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OK. Teach me about bootlegs. Best audience recordings.


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Teach me.

1. If I was looking for the best (audio quality) audience recordings from 68-71, what would some of those shows be?

2. I think I've come to know that a lot of bootlegs have different names for the same show. Or something like that.

3. Where would I go to listen to such bootlegs? I would think youtube would be hit or miss about finding the best quality if they are there at all. So is there a site or something?

4. Adress anything I left out.

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Welcome to the bootleg world!  Not sure if you meant to exclude soundboards or not, so I'll include them anyway...

1.  The best sounding shows from '69 are 4/24 San Francisco (SBD), 4/27 San Francisco (SBD) & 8/31 Texas Pop Festival (SBD)

From '70: 3/7 Montreux (excellent AUD & SBD) & 9/4 Los Angeles.  9/19 New York (Evening Show) isn't what I would call "best audio quality," but it's certainly listenable, and the performance is too good to not mention it.  

From '71: 8/21 Los Angeles (great recording for hearing Bonham loud and clear!), 8/31 Orlando (SBD), 9/23 Tokyo & 9/29 Osaka.  5/3 Copenhagen is another sub-stellar sound, but performance too good to not mention. 

2.  Yes; some of the very popular shows have a crazy amount of titles, and sometimes many releases under the same title (e.g. "Live On Blueberry Hill" (9/4/70 LA)).

3.  This is usually my starting point when checking out a new show: http://starship.jpn.ph/zeppelin/beauty/.  Everything is conveniently sorted by date, and for most shows you can listen to the whole thing, even if you have to flip between different titles a few times.

4.  Typically if Godfather Records or Winston Remasters have released a show, their version will sound the best.  This will be annotated with a (GF) or (WR), respectively, beside the title of the release on Black Beauty.  If you have any questions regarding the best-sounding title for a specific show, there are plenty of folks here who can give you better help than I can!

Enjoy your fall down the rabbit's hole!

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In addition to Bonzo_fan's excellent analysis/response. I'd recommend looking through the What Place To Rest The Search forum at Royal Orleans. It's pretty good at giving you an idea of the consensus for the best version of a particular show to get. If you can't find a show listed, as stated above, seek out the Winston or Godfather versions (Dadgad is also really good).

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13 hours ago, Bonzo_fan said:

Welcome to the bootleg world!  Not sure if you meant to exclude soundboards or not, so I'll include them anyway...

1.  The best sounding shows from '69 are 4/24 San Francisco (SBD), 4/27 San Francisco (SBD) & 8/31 Texas Pop Festival (SBD)

From '70: 3/7 Montreux (excellent AUD & SBD) & 9/4 Los Angeles.  9/19 New York (Evening Show) isn't what I would call "best audio quality," but it's certainly listenable, and the performance is too good to not mention it.  

From '71: 8/21 Los Angeles (great recording for hearing Bonham loud and clear!), 8/31 Orlando (SBD), 9/23 Tokyo & 9/29 Osaka.  5/3 Copenhagen is another sub-stellar sound, but performance too good to not mention. 

2.  Yes; some of the very popular shows have a crazy amount of titles, and sometimes many releases under the same title (e.g. "Live On Blueberry Hill" (9/4/70 LA)).

3.  This is usually my starting point when checking out a new show: http://starship.jpn.ph/zeppelin/beauty/.  Everything is conveniently sorted by date, and for most shows you can listen to the whole thing, even if you have to flip between different titles a few times.

4.  Typically if Godfather Records or Winston Remasters have released a show, their version will sound the best.  This will be annotated with a (GF) or (WR), respectively, beside the title of the release on Black Beauty.  If you have any questions regarding the best-sounding title for a specific show, there are plenty of folks here who can give you better help than I can!

Enjoy your fall down the rabbit's hole!

One post for the thread to be derailed, the OP's question was OK. Teach me about bootlegs. Best audience recordings.

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4 hours ago, JTM said:

One post for the thread to be derailed, the OP's question was OK. Teach me about bootlegs. Best audience recordings.

Since he said he's new to bootlegs, I wasn't sure if he intended to exclude soundboards...I didn't know they were a thing when I first got into bootlegs.

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On Wednesday, April 18, 2018 at 11:34 AM, Bonzo_fan said:

Since he said he's new to bootlegs, I wasn't sure if he intended to exclude soundboards...I didn't know they were a thing when I first got into bootlegs.

:) I did know what sounboards recordings were but that's fine you included them because I'm now aware that some of SB releases have better quality just like the audience releases. 

I was trying to find quality audience recording because I've pretty much checked out all the SB's from 68-71. We need more SB's from 70 and 71. Specifically the second half of 70 and the first half of 71. There isn't one SB from either (excluding 71 BBC).

July 70 to June 71 could very well be the best year for Zeppelin live overall. Robert was still amazing, Jimmy was at his top and they were playing songs from all the first 4 albums. I mean your never going to hear Stairway or Immigrant Song from a 69 show, if you get my drift. ;)

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2 minutes ago, Chick-N-Picker said:

:) I did know what sounboards recordings were but that's fine you included them because I'm now aware that some of SB releases have better quality just like the audience releases. 

I was trying to find quality audience recording because I've pretty much checked out all the SB's from 68-71. We need more SB's from 70 and 71. Specifically the second half of 70 and the first half of 71. There isn't one SB from either (excluding 71 BBC).

July 70 to June 71 could very well be the best year for Zeppelin live overall. Robert was still amazing, Jimmy was at his top and they were playing songs from all the first 4 albums. I mean your never going to hear Stairway or Immigrant Song from a 69 show, if you get my drift. ;)

Ah, ok. 

Yeah, you could be right about that.

Are you interested in post-'71 at all btw?

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4 minutes ago, Bonzo_fan said:

Ah, ok. 

Yeah, you could be right about that.

Are you interested in post-'71 at all btw?

Oh yeah! I like Zep from all their stages. I used to listen to Zep like crazy for years then kind of fell away, because I'm actually a big country guy. In my first round of Zep I couldn't get enough of Candy Store Rock haha. But I was raised on country and bluegrass which I love. But for about 2 years I became almost a country purist but then remembered how much I love Zep, The blues, Hippy music, etc. I've always been sort of a country boy/farmer/hippy/rocknroller. I'm 24 by the way.

But 68-71 is just my favorite period. 72 is another year that is really void of SB. It seems like 73 onward seems to have a lot.

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I'm really starting to love so called "Outlaw Country"!  Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isabell (solo and with Drive By Truckers), Chris Stapleton and the like.  Ever heard Cody Jinks?  My new favorite, check him out!  Judging by this list, can you recommend any others I might like?

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21 hours ago, Chick-N-Picker said:

Oh yeah! I like Zep from all their stages. I used to listen to Zep like crazy for years then kind of fell away, because I'm actually a big country guy. In my first round of Zep I couldn't get enough of Candy Store Rock haha. But I was raised on country and bluegrass which I love. But for about 2 years I became almost a country purist but then remembered how much I love Zep, The blues, Hippy music, etc. I've always been sort of a country boy/farmer/hippy/rocknroller. I'm 24 by the way.

But 68-71 is just my favorite period. 72 is another year that is really void of SB. It seems like 73 onward seems to have a lot.

Ah ok, cool!  That's neat!  I never used to like country, but it's started to grow on me a bit--mainly older stuff though, and especially when non-country artists play country-ish songs, like the Dead and the Stones.  And cool; I'm 23.

Do you need audience recommendations for post-'71?

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6 hours ago, chef free said:

I'm really starting to love so called "Outlaw Country"!  Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isabell (solo and with Drive By Truckers), Chris Stapleton and the like.  Ever heard Cody Jinks?  My new favorite, check him out!  Judging by this list, can you recommend any others I might like?

Never heard of Cody Jinks but I'll look him up. Anytime you bring outlaw country up, one must mention Waylon Jennings. Also David Allen Coe, Willie Nelson along with many others. There's a good one but I can't think of his name at the moment. God, I hate that.

But one guy this often overlooked, but everybody in Nashville, and all over know him. Not sure if you've heard of him but his name is Jim Lauderdale. He's a singer and big time songwriter. He has some straight forward country, borderline rock-y stuff, outlaw country, even some bluesy and bluegrass stuff. So you have to weave yourself through his albums to find songs you prefer. That's what I did.

One song in particular to check out is "Merle World". In my opinion it is in the top 10 best country songs of all time. But it has an outlaw edge. Just give it a listen. If you like that check out "The King Of Broken Hearts" and "I Met Jesus In A Bar". Being raised a christian when I firsr heard the last one I thought he was making a mockery. It's quiet the opposite and a good song. 

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1 hour ago, Bonzo_fan said:

Ah ok, cool!  That's neat!  I never used to like country, but it's started to grow on me a bit--mainly older stuff though, and especially when non-country artists play country-ish songs, like the Dead and the Stones.  And cool; I'm 23.

Do you need audience recommendations for post-'71?

Sure. This 68-71 run can only last so long :)

And yes I love the Stones and the Deads country (and rock) stuff. I know I'll eventually be listening to it again. I used to have almost every Stones album from 65-80 on my phone and Workingmans Dead & American Beauty are superb but moved on and had to make room. That's the great thing about music with me. I go in circles with artist, bands, songs. But at least now I have a phone with plenty of room, so I never have to delete songs again. It would kill me a few years ago to delete my music. (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Country, various songs). It sucked to the max.

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21 minutes ago, Chick-N-Picker said:

Sure. This 68-71 run can only last so long :)

And yes I love the Stones and the Deads country (and rock) stuff. I know I'll eventually be listening to it again. I used to have almost every Stones album from 65-80 on my phone and Workingmans Dead & American Beauty are superb but moved on and had to make room. That's the great thing about music with me. I go in circles with artist, bands, songs. But at least now I have a phone with plenty of room, so I never have to delete songs again. It would kill me a few years ago to delete my music. (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Country, various songs). It sucked to the max.

1972: I'm not as familiar with '72 as I probably should be, mainly because of How The West Was Won.  6/25/72 LA (one of the HTWWW shows) is probably the best-sounding audience tape from '72.  I think a few of the Japanese shows are decent sound and performance quality--10/9/72 Osaka is the best of the '72 Japanese shows, I believe.  6/19/72 Seattle is a legendary show and probably the best of '72, but the sound quality is not good (I think it's listenable, and worth the effort, given the performance quality).

1973:

- 3/16 Vienna flips between a great audience tape and a soundboard

- 3/21 Hamburg is only good sound quality for the SBD that takes over for most of Dazed, Stairway & WLL, but is an amazing performance--Bonham's drumming on Dazed & WLL is out-of-this-world

- 3/22 Essen - same deal as Vienna

- 3/24 Offenburg - pretty good audience tape and one of Page's best shows ever

- 5/13 Mobile & 5/14 New Orleans are great SBDs--New Orleans has a very good audience source as well

- 5/31 LA has both a great AUD and a SBD

- 6/2 San Francisco has a good AUD, and a SBD from Moby Dick to the end

- 6/3 LA - one of the best performances of the year (and probably the best setlist), but bad recording

- 7/17 Seattle - SBD lasts until Moby Dick, after which a pretty good AUD takes over.  Winston's version is a matrix until the SBD ends

- 7/21 Providence - my personal favourite, at least of the North American tour, but the recording is just OK.  Quite listenable though, I'd say...

1975: the year with the best SBD coverage (and the best sounding SBDs at that!)

- 2/8 Philadelphia - decent AUD, but one of Page's best shows of the year

- 2/12 New York - amazing sound quality (matrix), and a pretty great performance

- 2/13 New York - straight SBD, but even better performance than the 12th

- 3/3 Ft. Worth - SBD, excellent performance for Bonham

- 3/12 Long Beach - one of the best shows of the year, and the new 3-source mix makes the whole show very listenable sound quality (except Trampled Under Foot, which is only on the inferior source)

- 3/19 & 20 Vancouver - excellent SBDs both sound- and performance-wise

- 3/21 Seattle - best show of the year IMO, now available in an excellent matrix

- 3/25 & 27 LA - great audience tapes with mostly great performances as well

- 5/18 London - pretty good AUD and a great performance

- 5/25 London - pretty good performance, and it's available in full on video, so that's good

1977:

- 4/28 Cleveland & 4/30 Pontiac - not the greatest sounding AUDs, but listenable, and the performances are well worth the effort

- 5/18 Birmingham - pretty good AUD, and a great performance

- 5/22 Ft. Worth - great SBD, both sound- and performance-wise

- 6/10 New York - decent AUD, great performance

- 6/13 New York - OK AUD, superb performance

- 6/21 LA - amazing AUD, amazing performance

- 6/22 LA - AUD that ranges from OK at the start to pretty good for the second half after a few source changes, performance is as good or better than the 21st--my personal favourite of '77

- 6/23 LA - amazing AUD, pretty great performance

- 6/25 LA - another great AUD, performance not as good as the preceding LA nights

- 6/26 LA - mediocre AUD, fantastic performance

- 6/27 LA - amazing AUD, performance is pretty good.  Valuable for the historical interest of it being their last show ever in LA, and being one of their longest shows (along with 3/21/75, 3/27/75 & 5/25/75)

I hardly ever listen to post-'77, and when I do, it's usually the two Copenhagen warm-ups in '79 or watching Achilles Last Stand (8/4/79 Knebworth) on the DVD.

I know what you mean about the phone storage--getting the 128 GB was a life-changer!  Have you ever gotten into the Dead's live repertoire?  Even more to discover than Zepp, and most of it in much better sound quality...

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51 minutes ago, Chick-N-Picker said:

Sure. This 68-71 run can only last so long :)

And yes I love the Stones and the Deads country (and rock) stuff. I know I'll eventually be listening to it again. I used to have almost every Stones album from 65-80 on my phone and Workingmans Dead & American Beauty are superb but moved on and had to make room. That's the great thing about music with me. I go in circles with artist, bands, songs. But at least now I have a phone with plenty of room, so I never have to delete songs again. It would kill me a few years ago to delete my music. (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Country, various songs). It sucked to the max.

Here's the matrix for 3/21/75 Seattle: 

 

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8 minutes ago, Bonzo_fan said:

1972: I'm not as familiar with '72 as I probably should be, mainly because of How The West Was Won.  6/25/72 LA (one of the HTWWW shows) is probably the best-sounding audience tape from '72.  I think a few of the Japanese shows are decent sound and performance quality--10/9/72 Osaka is the best of the '72 Japanese shows, I believe.  6/19/72 Seattle is a legendary show and probably the best of '72, but the sound quality is not good (I think it's listenable, and worth the effort, given the performance quality).

1973:

- 3/16 Vienna flips between a great audience tape and a soundboard

- 3/21 Hamburg is only good sound quality for the SBD that takes over for most of Dazed, Stairway & WLL, but is an amazing performance--Bonham's drumming on Dazed & WLL is out-of-this-world

- 3/22 Essen - same deal as Vienna

- 3/24 Offenburg - pretty good audience tape and one of Page's best shows ever

- 5/13 Mobile & 5/14 New Orleans are great SBDs--New Orleans has a very good audience source as well

- 5/31 LA has both a great AUD and a SBD

- 6/2 San Francisco has a good AUD, and a SBD from Moby Dick to the end

- 6/3 LA - one of the best performances of the year (and probably the best setlist), but bad recording

- 7/17 Seattle - SBD lasts until Moby Dick, after which a pretty good AUD takes over.  Winston's version is a matrix until the SBD ends

- 7/21 Providence - my personal favourite, at least of the North American tour, but the recording is just OK.  Quite listenable though, I'd say...

1975: the year with the best SBD coverage (and the best sounding SBDs at that!)

- 2/8 Philadelphia - decent AUD, but one of Page's best shows of the year

- 2/12 New York - amazing sound quality (matrix), and a pretty great performance

- 2/13 New York - straight SBD, but even better performance than the 12th

- 3/3 Ft. Worth - SBD, excellent performance for Bonham

- 3/12 Long Beach - one of the best shows of the year, and the new 3-source mix makes the whole show very listenable sound quality (except Trampled Under Foot, which is only on the inferior source)

- 3/19 & 20 Vancouver - excellent SBDs both sound- and performance-wise

- 3/21 Seattle - best show of the year IMO, now available in an excellent matrix

- 3/25 & 27 LA - great audience tapes with mostly great performances as well

- 5/18 London - pretty good AUD and a great performance

- 5/25 London - pretty good performance, and it's available in full on video, so that's good

1977:

- 4/28 Cleveland & 4/30 Pontiac - not the greatest sounding AUDs, but listenable, and the performances are well worth the effort

- 5/18 Birmingham - pretty good AUD, and a great performance

- 5/22 Ft. Worth - great SBD, both sound- and performance-wise

- 6/10 New York - decent AUD, great performance

- 6/13 New York - OK AUD, superb performance

- 6/21 LA - amazing AUD, amazing performance

- 6/22 LA - AUD that ranges from OK at the start to pretty good for the second half after a few source changes, performance is as good or better than the 21st--my personal favourite of '77

- 6/23 LA - amazing AUD, pretty great performance

- 6/25 LA - another great AUD, performance not as good as the preceding LA nights

- 6/26 LA - mediocre AUD, fantastic performance

- 6/27 LA - amazing AUD, performance is pretty good.  Valuable for the historical interest of it being their last show ever in LA, and being one of their longest shows (along with 3/21/75, 3/27/75 & 5/25/75)

I hardly ever listen to post-'77, and when I do, it's usually the two Copenhagen warm-ups in '79 or watching Achilles Last Stand (8/4/79 Knebworth) on the DVD.

I know what you mean about the phone storage--getting the 128 GB was a life-changer!  Have you ever gotten into the Dead's live repertoire?  Even more to discover than Zepp, and most of it in much better sound quality...

Thank you. No I really never did get into the Dead live. Other than watching some Youtube videos. Which is weird considering that's where they were supposed to be the best. 

Of course it's more to discover, but I can barely keep my up with everything I like now. :lol:

Between listening to current things I like, bringin back up things I already like, discovering new things, and playing music. Music pretty much consumes my life.

It's pretty normal for me to be walking around town, at let's say lowes, singing Since I've Been Loving You, an Elvis tune, or who knows what to myself. I try to keep it at a low volume to keep people from looking. But screw it, it keeps me entertained. 

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2 hours ago, Chick-N-Picker said:

Never heard of Cody Jinks but I'll look him up. Anytime you bring outlaw country up, one must mention Waylon Jennings. Also David Allen Coe, Willie Nelson along with many others. There's a good one but I can't think of his name at the moment. God, I hate that.

But one guy this often overlooked, but everybody in Nashville, and all over know him. Not sure if you've heard of him but his name is Jim Lauderdale. He's a singer and big time songwriter. He has some straight forward country, borderline rock-y stuff, outlaw country, even some bluesy and bluegrass stuff. So you have to weave yourself through his albums to find songs you prefer. That's what I did.

One song in particular to check out is "Merle World". In my opinion it is in the top 10 best country songs of all time. But it has an outlaw edge. Just give it a listen. If you like that check out "The King Of Broken Hearts" and "I Met Jesus In A Bar". Being raised a christian when I firsr heard the last one I thought he was making a mockery. It's quiet the opposite and a good song. 

Thanks I'll look up Jim.  I'm familiar with classic country, my mother used to play Hank and Pasty when I was a kid in the '60's, I've always loved Johnny, Willie, Waylon, and Merle.

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On 2018-04-22 at 12:08 AM, Chick-N-Picker said:

Thank you. No I really never did get into the Dead live. Other than watching some Youtube videos. Which is weird considering that's where they were supposed to be the best. 

Of course it's more to discover, but I can barely keep my up with everything I like now. :lol:

Between listening to current things I like, bringin back up things I already like, discovering new things, and playing music. Music pretty much consumes my life.

It's pretty normal for me to be walking around town, at let's say lowes, singing Since I've Been Loving You, an Elvis tune, or who knows what to myself. I try to keep it at a low volume to keep people from looking. But screw it, it keeps me entertained. 

Check this out then: 

^my personal favourite Dead track, studio or live...

It consumes mine too, man.  Do you play any instruments?  And lol, nice!

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