Jagger.

Sorry, I forgot the sarcasm tag. I wouldn't believe for a second that Carmen would have any say over the groupies Robert screwed around with little own his lyrics. I mean, he did leave her for her sister, so it's not like he had that much consideration for her lol.

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17 hours ago, gibsonfan159 said:

Sorry, I forgot the sarcasm tag. I wouldn't believe for a second that Carmen would have any say over the groupies Robert screwed around with little own his lyrics. I mean, he did leave her for her sister, so it's not like he had that much consideration for her lol.

Carmen is his daughter lol...I think you mean Maureen ;)

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On 2/26/2018 at 12:49 AM, Strider said:

Which is a pretty poor excuse. I've actually heard that reason mentioned before but I can't remember where I saw it and I couldn't readily find it among my Zeppelin books or magazines.

But come on...Mick Jagger or David Bowie didn't allow their wives to dictate what they sang. They realized that a rock star is a performer performing a role. It's not biographical. If Robert did change it for that reason it goes a long way towards explaining why the critics never gave him the respect they did to Bowie and Jagger.

Plus, if that was the reason for the lyric change, why did he sing Black Country Woman during the same damn show on the 77' tour? Maureen did not like the opening verse to OTHAFA but was down with her husband crowing on about banging her sister in front of 76,000+ fans?

This has always been a mystery to me, it's not like the song has long, complicated lyrics...quite the opposite in fact.

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  • 1 month later...
On 2/24/2018 at 8:49 PM, Sticks of Fire said:

Another victim of Plant losing his high register vocals is Black Dog.   Was Milan 1971 the last time he really went for it?  Maybe Montreux in August?

 

 

His voice is freaking insane there. I actually think it's higher than the album, especially in parts.

Damn, it's tragic he lost his 67-71 voice. Although, some prefer his other voices so I guess it's a Plant for everybody.

I guess it makes those first 4 albums so much more special. It also makes listening to 1971 shows more fun. Listening to him hit the stuff knowing that the end is just around the corner.

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On 2/24/2018 at 9:29 PM, Sticks of Fire said:

Actually I misspoke in my earlier post.   This is one of the best versions out there for Plant. 

10/10/72 Kyoto Japan.  

 

 

Yeah. He did very well there. I much prefer it sung the original way than in the lower octave. It just throws me off.

Why on God's Earth when Plant started having his voice troubles didn't they just drop the key one full tone. Page could even play it the same. Use heavy-ier gauge strings then just tune down. Then his strings would have felt normal and everything.

If they had started doing this in mid to late 71 when his voice troubles started creeping up its hard to know how much of his original voice could have been saved. Possibly all of it. Plant still needed to quit singing with the flu though but if your having voice troubles and a key is to high, then it's just too high. To go from say A to G, it would help the singer immensely and since he would be hitting the correct notes in G it would still sound the same as if he was in A.

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  • 3 months later...
On 2/24/2018 at 8:49 PM, Sticks of Fire said:

Another victim of Plant losing his high register vocals is Black Dog.   Was Milan 1971 the last time he really went for it?  Maybe Montreux in August?

 

At Osaka 9/23/71 he sings the album vocal melody great during the majority of the song. I’d guess this is also true for some of the other Sept. 71 Japan shows, but I haven’t heard them yet. But he doesn’t go for pretty much ALL the album high notes as he did at Belfast and Copenhagen.

That Osaka show is just killer, and ZepHead315 constructed the definitive version of that show, combining the best audience sources, available here:

http://forums.ledzeppelin.com/topic/25503-my-personal-source-mixcompilation-of-tokyo-92371/

ALB

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6 hours ago, AchillesLastBand said:

 

At Osaka 9/23/71 he sings the album vocal melody great during the majority of the song. I’d guess this is also true for some of the other Sept. 71 Japan shows, but I haven’t heard them yet. But he doesn’t go for pretty much ALL the album high notes as he did at Belfast and Copenhagen.

That Osaka show is just killer, and ZepHead315 constructed the definitive version of that show, combining the best audience sources, available here:

http://forums.ledzeppelin.com/topic/25503-my-personal-source-mixcompilation-of-tokyo-92371/

ALB

Appreciate the shoutout man! :) For anyone interested, here's the new FLAC download link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_Yj5x1Qdhn3aYpO70SyJZ3GO1pF3XpUo

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