Okay, I just had a listen to Scorpio's "GET BACK", which is the audience tape of the June 28, 1972 concert in Tuscon, Arizona...the last gig of the 1972 U.S. tour. And while, sure, the sound quality isn't as good as "Burn That Candle" from the 6-25-72 LA Forum show...and definitely not the SBD from 6-27-72 Long Beach or the official release of the Long Beach/LA shows "How the West Was Won"...the performance itself is blazing hot! In fact, is it blasphemous of me to say that the Tuscon concert might even be better than the LA Forum/Long Beach Arena shows? The only negative is the shorter setlist...the acoustic set was cut drastically down to only one song and there weren't the crazy encores that we got treated to in LA. Only one encore in Tuscon: "Rock and Roll". Unless of course, there were more songs played at Tuscon but the taper didn't tape them or ran out of tape. But what is there is astounding...Immigrant Song to Since I've Been Loving You comes on a storm, with the band playing even more insanely intense than the LA shows. Dazed goes on for half an hour and I heard a couple additional jams added to the middle part that weren't in any of the LA versions. Whole Lotta Love also seems to be the longest of this tour...30 minutes. As crazed as the audience is cheering at the end it's a shame the band didn't do more encores...as on fire as the band is, The Ocean and Thank You would have been legendary versions for sure. Anyway, this is not meant to slight the 1972 LA/Long Beach shows...as they were fantastic concerts and deserved of official release. But I think there might be a tendancy for some people to annoint the LA stand as the highpoint of the tour and overlook the show that occured just a mere day after the Long Beach Arena gig...no rest for the wicked. If you haven't taken the time to search out the 1972 Tuscon show thinking it would be redundant with the LA/Long Beach shows released, I urge you to take the time to find it and give it a listen. See if you don't agree that as great as the performances on "HTWWW" are, there seems to be just an extra level of scary intensity to the Tuscon show. If only the Tuscon show had been multi-tracked!!!

I should change my name to Thread Killer as many threads that cease functioning once I post.

No Quarter was always one of the highlights of a Zeppelin concert and I always anticipated the band performing the song...and crossing my fingers that it hadn't been dropped from the setlist. My 5 favourite performances of No Quarter that I saw are: May 31, 1973 LA Forum March 12, 1975 Long Beach Arena March 27, 1975 LA Forum June 21, 1977 LA Forum June 23, 1977 LA Forum Other NQ's that I recommend from other shows: July 17, 1973 Seattle...that's 1973, not 1977. February 14, 1975 Nassau Coliseum...even better than the 2/12/75 MSG version...as heard on the St. Valentine's Day Massacre cd. March 5, 1975 Dallas March 19, 1975 Vancouver May 24 & 25 1975, Earl's Court July 24, 1979 Copenhagen...a little different, back to a more shorter succint style but still effective.

Thank you Knebby! I plan on doing what I always do on the 4th...WATCH WIMBLEDON!!! Strawberry wafffles and orange juice and coffee and Wimbledon...it comes on EARLY in the morning here in California...6am! Venus vs. Serena Saturday and Federer vs. Roddick Sunday...I'll be cheering for Federer over the Yank Roddick(sorry he beat Britain's best hope Andy Murray today Knebby). Then later on the 4th, we're going to see John Fogerty at the Hollywood Bowl w/the orchestra and firework show. Cheers! Ta!

It's just that LA will be a little less lovely without you in it, AA.

You see Evster, this why I don't post here much. I post a harmless little item and already my integrity is called into question? Hey, if I really needed the attention, don't you think I would post a lot more than I do? As for Jimmy and jukeboxes...I know lots of people who have jukebozes for their home...and they are a lot less well-off than Jimmy Page. It's a cool thing to have in your home...and from my source, Jimmy prefers to stock his with old rockabilly/blues/r & b/ and rock n roll singles. Of course, that doesn't preclude him from having the odd White Stripes or some other modern band(maybe even a Zep single or two) on his jukebox...FYI, vinyl(lp's and 45's) has never gone out of fashion with the music cognescenti and even now the kids are seeing the benefits of vinyl. So who REALLY is out of touch? Methinks you more so than Mr. Page. As for pictures, sorry I don't do pictures. I only just got a cell-phone a couple of years ago and it's just a phone, which is all I require a phone to do. I can send and receive texts if I want, but there's no camera on my phone. And even if there was, you think I would be stupid enough to start snapping away at Mr. Page shopping, invading his privacy? That's why I didn't approach him...the guy is shopping, and he would probably like to shop in peace. Maybe it's because living in LA I've gotten used to seeing famous people, but I've never been big on doing the autograph and picture thing when coming across celebrities. If we happen to strike up a conversation, great, but I usually just prefer to leave them alone...they get bothered enough by others. One reason why I didn't post this story until a few days ago was that I wrestled with my conscience over whether Jimmy Page would consider my post an invasion of his privacy...maybe he wouldn't want people to know what he shops for when buying records, or even that he has a jukebox. Lord knows, I have met Mssrs. Page, Plant and Jones in the past...not often; I am certainly no Knebby or Steve A. Jones...just a few moments stolen over the years, either at gigs or bumping into them somewhere like a bookstore. I have kept these moments to myself, and judging to the response to my Jimmy @ Amoeba post, it's probably for the best that I did. And rest assured, I will think twice before posting any more about sightings of Messrs. Page, Plant & Jones.

ALL, that's right, all of them! You think I'm being facetious but I swear the band was so on during this period that I think you couldn't go wrong with any show, no matter what the sound quality. I'd rather listen to a poor-to-average quality boot from 1968-1972 than the soundboards from the 1977 Largo, MD shows. "Bringing Down the House"? More like putting them to sleep.

I'm not going to get into the whole Jesus/Freezer debate...I don't know who they are and I don't frequent torrent sharing sites because I don't download music from the computer. I want to get back to the original point of the thread: the April 1, 1977 Dallas concert and whether the show is in circulation. This was Led Zeppelin's first concert(after many reschedulings of the 1977 tour) in TWO YEARS! I find it hard, no, IMPOSSIBLE to believe that there weren't not just one, but multiple tapers in the audience for the Dallas show! The demand for a bootleg from this opening show of the 1977 US tour would have been off the charts, as by 1977 Led Zeppelin reigned supreme. So maybe the show isn't in circulation, but I can pretty much guarantee you that tapes exist of this show somewhere...SOMEBODY taped it! I mean, this was America, not bloody England where tapers seemed to often be asleep at the wheel when it came to Zeppelin(probably too busy boo-hoo-hooing over the loss of Cream). Just my two cents.

Yeah, I've got to imagine there is plenty of film footage somewhere, just for the fact that there are plenty of still photos of the band in Japan 1971 where you see Jimmy with a camera, probably an 8mm, maybe a 16mm. Most likely this footage is deep in a vault. However, to Mr. E's point about 1971 being the year they released their most popular album, therefore there should be plenty of footage...it doesn't exactly work that way. For one thing, Led Zep IV wasn't released until November of 1971, so most of the sales momentum and cultural impact was during 1972. For most of 1971 the band was still touring Led Zeppelin III, which was released late in 1970. It just so happens that the band was in such a creative and performing peak, that they felt no problem in performing the new songs they worked up for Led Zep IV months before the album would be released. That is what makes the 1971 tours so unique: it is the first and only time you hear "Stairway" played without the crowd going bonkers at the beginning.

Sorry Wolfman...my bad

"TAMPA — Billy Mays, the TV pitchman whose trademark voice helped sell everything from cleaning supplies to baking soda" Sad for someone to die so young, but I've gotta take exception to the reporter's opening line in that article. If anything, his voice stopped me from buying ANYTHING he pitched...it was that annoying. I don't know anyone who liked his commercials...with the possible exception of the ESPN one where he spoofs himself...and I don't know anyone who bought anything he pitched. Whatever, R.I.P. Billy.

Well, I was in Amoeba Records(the Hollywood branch) this past Sunday and I bought the new Cartoone cd with 8 bonus tracks there...they had it for $12 new.

The best Zeppelin concert? Well, of the ones I saw, these would be my top 5, and bear in mind that the difference between #5 and #1 is very slight...it was hard choosing the top 5. 1. June 25, 1972 @ LA Forum...My first Zeppelin concert...like a jumbo 747 crashing in my head...the bloody sounds those guys made...that cool drone that went on and on and on, changing colours and tones for a good 10 or 15 minutes before Immigrant Song stampeded the crowd...Percy's voice in full cry before the cracking of the 72 Japanese tour...four, count 'em 4!!!, encores...or were there 5, lol?...the crazy ass medley...Louie Louie!!!!...I could go on and on...my first Zep show and it was so perfect, I knew immediately I had to see them again in Long Beach two days later and begged and begged and begged...fortunately it worked. June 27 '72 @ Long Beach Arena was also great, but not as long, so the 72 LA Forum show gets the nod. 2. June 3, 1973 @ LA Forum...another Forum spectacular! Great versions of two of my fave live Zep songs, SIBLY and Thank You, which automatically moves it up the list above the May 31 and June 2 shows...not to mention that Jimmy was playing with a sprained finger which he kept dunking in ice water throughout the show...the cloud of pot and hash smoke which hung in the air...how great ALL the Houses of the Holy songs sounded live, especially NQ with the epic fog rolling over the stage from the dry-ice machine...the 73 shows were the last ones where the band was really tight and Page could solo fast and furiously on end...the 73 tour was also the last time Dazed and Confused didn't become a drag. 3. June 23, 1977 @ LA Forum...another great Forum show, another June show(are you sensing a trend, hahaha?)...it's the famous Badgeholders show..the Keith 'Looney' Moon show...but more importantly, it is the return after 5 long years of the "acoustic set"!...which does bring a warm vibe to the proceedings as Plant says...they finally ditched D & C although that means we get the noise solo(instead of say, In the Light, The Rover, Wanton Song, For Your Life, Royal Orleans, Tea for One, or any number of other songs they could have played during the 30-45 minutes that slowed the momentum of the show during the drum solo/guitar solo bit)...still what we do get is choice: Ten Years Gone!!!, Achilles!!, Nobody's Fault! and epic NQ's and Kashmir's...Percy's voice is back from the cracked and hoarse 73 and 75 days; not quite his Viking warrior days of 69-72 but still powerful. 4. March 12, 1975 @ Long Beach Arena...I was going back and forth over which show to rank #3, this one or the 6.23.77 Forum gig...it was so close as both shows have so much to recommend but in the end the acoustic sets of the 77 tour(and TYG and Presence material) gave the 6.23.77 show the slightest of edges...the thing about this 1975 show was how HEAVY the band sounded, even more than usual with the lack of an acoustic set...Bonzo's Vistalites really boomed out...perhaps because for the first time ever, Zeppelin used a drum riser for the 75 tour...unlike the earlier shows of the tour, those of us at the West Coast shows had had a chance to hear the Physical Grafitti songs before the concert, so many of us had already formed favourites and were hoping to hear them...amongst my friends and other people I asked those songs were usually Kashmir, Ten Year's Gone, The Rover, In My Time of Dying, Trampled Underfoot, Wanton Song, Houses of the Holy and Custard Pie...playing wise, Long Beach was better than the LA Forum gigs in 75...the band was more solid, consistent and less sluggish...just compare the D & C of this show with the terrible 3.27.75 one...in fact, I think that if Mike Millard hadn't had car trouble and been able to get to this show on time and, therefore, people could hear this entire concert in the spectacular sound that he recorded the last 3 songs, then 3.12.75 Long Beach would be ranked right up there with the "Listen to this Eddie" and "Badgeholder's" shows in Zeppelin collector's minds...maybe even above them...anyway, I loved how funky and hard they were for this tour...Kashmir, NQ and Trampled back-to-back-to-back was almost too much!...and oh my god the funky Crunge/James Brown/Theramin battles between Whole Lotta Love and Black Dog were OUTTASIGHT!!!...oh and one last but not least memory about this show: my first Zeppelin concert with my girlfriend and we made out during Rain Song!...hmmm, more I think about it, maybe this should be #3 after all, haha! 5. Number 5 is hard to call; it would be between either the May 31 or June 2, 1973 shows or the June 21, 1977...or even June 27, 1972...you know, I think I am going to declare a tie and say it is between the May 31 and June 2, 1973 shows...May 31 because it was Bonzo's birthday and June 2 because it was my only time seeing them outdoors, in the sunlight at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco and the atmosphere was just incredible with all the SF hippies and flower power girls and the doves...plus, there is just something magical about road-tripping to a concert; it lends an air of adventure to the whole endeavor...plus, as I said before 1973 was the last year where the band was consistently on fire, especially Jimmy...his sound was so unbelievable then! My apologies to the shows that didn't make the top 5: March 24, 25, 27 1975 and June 25, 26, 27 1977 all LA Forum...not that you didn't have moments("It'll Be Me" encore of 6.26.77! "NQ" of 3.27.75!!) but the other shows were just a tad more consistently spectacular...the creme de al creme! Other memories shared by all, or at least most, of the shows: ganja smoke filling the Forum(or whatever venue)...firecrackers, those DAMN FIRECRACKERS!...hippies bringing tambourines and whatnot to shows to play...camping out for tickets for days...the SHEER UNBELIEVABLE THRILL that surged through your entire being when at last the seemingly impossible was at hand and you handed over your $6, $8, or $10 and you held in your hand a Led Zeppelin concert ticket...it was like finding the golden ticket in a Wonka bar and if you had one, other kids at your school would look at you with envy. As for Led Zeppelin concerts I was sadly too young, or geographically-challenged to see, these are my Top 10 that I would want to see if I had a time-machine: 1. January 5, 1969 @ the Whisky A Go-Go, LA...oh hell, any 1968-69 show where they still played those great "As Long As I Have You/Fresh Garbage" medleys and "For Your Love" and "Dazed" was fast and furious and Jimmy still did the bow segment in "HMMT". 2. January 9, 1970 @ Royal Albert Hall 3. June 28, 1970 @ Bath Festival 4. Sept. 4, 1970 @ LA Forum 5. Sept. 19, 1970 evening show @ Madison Square Garden 6. August 21 or 22, 1971 @ LA Forum 7. Sept. 13 or 14, 1971 @ Berkeley Community Center 8. September 29, 1971 @ Osaka, Japan...but any of the 1971 Japanese shows will do. 9. March 24, 1973 @ Offenburg, Germany...but again, any other 1973 Euro shows will do, esp. Vienna...but it is this Offenburg, Germany show where Jimmy is so face-meltingly hot...so en fuego! 10. August 4, 1979 @ Knebworth...not what you might have expected, but I think I would want to go to this just for the spectacle of it all...and it's a lot better performance than the 11th...plus, I might bump into Knebby, hehe.

Have you priced official vinyl releases lately? I just saw Joy Division's "Still" priced at $50 at Amoeba. Everything on vinyl has gone up in price as vinyl has come back in vogue, especially among the kids as they have finally realized how crappy music sounds on mp3's and ipods. That's why bootleg cds are cheaper than bootleg vinyl...I won't say which store, but I recently saw the EVSD's 2cd "Casino Royale" priced at $15 and EVSD's 4cd set "Boston Cream Pie" at $25, which are pretty good deals IMO. Naturally, when I went back later that same day to see if they were still there, somebody had already bought them. I have scads of bootleg vinyl: TMoQ, Rubber Dubber, Box Top records, all sorts of different labels, coloured vinyl, etc. I just prefer having tangible physical evidence of the music as opposed to some downloaded digital 1' and 0's. I like looking at the pictures and the packaging; my favourites are the ones where, in hopes of throwing people of the trail, they would use fake names and fake song titles on the label. My vinyl copies of Osaka 1972 and Copenhagen 1979 for instance. And there are some shows that, to this day, still sound better to me on vinyl than any cd version I have heard; "For Badgeholder's Only" June 23 1977 and "Going to California" Sept. 14, 1971 for example. As the 80's passed into the 90's, I started buying more of my boots on cd than vinyl...but every now and then, if I see something that I don't have that looks pretty cool and is priced no more than $30 to $50 for a double set, I will pick up a vinyl boot to add to my collection. Most of my vinyl boots are Zeppelin, Dylan, Springsteen and the Stones.

You know EzyEric, unlike LTTE, I have yet to hear a cd version of For Badgeholders Only that sounds as good as my original vinyl copy.

XZed, your friend is an idiot! There is no 17 minute studio version of Stairway. Now, he might be referring to the last night of the 1980 European tour(Zeppelin's last ever gig) where Jimmy played an interminable solo during Stairway...this might be the 17 minute version he has heard about. But it was played live, with no intention of it ever being released for an album or radio. So, if you bet him on this, you still win.

You just KNEW Steve A. Jones would track that photo down, didn't you! Mind you, it still doesn't solve the mystery of WHERE the photo was taken. Count me as another one who thinks it is NOT Seattle...and not just because Plant's blouse doesn't match. But, also, if you look at the photo you will discern a noticable lack of video cameras, either on stage or in front, which were all too prevalent at the Seattle show, as the images were being shown on the jumbotron screen. And to the poster who thinks Jimmy wore red shoes...NO, NADA, he always wore his usual black and white loafers. It's the color tinting of the photo that makes you think the shoes are red.

Love the Blues Brothers reference eternal light! Okay, yes "It Might Get Loud" is definitely being released in LA and New York August 14. My head was still swimming from being in the same room as Jimmy Page and watching the movie that you'll forgive me if I couldn't remember dates and stuff afterwards...in my fog I just knew it was either Aug. 14 or 19. So mark your calendar for August 14...well, those of you who live, or can get to L.A. and/or New York City. Yes, there will be bonus songs performances added for the dvd, but you will still want to see this in a theatre on a big screen. Imagine Jimmy 50 feet tall! Oh, that is Jimmy playing the guitar over the opening credit sequence. Oh, and I know someone who works at Amoeba and she texted me when Jimmy showed up. He often shops there when he's in town...Bodhi Tree is another haunt of his...and I was able to get there before he had left and discreetly shadowed him at a respectable distance. Anyway, the two main things I took away from the whole experience is 1) The movie kicks major butt! 2) Jimmy is looking GREAT these days...very healthy and love the natural hair colour; silver fox, indeed! Unlike Mick Jagger and Ron Wood, who have resorted to using hair pieces.

Hey everybody, it's been months since I last posted but just wanted to share a little Jimmy sighting with you. No, I did not see him at the Dead Weather show at the Roxy last Thursday night...but I was one of the LA Zeppelin board members who made it into the LA Film Festival screening of "It Might Get Loud" last Friday night. Can't really add much to others posts about the event...you've seen the youtube clips. I didn't speak to him or anything like that...just sat a few rows behind and to the left of him. Had no idea that the director of the documentary, Davis Guggenheim was married to Elizabeth Shue! Enjoyed the heck out of the film...I know some people have been criticizing the Edge's and/or Jack White's participation but I have no problem with either of them being in the film along with Jimmy. As for a general theatre release date I think I heard August 14 or 19 as the date it is coming out. The part where Jack White builds a guitar out of a piece of scrap wood reminds me of a quote from Jimmy in an old Creem interview where he said a guitar is just a piece of wood with strings. Jimmy looked pretty dapper, he's holding up pretty good for a man in his 60's and considering the amount of alcohol and drugs he's ingested over the years. Good to hear that he's off the booze and drugs...he's lost a lot of that bloat he had; even his fingers look thinner. And I think the natural silver grey hair look suits him fine. Dvd release will of course have bonus songs added...but I still advise you to see it in its theatre release, just for the expereince of hearing it in a loud theatre sound system. But that's not all...Jimmy was also at Amoeba records while in town...he was buying 45's for his jukebox but the best part is that some goofball Amoeba employee asked Jimmy "so like, when are you gonna get the band back together?" Needless to say his Amoeba bosses were not pleased; apparently Amoeba would prefer it if their employees did not bother celebrity shoppers with impertinant questions and this guy is now in deep shit. Okay, so I see from Ross' diary and other posts that Jimmy is back in London, which is too bad because tomorrow...Saturday June 27...there is quite a potential for a Jimmy appearance. You see, at the Hollywood Bowl Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood are playing...meanwhile in some sort of cosmic hoax, across town at the Wiltern is this triple bill of the Yardbirds, Spencer Davis Group and the Zombies. Of course, I have no idea how many, if any, original Yardbirds(and Zombies for that matter) are in this lineup...but what are the odds that two of the bands that Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood got their start in are playing the same night in the same town? Weird.

Too funny, I just picked up a vinyl edition of this album a few months ago at Rockaway Records in Silver Lake...it was among the many items they put out for sale that they bought from that world's largest Led Zeppelin collection. Atlantic SD 8219...Led Zep I was 8216. Paid $10 for the album. I was wondering if there was ever a cd release of this album, and now today, my first time checking in with the Zeppelin board in months, I saw this post and couldn't believe my luck. So now I'll be looking for the cd at Amoeba's next time I visit. Any chance of a Cartoone reunion tour?

So I'm walking up Vine St. this morning and I notice a crowd gathering around the entrance to the Capitol Records building along with the tell-tale sign of a guarded and boarded-up patch of sidewalk...somebody is obviously getting a Star today on the Walk-of-Fame. I ask and find out it is no less than George Harrison! Hey, and he's getting one before Paul McCartney...who'd a thunk it? For some strange reason, the star isn't being placed next to John Lennon's; George's is near the Capitol entrance, while John's is up Vine St. near the intersection with Yucca St. I have no idea who will show up in person for the ceremony, set to begin at 11:30am PST. His wife and son obviously...rumours are spreading that Martin Scorsese will attend as he's doing a film on George.

By the time Hendrix played(Monday morning) there were only about 30,000 people left from the half-million on Sat-Sun. If it wasn't for the movie that came out, most people wouldn't have known about Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner" performance.

The audio is from Mike Millard's tape of the June 21, 1977 LA Forum concert. The video is part 1977 Birmingham, Alabama and part 1977 Madison Square Garden, NY footage.