CARNEGIE HALL, NY 10-17-69 - Never Before Seen Fan Photos! First use of Black Beauty Les Paul

[drowan]

On 4/28/2018 at 2:52 PM, drowan said:

The concert poster has a different arrangement of band members but a very similar look for each musician:

This looks like the original photo (courtesy of Rhino) that was effectively "solarized" to produce the October 1969 Carnegie Hall promotion poster and advertising:

 

Edited April 30, 2018 by drowan

[anniemouse]

How could RS get it so wrong.

[drowan]

6 hours ago, anniemouse said:

How could RS get it so wrong.

For those who are mystified how Rolling Stone Magazine could get their reviews of Led Zeppelin's first and second albums so wrong, you should read this July 14, 2014 Reel Harmonies article:

https://reelharmonies.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/the-top-15-bullshit-album-reviews-rolling-stone-magazine-had-the-balls-to-publish-3/

As a parting thought, here's a funny anecdote about some of Zeppelin's tension with RS captured in 2014 by Reddit:

"I loved the later story: when a freelancer for Rolling Stone went to interview them much later, Page asked they guy why they should be doing this, given the way Rolling Stone feels about them. The reporter says, "when I used to work at a record store the running joke was that if you bought every album Rolling Stone thought was good you would have the worst record collection on the planet." They all cracked up and did the interview."

[drowan]

Announcement in the October 25, 1969 issue of Cash Box about the huge "pre-sale" order of Led Zeppelin II (exceeding $1 mm!) published the week of the Led Zeppelin concert at Carnegie Hall:

 

[drowan]

On 1/26/2018 at 11:18 AM, anniemouse said:

How cool are those photographs. Thank you for sharing.

Though we should never forget that John Mendelsohn got it so wrong in Rolling Stone Magazine, there are other astute critics that got it right!  Let's credit Cash Box Associate Editor, Bruce Harris, for getting it completely right in his review of the Carnegie Hall 10/17/69 concert in the November 1, 1969 issue of Cash Box (page 26) in the "Talent on Stage" review:

   

Love the closing line of his review: "Led Zeppelin has landed!" 

Edited May 1, 2018 by drowan

[drowan]

14 hours ago, drowan said:

For those who are mystified how Rolling Stone Magazine could get their reviews of Led Zeppelin's first and second albums so wrong, you should read this July 14, 2014 Reel Harmonies article:

https://reelharmonies.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/the-top-15-bullshit-album-reviews-rolling-stone-magazine-had-the-balls-to-publish-3/

As a parting thought, here's a funny anecdote about some of Zeppelin's tension with RS captured in 2014 by Reddit:

"I loved the later story: when a freelancer for Rolling Stone went to interview them much later, Page asked they guy why they should be doing this, given the way Rolling Stone feels about them. The reporter says, "when I used to work at a record store the running joke was that if you bought every album Rolling Stone thought was good you would have the worst record collection on the planet." They all cracked up and did the interview."

Remember also that Bruce Harris (Cash Box), Chris Welch (Melody Maker) and many others saw the talent, energy and excitement of Led Zeppelin's concerts and albums and clearly got it right!! 

[drowan]

21 hours ago, anniemouse said:

How could RS get it so wrong.

Agreed, hard to understand.  But Bruce Harris at Cash Box magazine definitely got it right.  [For those die hard fans who love to read the original Cash Box material, much of it is now scanned and online at the William & Mary College (VA) library of digitized media.]  The link to the November 1, 1969 scanned issue of Cash Box magazine with the 10/17/69 Carnegie Hall concert review on page 26 by Bruce Harris ("b.h.") is below:

https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/17215

Click on the "Thumbnail view" which includes page 26.  Enjoy!

Edited May 1, 2018 by drowan

[anniemouse]

Considering they gave so many classic LP's of that era a kicking what were the Lp's getting praised.

[drowan]

Here are a few albums that got thumbs up in in Rolling Stone magazine in 1969, but receive little attention today:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/20-albums-rolling-stone-loved-in-the-sixties-that-youve-never-heard-27652/the-masked-marauders-the-masked-marauders-92984/

 

[drowan]

On 1/26/2018 at 11:09 AM, Mook said:

They're absolutely amazing.

My life would be complete if a recording of this was to ever come out.

Agreed.  While we're waiting here is a bootleg recording from a San Francisco concert that year that includes songs from the first and second albums and captures some of the raw energy from the Carnegie Hall night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbrovmUePxk

Enjoy.

 

[drowan]

On 2/17/2018 at 6:37 AM, sam_webmaster said:

Carnegie Hall 1969 review by Chris Welch (Melody Maker):
zoom in to read

Here's a back story on Chris Welch's coverage of the Carnegie Hall Led Zeppelin concert that may explain why "Melody Maker" was so inclined to let Chris travel to New York for his first time to witness first-hand the impact LZ was having on fans at various rock concert venues in the US:

 

Edited December 31, 2018 by drowan
Other attachment not intended

[drowan]

On 12/26/2018 at 11:31 PM, drowan said:

Agreed.  While we're waiting here is a bootleg recording from a San Francisco concert that year that includes songs from the first and second albums and captures some of the raw energy from the Carnegie Hall night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbrovmUePxk

Enjoy.

 

LZ Fans:  Here's another bootleg, but this one is from the January 31, 1969 concert in New York at the Fillmore East.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

[drowan]

Just now, drowan said:

LZ Fans:  Here's another bootleg, but this one is from the January 31, 1969 concert in New York at the Fillmore East.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

As a follow up to this concert, here is a comment from a New York area fan who also went to the Carnegie Hall concert that same year:

 

steve paul1 year ago

I went to the October 1969 Carnegie Hall concert. There was an early and late show. Led Zeppelin were the only band playing that night. They had just released Led Zeppelin II. I remember Jimmy's white suit. I was 15 years old and took my high school girlfriend. We were sober, but the concert was intoxicating. We did not speak much as we floated home. I have never heard any music from the Carnegie Hall concerts

 

3

 

REPLY

 

 

 

[drowan]

On 2/17/2018 at 3:19 AM, drowan said:

Hope you enjoyed them.  And together with the excerpts of commentary and other insight from the performance, we all now have a better opportunity to "re-live"  the amazing energy surrounding that special night!

Here is a live Led Zeppelin 1969 recording ("How Many More Times") from their first album captured in Copenhagen that was also played several months later at their Carnegie Hall concert:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSIS0o7vtPE 

It starts with Robert Plant introducing the band.  Enjoy.

 

Edited January 2, 2019 by drowan
Added additional information.

[drowan]

Here is Jimmy Page's first-hand recollection of the 10/17/69 concert at Carnegie Hall 46 years later:

Here's the source:   https://www.facebook.com/jimmypage/posts/on-this-day-in-1969-i-played-carnegie-hall-with-led-zeppelin-officialtravelling-/10153706814662612/

 

 

Edited January 7, 2019 by drowan

[drowan]

Chris Welch and his editorial team at London's Melody Maker magazine were instrumental in advancing the band's reputation and covering its highly successful gigs in the US, such as the NY Carnegie Hall concert on October 17, 1969.  This year mark's the 50th anniversary of that famous concert.  Collector's Journal: "Proximity Led Zeppelin" writer, Hugh Jones, had this to say about Melody Maker and Chris Welch's contribution as one of their enterprising staff writers covering for the first time Led Zeppelin's fourth concert tour of the US in the fall of 1969:

Though Zeppelin and Jimmy Page in particular were very critical of the "old guard" British press like Melody Maker, the band actually had some of their strongest early supporters there. Caroline Boucher in Disc, Chris Welch, Chris Charlesworth and Roy Hollingworth in Melody Maker and Ritchie Yorke in New Musical Express all played a part in gaining attention for the band with their enthusiastic reviews and profiles.

10/25/69: Led Zeppelin At Carnegie Hall by Chris Welch. A superb, vividly rendered description of Welch's trip to America with Zep for the opening of their fourth U.S. tour at Carnegie Hall in New York. Notable in part because this concert (of which no recording exists) was a milestone in the band's career and yet it is seldom discussed-and according to Welch, "Summertime Blues" was played as an encore! Cover: unknown.

 Source:  http://www.oldbuckeye.com/prox/mags2.html

 

[drowan]

On 2/16/2018 at 7:37 PM, drowan said:

Yes, according to Lewis and Pallatt's book, Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, Eddie Kramer was there:

Here is a picture of Eddie Kramer in the studio with Jimmy Page mixing Led Zeppelin II:

[drowan]

Here's a little more on Eddie Kramer:

[drowan]

Chris Wood, another  Englishman and a former member of Traffic, with Stevie Winwood, was also back stage with Eddie Kramer at the Carnegie Hall concert in 1969.  Like many other gifted musicians of his time, Chris passed away at the early age of 39 from pneumonia on July 12, 1983.  Here is a brief profile of Chris:

 

The late Chris Wood, who was born on 24 June 1944, will always be best known as a founding member of Traffic. But his talents as a flute, saxophone and keyboard player, and sometime writer, were also much employed in numerous other settings. They included work with Jimi Hendrix, Free, Ginger Baker‘s Air Force, John Martyn and many others before he was taken, much too early, at just 39.

Wood was born in the Birmingham suburb of Quinton, and his early passion for the arts prompted him to teach himself several instruments. He soon got to know other like-minded local musicians in their pre-fame days, from Christine McVie (née Perfect, born in Lancashire but raised in Birmingham), Stan Webb (later of Chicken Shack, featuring Perfect) and Wood’s subsequent Traffic colleagues, Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi.

[drowan]

Lord Sutch was also another backstage observer of the Carnegie Hall concert on October 17, 1969.  He was known to hang out with both American and UK rock musicians in both the London metro area and across the US.  He eventually cut and released an album of his own about four months after the Carnegie Hall LZ performance.  Below is a picture of Lord Sutch in the studio with Jimmy Page, an image of Sutch's album that mentions Page's involvement with the album and a brief profile on him:

 

David Edward Sutch (1940-1999) was a showman through and through, whether rocking-and-rolling in his horror-themed stage act or sending up politics as founder of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party.  (And yes, the Monster Raving Loonies have actually won elections!)  Though he wasn’t much of a singer, “Screaming” Lord Sutch, 3rd Earl of Harrow, made a splash with the Joe Meek-produced, banned-by-the-BBC single “Jack the Ripper” in 1963.  (His nickname was inspired by Screaming Jay Hawkins, and he wasn’t really an Earl…but no matter!)  That was the same year he stood in his first election, representing the National Teenage Party.  Always a colorful character, Sutch and his manager Reginald Calvert even formed a pirate radio station, inventively named “Radio Sutch.”  Sutch was known to emerge from a coffin onstage, and could be found offstage tooling around in his Union Jack-adorned Rolls Royce.

Until 1970, however, Sutch had never released an LP.  He called on some of his very famous friends to participate in sessions for the album that would become Heavy Friends, though most subsequently disowned it when Sutch emblazoned their names on the cover of the LP rather than allowing them the reportedly-promised anonymity.  Recorded at Hollywood’s Mystic Sound Studios in 1969, Heavy Friends has a loose, off-the-cuff feel, as if the recorders had been turned on during a late-night jam session.  Sutch resisted the temptation to record a batch of oldies, instead bringing self-described “modern rock ‘n’ roll with the real Zeppelin sound” to the table.  Though it’s debatable whether he quite achieved that, one couldn’t deny Sutch’s understated assertion that “John Bonham is a tremendous drummer.”  Jimmy Page ended up with a co-producer credit (“very nice of [Sutch],” he commented in 1970) and as co-writer of six of the album’s twelve songs.  Sutch and co. were joined by Daniel Edwards, Martin Kohl and Rick Brown on bass, Kent Henrey on guitar, and Carlo Little and Bob Metke on drums.

Edited January 24, 2019 by drowan
Added some details.

[drowan]

Dr. John (Malcolm John Rebbenack, Jr., aka "The Night Tripper") who had just a year earlier (1968) recorded his first album, Gris-Gris, was also backstage at the Carnegie Hall concert in October 1969.  Led Zeppelin and Dr. John had run into each other during the day of the concert  when the band was visiting Atlantic's recording studios with Chris Welch and Eddie Kramer in Manhattan.  Here is a brief profile of Dr. John's long and productive career in music.  There is even a link below to a Led Zeppelin studio recording of "Royal Orleans" from the Presence album in which Robert Plant is described as singing the song in a "Dr. John style" - in deference to Dr. John's New Orleans roots! 

Dr. John was born on November 21, 1940, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Having played as a guitarist and pianist for years in both his home city and Los Angeles, the splashy musician made his album debut with Gris-Gris in 1968. He had a hit single a few years later with "Right Place, Wrong Time," and over the decades, with many albums, has continued to share and shape the tradition of New Orleans R&B.

From the Presence (Deluxe Edition) Disc 2, Track 4. This is the reference version of the studio performance on November 12, 1975 at Musicland Studios, Munich, West Germany (Germany today). Engineered by Keith Harwood. And yes that is Robert Plant, singing in the style of Dr. John or Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack.  See the link below of the music cut:

 

 

Edited January 28, 2019 by drowan
Added title of song off the LZ Presence album; details of visit to Atlantic's studios.

[drowan]

According to Chris Welch, Chris Wood joined Led Zeppelin back stage at the Carnegie Hall concert after having run into the band while Wood was working with Dr. John at Atlantic's Manhattan studio earlier in the day. 

[drowan]

***ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THIS FORUM POSTING***

This past Saturday, January 26, 2019, marked the first year anniversary of this forum website feature focusing on Led Zeppelin's one and only NYC Carnegie Hall concert held on October 17, 1969.  We are pleased to note that over 10,700 visitors enjoyed this featured site during it's first year and over 130 responses to these photos and follow up comments were entered!!  Thanks for your enthusiastic appreciation for these photos and the research and feedback that followed.  Now if only a bootleg recording of that concert would surface!  Best regards to all interested and loyal LZ fans.  Regards, Jerry Birdsall and Dana Rowan (providers of these posted original Carnegie Hall Led  Zeppelin photographs)

********************************************************************************************************************

Edited January 28, 2019 by drowan
To provide a little more detail and formatting.

[drowan]

On 1/27/2018 at 9:51 PM, drowan said:

For a little more color on the background of the promoter, Howard Stein, who put together the LZ show at Carnegie Hall:

https://mycousinsocialitetaylorstein.wordpress.com/tag/my-cousin-and-legendary-rock-promoter-and-new-york-night-club-owner-howard-stein/

http://harrysandler.com/2013/06/1229/

 

Here is some additional background on Howard Stein who at the time of the 10/17/69 Led Zeppelin Carnegie Hall Concert was one of Bill Graham's big competitors and emerging as one of the top rock concert promoters in the New York metro area in 1969:

 

Howard Stein was an important promoter in New York in the 60s and 70s, and he booked the Grateful Dead many times. Among the many venues where he booked the Dead were the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, Gaelic Park in the Bronx and the Academy of Music in Manhattan. Stein competed first with Bill Graham and later with John Scher for bookings from touring groups, not just the Grateful Dead.

The ad for Singer Bowl and Pavilion ad from the June 5, 1969 Village Voice

In the Summer of 1969, Howard Stein was booking both the Singer Bowl and The Pavilion, in Flushing Meadows Park in Queens. The park had been the site of the New York World's Fair in 1964, and subsequently became the site of Shea Stadium, home of the New York Mets (and for some time, the Jets as well). The Singer Bowl was the larger venue. You can see from the ad above that concerts at the Singer Bowl and the Pavilion did not directly conflict. The Grateful Dead had headlined a July 11-12, 1969 weekend at the Pavilion for Stein, supported by Joe Cocker And The Grease Band and Tribe. I believe the Pavilion shows were where Steve Parrish met the Grateful Dead.

Edited February 2, 2019 by drowan

[ScarletMacaw]

Thanks for the photos and all this info! I just recently returned to this site.

I attended the Zep tribute event at Carnegie Hall in March 2018. It was a lot of fun. Some of the acts were better than others, but they all put on a good show. The highlight was definitely the Rock and Roll cover by Living Colour. I wish I could go this year but I moved to California.