Sticks of Fire
-
Posts
511 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by Sticks of Fire
-
-
April 27, 1977- Cleveland 1977 Destroyer
-
14 hours ago, Bonzo_fan said:
I found ranking the 1975 shows a few months ago to be a fun and useful exercise, so I've decided to do the same with all of the other years as I go along. This year was the first time that I've listened to all of the North American '72 shows -- I listened to all of the Australia/New Zealand shows and the two European warm-up shows for the first time this year as well, but didn't include them in my ranking. One general observation I have is that this is my least-favourite year of the "Whole Lotta Love" medley. They did include some really great songs here and there, but I'm not a fan of "Hello Mary Lou" or "Let's Have A Party," and "Goin' Down Slow" is my least favourite of the slow blues medley closers. Even though the Europe '73 medleys were more static, I love "You're So Square (Baby I Don't Care)," and much prefer "I Can't Quit You Baby" as the medley closer. Plus, the playing in Europe '73 was on a whole other level. "Honey Bee" was a great closer in the earlier medleys as well.
I also started a podcast recently, which is mostly focused on Zeppelin's and the Grateful Dead's tours and live history, at least for now. I did an episode about this tour where I go into more detail about my ranking of the shows if any of you are interested:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1119254/4542359
1. Seattle - June 19 -- At least a Top 5 show of their career, probably Top 3, perhaps the very best. Phenomenal, unique playing; epic, unusual setlist full of previews, debuts and one-offs; best string of encores of their career -- wish they had played "Louie Louie" more often.
2. Los Angeles - June 25 -- Features a similar setlist to Seattle and similarly fantastic playing. A slight notch below on both fronts to my ears, though. Love "Slow Down" in the WLL medley. I haven't added it up, but I'm guessing it edges Long Beach on running time accounted for on How The West Was Won, seeing as all three of the epics come from this show...
3. New York - June 14 -- Gave this one the bump over the night before since the encores are missing from the tape on the 15th. Unbelievably fast and good "Dazed And Confused" this show. I also love it having "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" in the "Whole Lotta Love" medley and "Weekend" in the encores.
4. New York - June 15 -- Missing encores hold it back slightly. Great playing throughout and another breathtaking Dazed. Only WLL medley of the tour to feature seven songs.
5. Tucson - June 28 -- Stacks up well with any of them on a song-for-song basis, held back slightly by the shortened acoustic set and standard encore of only "Rock And Roll." Really love the inclusion of "Stuck On You" in the WLL medley and Jones' keyboard solo later in the medley.
6. Long Beach - June 27 -- Obviously well played since more than half of the songs on How The West Was Won are from this show. Potential best-ever version of "Since I've Been Loving You" -- sure, you can find '70/'71 versions where Plant is better. Very good Dazed, even though it was left off of HTWWW. WLL medley features their final performance of "Blueberry Hill."
7. Baltimore - June 11 -- Pretty tenacious start-to-finish. Longest "Moby Dick" of the tour at over 27 minutes with a cut, very nice Dazed.
8. Montréal - June 7 -- Tough call between this and Baltimore. Love that they play "Running Bear" in the WLL medley -- wish it had been a constant in the medley this tour instead of "Hello Mary Lou" and "Let's Have A Party." The longer string of encores almost bumped this ahead of Baltimore.
9. Detroit - June 6 -- Ranked this the highest of the fragmentary tapes because: a) as a Deadhead as well, I love the inclusion of "Turn On Your Love Light" in Dazed, and b) the WLL medley has "Running Bear."
10. Philadelphia - June 13 -- Gets points for uniqueness for having "Bring It On Home" early in the set like it was in 1970. Roughest sound quality of the tour so it's a little hard to judge, but it sounds like they're playing really well.
11. Portland - June 17 -- Plant is in great shape, but it's hard to give a fair assessment with the first five songs missing.
12. Seattle - June 18 -- Another, even more fragmentary tape -- hard to judge these four. This one has a great SIBLY though.
13. San Bernardino - June 22 -- A bit subdued other than Page, who has a great night. They were probably tired from the (reportedly) long show in Denver the night before, compounded by the altitude factor and perhaps the time change, although it's only an hour. Most standard version of the medley as was possible (aka. the way it appears on the original HTWWW -- weird to be referring to it the way we do The Song Remains The Same eh?)
14. Charlotte - June 9 -- Still has its bright spots -- it is 1972, after all -- but is probably the most relaxed/sloppiest of the tour. Gains points for having the only North American version of "Celebration Day" in '72, but loses them for not having a medley in WLL.
One could argue little changes here and there but you nailed it really. One of the best tours of their too short of a career. Relaxed, fun, powerful and throwing in lots of rarities and extras
-
2 hours ago, Bonzo_fan said:
+2
+3
-
2 hours ago, SilverVishnu said:
Guys, most of the questions posed above are answered on the replies to the RO post, and on blackmikito's link in the original post to his sister thread on 1968-1970 soundboards.
RE tapes stolen from Page - he and others has been quoted as saying at some point in the last 20 years or so (could be the 90s to a few years ago, can't locate original source right now) a collector helped return most of the tapes that were stolen from him BUT I don't think it was made clear whether these were available sources of each show in common circulation, or whether the collector had sources unavailable to the unwashed masses, or whether they were the original tapes. I would imagine it's most likely the first scenario, very much doubt the original cassettes were returned.
Relying on memory again but I seem to remember there were two thefts from Page's collection in the 80s, firstly in around 1982 and again a few years later. The stolen tapes appear to be the source of some studio outtakes and soundboards from 1973 and 1980. The many soundboards released in the last 15 years or so (primarily from 1975) likely come from another source.
Everything you said seem correct. I can only guess that Page did get all the tapes recovered. He knew who took them so...his quote may be playing dumb a little in regards to getting them back because of the bootleg trial that he was questioned about.
-
If in fact they used a Nak 500 for the 1975 shows, it does have the tape bias setting but not only that a 3 position EQ. Maybe that’s the difference in the higher fidelity on the 1975 boards.
-
Now that we have real evidence thanks to blackmikioto, for which Cassette machines were used then next factor is why the quality varies from year to year. One huge factor In the difference would be the type of cassettes were used. Quality can really vary depending on if 120 min no real bias cassettes were used and the tape bias setting was properly used etc. High quality chrome or metal tapes would definitely have better more crisp sound.
-
There could be sound boards before this time made by the band like the German tour in the Summer of 1970 or simple state type recordings. That post does nail it for the 1971-1980 soundboard recordings I believe 100%.
I have always posted that no one really knows if the shows were done on reels or cassette. And the myths get repeated and turn into facts. But that Post really lays out all the evidence for the 1971-1980 shows done on cassette.
-
This pretty much proves none of the shows were recorded onto reel to reel but rather onto cassette.
http://www.royal-orleans.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=46925
-
I have to say I doubt the gaps are as bad as the band has made it seem. I’m thinking a couple/few songs have gaps but once they decided to have the fantasy sequences added, some good and complete footage had to be axed in order to give room for the 4 band members and Peter to be given equal screen time for the fantasy parts.
Sure some may be missing but I’ll bet there is a lot that is fine and complete and usable. It’s tragic they haven’t done anything with it.
-
3 hours ago, Zep Hed said:
Gettin round to hearing this for the first time. The band's Running Bear phase! Clever title for EV's release referencing the Freddie King t-shirt. I might have titled it 'Press Record/Play to Record' for the taper's back story!
The last thing I hear on the tape is Robert saying 'good evening.' Another encore? Most shows around this period had multiple encores. Most commonly Breakdown followed R&R. Not a bad audience recording at all.
Yes you are correct, encores were R&R (which is present on the recording) followed by Communication Breakdown or Thank you or both.
-
Could you guys please repeat the last ten posts, word for word so I can understand what’s going on? Thanks!
-
Partial 6/11/77 as well and it’s awesome! 👍
5/26 and 5/28
-
2 hours ago, JohnOsbourne said:
Really loving these two Vancouver shows. Even Black Dog is above average on the 19th. Another funny Plantation is his quip about getting a blow job from Peter Grant (not sure I want that imagery in my head, however...)
If you want a good Plant comment. Listen to the 3/19 link up above at the 29:46 mark. 👅
-
^^Really fun to hear a youthful Page (and Plant) interview where they are relaxed and in really good spirits and goofing around.
-
Boston 1969 has a radio interview in Boston the same day or week as the shows where they talk about tickets and such I believe:
-
4 hours ago, John M said:
I find it interesting that they used D'yer Ma'ker and Living Loving Maid in the ad. Neither one was ever played live of course, but both were big on the radio in their time.
The live Dazed at the end sounds like a bit of TSRTS but that was not released for 18 months after this ad. Was this part of the ad or something put on at the end to go with the footage in later years?
On another tangent, does anyone remember the drag racing ads in the early 70s that opened with "Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!"? They were on AM radio all summer back then. I clearly recall the Heartbreaker riff in the intro to many of those ads for drag strips in NJ, maybe even Raceway Park in Englishtown NJ, just recently closed by the way due to real estate development/restrictions. Anyway, I know I heard the Heartbreaker intro in those ads, but I can't find it on YouTube even though there are many of the 60s and 70s old drag racing ads on YouTube. What I cannot recall clearly enough is if the audio was really Heartbreaker or some studio band playing it. This was AM radio so the sound was not great, and this was almost 50 years ago. Did anyone else ever hear those ads?
Sounds like the Dazed at the end was added later y whoever upped the Radio spots. Sounds like the soundboard from the show
-
2 minutes ago, Bonzo_fan said:
You sure do!
Thanks bro. I’ll be listening all night!
-
Man I’m going to have to revisit some of these March 1975 shows. I listened to 3/12/75 again and yep totally loved it all over again!! Bring on the soundboard. Best ever No Quarter intro. It was one of my first live tapes and back then all you could get was a 80 min recording of the middle of the show. We’re really lucky now!
I really need to give the two night run of Vancouver a good listen.
-
Agree with a lot of what you both said. I would move up 3/11 and 3/17 and that would be my top 10.
People seem to do nothing but dog 75 tour but I think the March run was about as good as any tour
-
That is a good observation. I’ve wondered that too. They needed to do that at the RAH 1970 show for better lighting for film. That’s why it’s so dark and murky.
-
1 hour ago, pageluvva said:
Hold on there! Zeppelin played Montreal on April 13 1970 and I have spent years trying to find it. Can you please clear this up for me and check what actual date it is? It would be so very much appreciated.
My phone must have done auto correct and I didn’t notice that. It’s suppose to say Montreux, Switzerland.
-
1/5/69 Whisky
12/6/69 France
3/7/70 Montreal last half soundboard
9/28 and 9/29 Osaka
6/6/72 Detroit
All the ‘75 and ‘77 soundboards
-
23 hours ago, blindwillie127 said:
Wow! What a pleasant surprise. My main observation here is that we clearly have two different filming sources in this video. One source which is contained only during the first 9 minutes is a wonderful high quality filming with camera on a tripod in lock down position with the occasional smooth slow zoom. The rest is an amateurish hand held camera which is a blurry, shaky dark mess from a slightly different POV. This contrast is most evident during D&C when they transition between the two camera sources in real time. Imagine viewing the bulk of this concert in the in the kind of quality captured during the first 9 minutes here? Ya' never know...
That being said, the first 9 minutes is...without a doubt...a Holy Grail.
Yes, if you watch the left and right edges of the film, at the :27 mark, you can see the shakier footage overlaid on top of the steady (tripod) shot footage and it switches back and forth a couple times. I’m guessing the filmer and his friend were sitting next to each other and both shooting film at the same time.
-
17 minutes ago, porgie66 said:
Audio is supposedly a new source, from the filmer. (?) It sounds great.
Ikr. I’ll bet one day we get this filmers audio and video! The audio alone sounds so exciting!
Awesome post about Led Zeppelin soundboards
in Led Zeppelin Live
Posted
The 1975 shows have cuts about every 60 min. So they were probably 120 min. TDK or Maxell cassettes.