Two very different second albums...first, The Byrds "Turn! Turn! Turn!" from 1965. An absolute STUNNING song and sadly overlooked, "If You're Gone"...Gene Clark was a great songwriter and had a soulful voice...and listen to those haunting backing harmonies by McGuinn and Crosby! Now for something completely different...the Dead Kennedys "Plastic Surgery Disasters", a hardcore classic: Trust Your Mechanic

I'm sure your kids don't think so... Hahaha...I'm beginning to feel like a short-order cook; that'll be one LZ III for MissMelanie, a LZ IV for Friends, a 6-21-77 for SuperDave, 6-25-72 for whomever. Oh well, as the saying goes, good things come to those who wait. Just got off from work and am heading for dinner and the LA Film Festival. Enjoy your weekend everybody!

Wow someone must have taken 'em down because I remember a couple years ago there being quite a few up. Maybe I have the search term wrong. Have you tried Page Plant MTV special or Page Plant tour?

If you type in Page Plant Unledded in the google images search box you'll find tons of pics of Jimmy with the washburn acoustic.

This is toooo FUNNY and somewhat ironic. All those photos throughout the 77 tour of Jimmy in his shades, and the ONE show where they all wear sunglasses and it is JIMMY that is hard to find a photo of wearing his sunglasses!

Could it be even earlier Steve, as that is exactly how Jimmy Page looked, even down to the clothes, when I saw him on the Page/Plant tour of 98 and with the Black Crowes in 99.

It's after midnight on the night of June 23, and I'm heading home from a screening of a restored print of Fellini's "La Dolce Vita". Thirty-four years ago to the day, I was stuck in traffic in the parking lot of the LA Forum after Led Zeppelin's concert the night of June 23, 1977. I know I said I would wait until next year to write about the 77 Forum shows, but since the concert of the 23rd was so special, I figured I could write a brief post to tide you over until next year. Famously known as the Badgeholder show...For Badgeholders Only being the bootleg title...the concert of June 23 is also the night Keith Moon of the Who made his shambolic appearance during Moby Dick and the encore. Sadly, he would die the next year, so those of us at the concert that night saw Keith Moon's last appearance on a concert stage in the U.S. As in 1975, the 77 tour came after a two-year break. The difference was that in 77 the break was caused by Plant's near-fatal accident. After the accident, us fans had to weather all sorts of rumours regarding the band and whether it would break up. For the first time, the Rock Gods were showing signs of mortality. When the 77 US tour was finally announced, the sigh of relief and the rush of expectation was simultaneous. Tickets for the LA shows went on sale the last Monday in January 77, at 10am. My friends and I took turns camping out all week at the Forum parking lot. "Roots" was airing that week on TV, and it was an assignment in our social studies class to do a report on the mimi-series. I had a friend take notes for me and read the book while camping out. To this day, I have never seen Roots. This was also the week I saw Van Halen for the first time, and for the first time in the 70's saw that there was a new gunslinger in town that could challenge Jimmy Page. By Sunday the line at the Forum was immense...thousands and thousands of people of all ages and sizes...maybe 5,000 in all. Monday morning couldn't come soon enough and thanks to us getting in line earlier in the week, we were pretty close to the front. After about 15-20 minutes I reached the window and got as many tickets I could afford for as many shows as I could; there were originally 3 shows scheduled to go on sale, but tix sold so fast and there were so many people in line they added a 4th show that day and later a 5th show. Finally a 6th and final Forum show went on sale weeks later. Of course the 6 shows were originally scheduled for March. But with Plant's health issues, the shows kept getting pushed back and back until finally they were moved to June 21-23 and 25-27. All the delays were excrutiating so that by the time the concerts finally arrived in June, the audience was primed to explode. The shows would be just Led Zeppelin...no opening act, as usual. After a blazing opening night on June 21, I was looking forward to more on June 23. And I wasn't disappointed...some parts of the show even seemed better than the 21st. The years had changed the band physically since 75. Jimmy especially was noticeably more gaunt and even his face looked different. The sunglasses and scarf during the opening numbers was an affectation I could've done without, but he still moved and skittered around the stage in that signature Jimmy Page-style. Some nights in 77 he wasn't as active, but on this night he was. Plant looked a little heavier, which was understandable given his accident, but he still exuded that Golden God aura...and he still had THAT hair. More importantly, his voice was noticeably much-improved over 1975...the best overall he'd sounded since 1972. Bonzo looked like Bonzo...beard and all. 1977 also saw the debut of yet another Ludwig kit...this time his stainless steel kit. As usial, in Bonham's hands they sounded like cannons. John Paul Jones meanwhile was looking uncomfortably too much like Greg Lake, with his hair and propensity of wearing white. Then there was his decision to use Alembic basses on some of the songs, which gave a weird twang to the sound. Overall though, the show was great...the return of the acoustic set after a 5 year absence was most welcome. No Quarter was stretched beyond belief, much like the Dazed and Confuses of earlier tours. Over the Hills and Far Away was always a highlight of the night, Jimmy and Bonzo working the solo for all its worth. SIBLY and Kashmir also were their usual stellar selves...Jimmy's SIBLY solo on the 23rd might've been his best of the entire 77 tour. But what was really cool about the 77 tour was the chance to hear some Presence songs and the addition of more PG material. Adding TYG, Black Country Woman, Nobody's Fault and Achilles to the setlist made a huge difference...and all 4 of these songs were performed powerfully on June 23rd. And we got Trampled Underfoot after Kashmir, which gave an extra boost to the final hour of the show, where the band's energy and the show's momentum flagged with the drum solo/guitar solo section. Yeah, visually Jimmy's laser pyramid looked awesome, but his solo section often seemed disjointed and unrehearsed and overlong...the bow segment never sounded as good as it did during Dazed and Confused and the Theremin didn't sound as cool as during Whole Lotta Love; it seemed lost without the groove laid down by Jones and Bonham. I was tired of drum solos by 75, let alone 77...but at least on this night we got the entertaining drunken appearance of Keith Moon, shouting incoherently in the mic and joining Bonzo for some random bashing during the drum solo. It made for a goofy sight and a welcome bit of unscripted spontaneity. After Jimmy's guitar-noise solo bit, it was up to Achilles Last Stand to recharge the concert. Fortunately they delivered one of the best Achilles ever! A fairly decent Stairway followed with the usual mirrorball light sparkles and flicked bics raised in tribute. And just like that, the main set was over and the band retreated offstage. An encore was loudly demanded and once again, we were treated to the ramblings of an obviously blotto Keith Moon, while Plant fiddled with the drums. The band, Moon, and everybody were in demonstrably high-spirits and good-humour all night long, and it all coalesced during the encore, as the band launched into the standard 77 version of Whole Lotta Love/Rock and Roll. Jimmy now was wearing a leather jacket over his white dragon suit...and smoking yet another cigarette, one of many through the night and another sign of change from 75. Barely 5 minutes and the encore was over and Robert was bidding us good night. The days of multiple encores were over. As it was, the show was well over 3 hours long as the clock struck the Cinderella hour. People were buzzing over Moon's appearance and alternately puzzling and laughing over Plant's many "badgeholder" references. Hmmm, could Hotplant, MSG and Silver Rider been among the Badgeholders that night? Considering what transpired in the remaining LA Forum shows and the few concerts played on the shortened third leg in July, I think it is safe to say that the June 23, 1977 concert was not only a highlight of the entire tour, but the last really great show of 1977...and an end of an era. The "classic" Led Zeppelin would no longer exist after 1977. Goodbye dragon suits. Goodbye bare-chested Robert Plant. That's all for now folks...see ya next year for my 35th anniversary of 1977 extravaganza.

By edit, do you mean the section in TYG where the gap in Millard's tape is filled with another inferior audience tape? My Genuine Masters and EVSD copies all have the gap filled in and my Silver Rarities and original vinyl copies don't. I know some people that don't like the gaps filled with other sources, but I do...I don't like the feeling I'm missing music. My mission now is to find a Winston remaster edition of LTTE.

Yeah, I just had a hunch David, given that Jimmy seemed to have many instances of broken straps, broken strings, faulty amps, etc. on the 77 tour, that it was a guitar switch during Stairway. Glad you had the audio to confirm it. My confession: I only recently acquired my first 77 MSG show; the first night of June 7. I still haven't heard any of the other New York shows. I don't really know why...it's just never been a priority with me I guess. Lastly, I am going to concur that that pic of Jimmy with the rose is from 6-27.

Her first name, yes...but not her last. Hell, I had completely forgotten the names of the family that lived right next door to us, and whose son and daughter I played with. It was my sister who remembered their names when we were looking at old photos at my aunt's one day. That's why I was laughing when Donald Trump was trying to make a big deal out of Obama's birth certificate, saying that his 1st grade class remembers him so why didn't Obama's? I wouldn't recognize anybody from my First grade class if you put a gun to my head. There are some things in my childhood that are complete blanks.

Go to google images and type in "led zeppelin march 27, 1970 la forum" in the search box. A bunch of Boyd's photos will come up...all you gotta do is scroll thru the images.

Yes, these are Chuck Boyd's excellent series of photos from the LA Forum, March 27. These are just a few of many more that Boyd shot. What makes these special compared to many other Forum photos is that Chuck shot these from behind the stage, so you can see the crowd's excitement, as well as see the distinctive interior of the LA Forum. I've already alerted DavidZoso and he will notify Sam that the photos in the Timeline by Robert Knight that claim to be from March 27, 1970 are incorrect. Boyd's are the real 3-27-70 shots.

Sorry...I should've checked the setlist first. Maybe it is Out on the Tiles...UNLESS... I'm struck by the fact that JPJ is not in the photo. Whenever Jones played bass, he usually would stand close to Bonzo's kit. The fact that I can't see Jones suggests he might be at his keyboards, which would narrow it to these songs: SIBLY, No Quarter, Kashmir and Stairway. I haven't heard the June 8 show, so I don't know if you can hear the tambourine in any other song other than Stairway. The fact that Jimmy is playing a Les Paul would seem to eliminate Stairway...as well as Kashmir, leaving SIBLY and NQ. But what if Jimmy had problems with the doubleneck during Stairway and had to make the switch to the Les Paul for the solo? Then that would account for Plant's tambourine. Also, Jimmy's posture in the photos above suggest a Stairway-esque pose. Are there any good recordings of the June 8 show? Is there a gap in Stairway that suggests Jimmy is switching guitars? A very curious picture.

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhhhhh!!!!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!! Reel-to-reels? NOW you're talking! I still have some old reels and a vintage 70's Teac Reel-to-Reel tape deck in storage.

So sad about Leslie...and you're right David; he's very underrated and practically overlooked as a guitarist. Hope he's able to recover and get back to playing. Always sucks to lose a limb, but in this case better a leg than an arm. I just recently went through a similar scare. Fortunately I don't have diabetes and my heart is perfectly healthy. Just a random blood clot. Get well soon, Leslie.

^^^ Hey David, what about OTHAFA? Or maybe Trampled Underfoot during the solo? Although judging by the lighting scheme in the pics above, it's not Trampled.

That's too bad, MSG, as Silver Rider is spot on...their pancakes hit the spot. At that time, the only other places in LA with better pancakes was Du-Par's and Ben Franks.

Sure Walter, it's worth a tussle in bed...try to find it used so you can get it cheap. And while reading it, it's worth keeping in mind there's 3 sides to a relationship: his, hers and the truth.

That is SO SPOT ON! Nick Kent was one of those guys I always read in the '70's, like Lester Bangs and Hunter S. Thompson and Greil Marcus. They were my guides. And I may have not agreed with everything Nick wrote, he was NEVER boring. I've read both his books, and that Tull bit is one of my fave bits. Although, you can see the damage drugs do to the memory: It is the Inglewood (LA) Forum Jethro Tull played for 4 nights in 1975...around the same time as Zep's 75 tour. The Felt Forum is in NYC, and is smaller than the LA Forum.

Hey there...in prep for a project, I've been digging through my Led Zeppelin boots, trying to find something I haven't listened to very often, and I found this one that was buried in one of my boot boxes. It's a compilation of segments from various shows, which is one reason why it probably ended up in the box...I like my boots to just focus on one entire show. The first 6 songs come from the June 18, 1972 Seattle show...from Immigrant Song to Going to California. The 3rd disc is from the Page & Plant taping for MTV's "Un-Ledded" special. But the highlight of the boot is the middle section, which covers the last 2 songs on Disc 1 and the entire Disc 2: almost 8 songs from the August 23, 1971 Ft. Worth show at the Tarrant County Convention Center. I think I listened to this boot only once when I got it years ago and then put it away. But listening to it again this morning, I was blown away by the Ft. Worth section...it begins with Dazed and Confused(starting from the violin bow section), then follows Stairway to Heaven, Celebration Day, That's the Way, What Is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick and Whole Lotta Love(inc. Boogie Mama, Bottle Up and Go/Trucking Little Mama, Mess O' Blues, You Shook Me), before concluding with the opening part of Communication Breakdown. Two things of note...the taper sounds like he was close to Jimmy's amps, as Jimmy's guitar is really clear and has amazing presence on the tape. You can still hear Robert and the other guys, but it's Jimmy's guitar that really sears your ears, especially during Whole Lotta Love. And this brings me to my second point, and question...right after the You Shook Me part of the WWL medley, at the 21:00 minute mark, the band gets into this really cool jam that at first sort of sounds like the riff they used for their cover of "For What It's Worth", but upon further listening to both, it sounds different. If you have this version of Whole Lotta Love handy and can listen to it, I was wondering if anybody knows if this was a one-time only jam, or if they used this bit other times? Also, is this jam based on a known song, or something Zeppelin came up with on their own? Okay, I just found this clip of the second part of the Ft. Worth Whole Lotta Love on Youtube...it begins at You Shook Me, so listen for the part after You Shook Me and before the "Woman, way down inside" part. By the way, Jimmy sounds particularly nasty and psychotic during this You Shook Me! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU-q2eo0Pww

Haven't gotten the Winston remaster version yet...here's the Genuine Masters DVD-Audio I have, called "Watch and Listen to This, Eddie"...while the audio is 6.21.77, the video is the Seattle Kingdome show.

I never bought any 8-tracks because I HATED them!!! I HATED the fact that the song would be broken up in the middle...and the sound quality wasn't all that great. And portability? Big fucking deal! The cassette was already out and it was just as portable and convenient and even sounded better...AND it didn't cut Kashmir or Ramble On off in the middle. I never understood why my friends had them...I would just make cassette copies from my vinyl albums if I wanted a portable version of an album. Or I would buy the factory cassette tape. 8-tracks coming back will the the 7th sign of the apocalypse.

Rather than clutter up the board with a redundant new thread, I'm bumping this old thread up...beacuse THIS is hilarious! There's a cool theatre in Austin, TX called the Alamo Drafthouse, which is similar in programming to LA's Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theatre. They show classic films, as well as wacky and obscure films for people who are serious movie-geeks. And we DON'T put up with any texting or cell-phone/blackberry use of any kind during the movie. Anyone caught WILL BE THROWN OUT! This is mentioned several times before the screenings and posted on signs. Well, a couple of weeks ago, this woman was caught texting at the Alamo Drafthouse and was promptly thrown out. Whereupon she called the theatre and left a hilarious, vulgar rant on the voice-mail in some kind of Texan Valley-girl accent. The Alamo Drafthouse took her message and now uses it as a PSA before the screenings. Here it is... My question to all of you is when you see someone texting or using phones/blackberries during a movie, do you do something about it? Or do you sit and suffer in silence, and hope someone else does something about it? I always tell them to shut it down or take it outside. I also confront talkers...I didn't pay $12 or $16 to have my movie experience ruined by rudeness, and I will not suffer in silence. Oh, and next time you are in Austin, make sure you visit the Alamo Drafhouse for a movie.

Bringing the curtain down on these 1973 reminiscences, here's a postscript to the weekend. The Monday after the June 3 concert, I lazed around in bed most of the day, recuperating from the toll the concerts had taken on me. It was the first night I had slept in my own bed since leaving for San Francisco the previous Friday. I was an inveterate reader of the LA Times and because of my trip, I was behind on my reading...several days worth of newspapers awaited. That's when I discovered Robert Hilburn's review of Led Zeppelin's May 31 concert, printed in Saturday's June 2 edition. By then Robert Hilburn was the chief pop music critic for the LA Times. Pete Johnson and John Mendelssohn, who were around when Led Zeppelin broke on the scene (Johnson gave LZ I a rave review...Mendelssohn famously hated Zeppelin), were long gone. Here is Hilburn's review of Bonzo's Birthday Party concert that I read in bed the afternoon of June 4, 1973: Robert Hilburn Case For and Against Led Zeppelin Here's the case for Led Zeppelin and those who feel it has now passed the Rolling Stones as the world's top rock 'n' roll group. Exhibit A: Led Zeppelin is popular. All 36,000 tickets for the English rock band's two appearances this week at the Inglewood Forum were sold in two hours. That's faster than any rock show in Forum history, including the Rolling Stones. (The first concert was Thursday night; the second - rescheduled from Wednesday after Jimmy Page sprained a finger - will be Sunday night) Exhibit B: Led Zeppelin is commercial. Each of the group's five albums has easily passed the $1 million mark. In addition, their current U.S. tour is breaking one box office record after another, starting last month in Tampa with an appearance that overturned a 1965 Beatles mark for the largest crowd to see one group in concert. The Tampa show drew 56,800 persons. Upwards of 55,000 are expected to see Zeppelin Saturday at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco. Exhibit C: Led Zeppelin, through both its music and stage appearance, is probably the quintessential rock band of the moment, the group that best summarizes the most successful elements in rock over the past decade. If you wanted to do a film about a rock band, Led Zeppelin could play the part well. Robert Plant is the classic sexy, aggressive, colorful male singer. Jimmy Page is a guitarist with range and the ability to capture an audience's imagination with his electronic experimentation. John Bonham is able to provide an evening of consistent, sledgehammer drumming and cap his performance with a 20-minute solo. Bassist John Paul Jones provides a steady undercurrent of tension to the group's sound. Though there are softer moments ( i.e. "Stairway to Heaven"), Led Zeppelin's music is chiefly loud, bold and rebellious. When it offers songs like "Whole Lotta Love", "Black Dog" and "Rock and Roll", it can generate as much raw urgency and power as any band now active in rock. In fact, there was as much tension and energy in the Forum when Led Zeppelin went on stage Thursday as any time since the Rolling Stones' 1969 Forum concerts. Now, the case against Led Zeppelin. Exhibit A: The band simply isn't significant - either in a creative or sociological sense. When the final history of rock 'n' roll is written, there will be entire chapters devoted to the truly important figures in rock, the artists whose skills, either as writers or interpreters, shaped the music by bringing it a personal vision that provided new strengths and directions. Presley, the Beatles, the Stones, Dylan, Hendrix will certainly have chapters. Others who will be treated at length for their creative contributions: the Who, the Kinks, Cream, the Band, the Beach Boys, Joplin, among many. But Led Zeppelin, on the basis of his (sic) work to date, will belong in a separate, less-important category of successful bands who reflected some of the vigor of rock, but ultimately borrowed more from rock's heritage than it ended up contributing. Others in this category would include Grand Funk Railroad, Ten Years After, Deep Purple, Iron Butterfly, among dozens. While its musicianship and occasional power is greater than most of the others in the secondary category, Led Zeppelin lacks the crucial element necessary to move up into the higher level: creativity. The band is explosive, but has no writer strong enough to direct that power in any meaningful, permanent way. The music is ultimately empty and unsatisfying. Zeppelin, in many ways, seems like a last look at the rock 'n' roll of the 1960's for a new generation of audiences that perhaps feels the Stones and the Who no longer represent them and weren't able to feel the full impact of Cream and Hendrix. But for the audience that saw these other acts at their peak, it's hard to find anything to celebrate in Zeppelin. Its popularity is perhaps the strongest testimony we have to the fact that this is a troubled time for rock. The music is in need of new direction and new vision. When it comes along (hopefully soon), Led Zeppelin will probably be forgotten. It's hard to stick by something that doesn't give you any reason to believe. Exhibit B: Don't let the box office figures mislead you. Put the Stones - or the Who or even Jethro Tull, possibly - head to head against Zeppelin in Tampa, Los Angeles or Kezar Stadium and watch who wins. Mark your ballot. Copyright Los Angeles Times. Now before you get outraged, let me just say that Robert Hilburn was, for the most part, a pretty astute critic. I enjoyed most of his writings. He was an early advocate for Bruce Springsteen and Elton John and Punk Rock. In fact, it was his rave review of Elton John's 1970 Troubadour show that gave Elton the boost he needed. Hilburn was one of the only writers that accompanied Johnny Cash to his Folsom Prison show. And Hilburn's interviews with Dylan, Lennon, Neil Young, Springsteen are among the most insightful and detailed ever...they are legendary. He just had a blind spot when it came to Zeppelin, like a lot of critics of the time. For most of the decade he would just write the same review for every Zeppelin concert: moments of power but basically the band was unimaginative and lacked creativity. Over the years, as I started bumping into him at one concert after another, we struck up a running dialogue, one of the topics being Led Zeppelin. Fast forward to 2009, and I am at a reading and book-signing event for Robert Hilburn's book, "Corn Flakes with John Lennon". When he signs my book, he adds the inscription: "You were right about Led Zeppelin."

Gaaah, those damn satin pants. I'm sure the ladies will disagree, but I never liked Robert in those shiny pants. Jimmy could pull it off, but Robert always reminded me of Peter Frampton when he wore those satin pants on the 77 tour. I preferred him in jeans, or some of the striped or velvet trousers he wore in 69-70. And yes, I noticed that guitar solo photo mistake, too. That's definitely the Danelectro, which means Kashmir. Great photos by Hotplant...she had better seats than me. I was in the Colonnade section. And one of the better laser pyramid shots I've yet to see from this tour. Great job as usual David.