Bonzo_fan
-
Posts
897 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Posts posted by Bonzo_fan
-
-
March 5, 1975 - Dallas -- I've always liked this show, but listening closer today I realized it's even better than I remembered. It's certainly underrated. Ft. Worth is still my favourite Texas '75 show, but this one is definitely closer to 3/3 than 3/4 in terms of quality. I'd say it's a Top 15 '75 show -- I have a ranking going, excluding the January ones I've never listened to 😂, but I'm not going to post it until the end of the month when I can make sure my opinions of the rest of them don't change as drastically as this one did (my Earls Court hierarchy is pretty set in stone).
Anyway, back to this show...
- Bonham continues his hot streak to start the second leg, including an epic, all-time great "Moby Dick" -- certainly in the Top 3-5 of '75
- Jones has one of his best nights of the tour IMO (3/21 is #1 for him I think). He's always so solid that sometimes you don't even notice/take him for granted, but he jumps out of the speakers at you on this one -- listen to his bass at the end of the guitar solo in "Over The Hills And Far Away"!!
- Page is pretty solid overall, I think -- I never cringed at anything he did, and with my "'75 ears" on, he sounded pretty good! Also, is this the only time Page ever wore that orange shirt? I like it -- looks like he went for Texas Longhorns colours!
- Plant is in good spirits with lots of good Plantations, mimicking a Texas accent at times, and his voice sounds as good as it has so far in '75.
-
2 hours ago, Strider said:
And it's on to Dallas. March 4, 1975. Not only the first 1975 tour soundboard I heard but the first Zeppelin soundboard I heard period. Remember...Vancouver '70 and Paris Theatre '71 and all BBC recordings were radio broadcasts and not soundboards. I bought my Dallas '75 vinyl in the 1980s at a record shop in Austin, TX.
14 minutes ago, The Rover said:About this time, on March 4th, 1975, I was sitting 3 rows back stage left, waiting for Led Zeppelin to take the stage at the Dallas Convention Center Arena.
This boot was also the very first Zeppelin soundboard that I ever heard. My experience with it was on it's CD release. What thrill it was to be taken back in time to that glorious concert. No matter what the soundboard does or does not reveal, it was a magical evening to experience in person, in the flesh, that visual and auditory delight.I listened today as well. One of the all-time great versions of "Over The Hills And Far Away"! Jones also plays some really neat stuff at the end of the instrumental section in "No Quarter" -- too bad so much of the song is cut. Kind of strange how this tape and the Destroyer tape both have massive cuts in NQ that other SBDs from their respective years do not. Both were on the market long before other SBDs from those years.
-
9 hours ago, wordev1977 said:
Robert definitely sounded great during the whole 77 tour it's really what makes me rank it as high as I do even above 72-75 era, I really think the third leg of the 77 tour tarnished its reputation especially with the Tempe performance and Roberts voice being weak for those last four shows of the tour, if you listen to the first leg yes it does start off rough but as they go on they improve during each performance and by the time you get to the second leg of the tour they're close to reaching their previous heights again.
I always wonder if the third leg would have improved had it not been for Karac's tragic passing. The next show was New Orleans, where they liked to play; should have been motivated to play well at the make-up dates in Chicago; closing it out in Philly, which got one of the best '75 shows...
-
9 hours ago, Strider said:
I listened to this at work today in honour of its 45th anniversary. My favourite of what's available of the 1975 Texas swing as well. Wish Houston and Austin would get pried from the hoarders.
As you note, Bonham is exuberant on this night...none of the sluggishness of the next night. As with most great nights on the 1975 tour, after warming up with "Rock and Roll"/"Sick Again" it is the stretch from "Over the Hills" through "Trampled" that really kills. I also love what Bonham does during the end of Jimmy's "Stairway" solo...he really gooses the beat and kicks Jimmy in the pants, hehe.
As I have often said before, the musical highlights for me at the 1975 shows were the aforementioned stretch from "Over the Hills" to "Trampled", the "Woodstock/bowing interlude" and the final "spiral wahwah jam" in "Dazed and Confused", the "Stairway solo", and the "Crunge"/theramin jam in between "Whole Lotta Love" and "Black Dog".
Ft. Worth has a theramin jam that is in the Top 5 for 1975...Bonham and Jones are absolutely killing it. Similar to how they are on March 21 in Seattle. So damn fresh 'n' funky.
I noticed that in Stairway this time as well! You're right, it is a killer theremin section 🔥
-
4 hours ago, Moby_Dick_Ale said:
Can't be true: didn't you read Bonzo_fan's comment? BTW. it's Bloomington, not Minneapolis.
Semantics 😉 It's like saying "it's Inglewood, not Los Angeles" 😛
-
7 hours ago, Sticks of Fire said:
The thing is if this person has these I doubt they are the originals so that means somebody else has them too and if one of those people sell the other person is going to make nothing a smart seller would get rid of the stuff as fast as possible for a decent price.
Exactly. Fingers crossed for 6/22 and 6/26 being two of the three!
-
March 3, 1975 - Fort Worth -- I feel like the release of this a few years ago sort of slid under the radar because of '75 SBD fatigue/apathy, but it's a pretty good show -- energetic and fun, with Bonham in particular lighting it up. I'd say it's definitely the best of the three Dallas/Fort Worth shows, with 3/5 coming second. Just before the 9-minute mark in "Moby Dick," Bonham unleashes some 1970-esque bass drum fury! Unique playing in the return to the main riff in "Dazed And Confused" from him as well. I also love what he does around the 4-minute mark in "The Song Remains The Same," just after the big stop-start part...sort of akin to his '77 style. You can almost hear their exuberance at knowing that the second leg is comprised entirely of places they loved to play...
-
50 minutes ago, gibsonfan159 said:
That was strictly in reference to Plant's vocals. No way is the whole band on that level. It's a tragedy Plant didn't take advantage of his voice that night and do more encores like Communication Breakdown.
Yeah, I knew you meant the vocals! Indeed. The encore spontaneity wasn't terrible in '77 compared to '73 & '75 -- at least Ft. Worth and the New York & Los Angeles shows, but overall that aspect of the setlist took a huge dive post-'72. I always wish they would've obliged that guy yelling for "The Ocean" before the encores on 3/27/75 in L.A.
-
7 hours ago, gibsonfan159 said:
Nitpicking Page 6/19/1977 (Net Source- first Gen)
Final Assessment- True to Zep fashion this is one of those lopsided, dynamic shows where some things are off and others are really on. Bonham clearly had issues. Whether he was having a piss or was legitimately out of it, he was borderline trainwreck for most numbers, finally coming around on the latter half. Page was surprisingly very coherent and above average for 1977. I think the real standout for this show is Robert's vocals, which are about as close to a 1971 level as you're gonna hear. I'd wager to say they're better here than anytime in 1973 or 1975. The acoustic section really shines with flawless playing. Imagine what this show could've been had Bonzo been on track. The acoustic section is the standout as Page just shreds and Plant's voice is phenomenal. SIBLY and Achilles are definitely worth a listen as well.
Even better than Providence & Baltimore '73? I admit, I've only ever listened to one or two songs from this show because I was always scared off by Bonham's sluggishness, but I will definitely listen after this review...didn't realize there were so many highlights sprinkled in!
-
1 hour ago, Miinsane1971 said:
Yeah, I have it in digital, but I'm hunting it down on silvers. I know that EV did a really good release of the show with "Conspiracy Theory", but it looks like it's sold out on Air Raid.
Ahh, ok. Interesting show...very cool and long "No Quarter," but a bit uneven overall...too bad more of the momentum didn't carry over from Long Beach two nights earlier!
-
7 hours ago, Miinsane1971 said:
I really wish someone would reissue the San Diego '75 show. It is the only soundboard from the '75 soundboard series that I don't have.
Have you heard it and just want the silvers? If it's that you haven't heard it, it's on YouTube and you can download it from Black Beauty as I did.
-
5 hours ago, Strider said:
February 28, 1975 Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 45 years ago tonight. After the first leg break you can hear the band is finally rounding into form going into March. While Robert still is suffering from the aftereffects of the flu, he sounds better than he did in New York and Nassau and St. Louis.
Every song up to "Moby Dick" is in the upper echelon for the 1975 tour. A real kick ass hour and a half from "Rock and Roll" to "Trampled Under Foot". Even "Dazed and Confused" holds interest for the duration. "Stairway" is only average...Jimmy is strangely tentative on the solo and Robert's voice fails him at the end. The encore is kind of ragged and sloppy, which was par for the course on that tour. The theramin bit was only a few gigs old on this tour and it hasn't quite reached the madness level it would in the later shows in March and at Earls Court.
Still, the overall effect of this concert is powerful. The band really are rampaging those cajuns. A top 10 of the 1975 North American Tour.
I second that! I listened yesterday as well. Are you saying you are or aren't a fan of this "Moby Dick"? I think it's one of the better ones! Very energetic for '75 🥁 It always sounds like Bonham in particular loved playing in the Deep South, especially Texas -- makes me long for the Houston '75 recording even more, because the Baton Rouge/Ft. Worth/Dallas/Dallas run is a great stretch for him! Having been to Ft. Worth, I can see why a cattle farmer like him would like it there, with the daily cattle drive in the Stockyards et al.
-
12 hours ago, gibsonfan159 said:
Just me or is this one of the best Moby Dicks ever?
It is very good! I was impressed when I listened on the weekend, will have to listen again. I've always thought the 929 Moby Dick is one of the best, which is funny given all of Bonham's "I can hardly play" comments, even saying "I don't wanna play" right before Moby Dick 😂 Speaking of great Moby Dick's, there are three great ones coming up this week: 3/3/75 Ft. Worth, 3/5/75 Dallas and 3/7/70 Montreux!
-
23 minutes ago, JohnOsbourne said:
Maybe, maybe not. This is obviously not the same source who's been supplying the '75 boards to EV all these years, but fair point: there is now reason to believe that more of these boards exist outside the Zep camp. That's great!
Although the snippet does sound like a board from early in the tour (there's no reference to Bloomington, only to earlier rehearsals where Page hurt his finger), I agree w/pluribus' comments above, something about this seems fishy.
I thought about that...the quality of Plant's voice is the best "evidence" that it is in fact Bloomington.
-
On 2/26/2020 at 7:00 AM, Sticks of Fire said:
Interesting but certainly just a coincidence. Maybe because they were in somewhat oddball places rather that at MSG or the LA Forum etc.
On 2/26/2020 at 8:19 AM, Moby_Dick_Ale said:Oddball? This was the 6th consecutive concert at "Dallas Memorial Auditorium". Of which the last 3 are SBD, so, maybe....😉 just maybe...
I'm not sure I'd call Vancouver an oddball place either, at least in Zepp's case. They seemed to love playing there and must have had quite a following there -- two shows there in '75 when they also did two in relatively nearby Seattle? And Toronto didn't get any... Plus, pretty well all of the other Vancouver shows exist in great quality recordings...
I was born in '95, so correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Detroit still a big deal in '72?
And in Atlanta's case, that show would've been a big deal locally since they were playing to close to 50,000 at the Braves' stadium...
-
I just realized that if/when the complete tape surfaces, it will be the first post-1970 North American tour opener we have in its entirety!
1971: August 19 Vancouver is missing
1972: June 6 Detroit surfaced last year, but only the second half of the show
1973: May 4 Atlanta is missing
1975: January 18 Minneapolis we now know exists at least 🙌
1977: April 1 Dallas is missing
I wonder why so many tour openers are missing 🤔 They can often be interesting, from a setlist experimentation perspective at the very least. Look at the first show of the Stones' '72 tour in Vancouver -- only time they ever played "Ventilator Blues," one of three performances of "Torn And Frayed" (the other two were in 2002) and one of the few times they played "Loving Cup" that year. I realize we probably would have read about it by now in people's accounts of the shows if any of the above Zepp shows had similar rarities, but you never know...
-
Discovered this accidentally while seeing if those little clips we got from the Minneapolis SBD had made it to YouTube yet...had never heard this before. Only a few minutes in, but it seems pretty cool so far!
-
15 hours ago, Miinsane1971 said:
Finally put on my "audience ears" and listened to the last night at the Forum in '75. Can't believe I've neglected this show for so long. Maybe one of the best shows I've ever heard by any band.
Gotta pick up that "Deep Throat" box now.
Always been a favourite of mine as well -- has a unique vibe to it. When you factor in the tape cuts, it's about 3h 45m (counting between-song banter) and they only play 15 songs -- works out to an average of 15 minutes per song!
-
Too bad they dropped it so soon...what's an extra 3-4 minutes when you're playing over three hours every night? 😂
-
27 minutes ago, June72 said:
While on the topic of these additional soundboards that haven't surfaced; wasn't Blueberry Hill actually slated for release at some point? If memory serves, I recall hearing a tale that EVSD had announced a release (perhaps not officially), but pulled back when someone did something that pissed them off?
Another thing to ponder: is this the earliest soundboard recording that EVSD would've unearthed? We basically have the confirmation that it exists, so what else is there from this era that EVSD could have access to? As far as I'm aware, any Bill Graham venue Zeppelin played at would have a soundboard, but did any other promoters from their early days go through that type of hassle? Even if they didn't, who knows how many people working the sound at shows could've taped 'em without telling others. It's a fascinating thing to think about.
With any luck, hopefully there's more soundboard pre '75 that they could be sitting on (ahem... NINETEEN SEVENTY TWO!).
I wonder if all the '75 shows we're sitting around waiting to hear (Long Beach, Philadelphia, Houston 2/27) are definitely in their possession. We know their source of the '75 shows is clearly a reliable one considering the amount of releases, but whether they have the whole tour or not is an interesting thing to wonder.
Does anyone know the earliest date of 1975 we have a SBD from? IIRC, we've received nothing from January, which is a shame because I think it's a rather interesting period. The band is clearly rusty as all hell, but the setlists were very unique and it'd be nice to see how the other performances of Levee sounded. It can be presumed that Levee was played at least 4 times, possibly 5, and we only have 2 of these. The two we have aren't exactly beautiful, but who knows, perhaps in Bloomington or their second night in Chicago, they really knocked it out of the park. Or we'd just get an upgrade from the other 2.
Lots of this is speculation but it's what keeps my fandom alive.
I was not aware of any of this about Blueberry Hill, but that's fantastic! A matrix with THAT audience tape would sound official release-quality. Even more exciting though, the existence of the Blueberry Hill SBD suggests the possibility of the existence of the 9/19/70 SBD. The SBDs for that 9/19 evening show and Seattle '72 have to be the holy grails of all holy grails...
The earliest '75 SBD we have is February 10 in Landover, so one show after Philly 😕 Every show after that for the rest of the tour has a SBD except for Houston, 1st San Diego, 2nd Long Beach and the three at the Forum (partial 3/24 board notwithstanding). I agree that it would be awesome to get a few from January for curiosity's sake alone! Maybe Robert didn't have the flu yet in Minneapolis...?
-
Looks like the only samples on Black Beauty so far are SIBLY...
-
4 hours ago, 76229 said:
Don't think Bonzo had much of a rest. According to Dave Pegg, they partied so hard after the Troubadour gig Bonzo missed his first flight to Hawaii.
Lmao!
-
1 hour ago, zepster1979 said:
I told this many times before but it looks you're one of those, who would get more wanky job than learning!
So here's again: EV had to bought these tapes, and likely they have to spend a lot of $ at the start. Now they are trying to recover the capital, and of course, making some money on it. The Japanese copyright laws allows to release bootlegs as long as they're strictly limited, distributed in exact places and contain absolutely none of their native artists. It is called a loophole.
Now you and dozens of teenage wankers are crying because you cannot get it for free.
My proposition is: learn more, find a good school, get a proper job so you can afford EV products.
If you're still have any objections of what I typed above, it means you're just 1) stupid, 2) not enough educated; 3) very stubborn.
Case closed.While I'm not a teenager anymore, I am still in my early-20s and in grad school. I can't justify spending over $300 on an actual ticket to a concert, much less a bootleg of half of a show. I would love to have the physical copies with the nice packaging, and will gladly pay for same once I'm established in my career. In the meantime, as others have said, I would gladly pay $50-$75 for these titles, and I think many others would as well...600 copies at $50 vs. 100 copies at $300 -- what difference is it to them? Still $30,000...
-
1 hour ago, kirchzep27 said:
Great playing by page and the whole band. In regards to stairway, you would think they would want great versions like this to be out there for everyone to hear. In retrospect, you can see the importance of letting a great song run its course and then there being times, to not play that song.
For sure -- look at how the Grateful Dead only played "Dark Star" five times over a 15 year period from '74 to '89...
.jpg.4c79b5a60737b5093e259a97145f9fd4.jpg)
Why Earl's Court?
in Led Zeppelin Live
Posted
I concur with all of the previous sentiments except for Pontiac '77 being a "completely average" show -- Top 10 or 15 of '77 for me.
The second leg of the 1975 North American Tour is one of the best and most consistent months/legs of their career IMO -- 3/4 Dallas is the only real clunker in the bunch, and even it has some standout versions (e.g. OTHAFA).
I think where Earls Court loses me a little bit is this: the jamming and improvisation that developed over the course of the second leg in the States (& Vancouver of course) which made it fresh and fun with each night feeling different than the last took quite a dive at Earls Court, presumably to make room for "Tangerine" and the acoustic set (which were cool additions, don't get me wrong). Take "Dazed And Confused" for example: the six show span from 3/19 Vancouver through 3/27 Los Angeles features five of the six longest versions of all time, ranging from 37.5 to 45 minutes (and they're all very good). The Earls Court versions range from 27 minutes I think on the 17th to 32-33 for the other four nights, with the 24th being the only all-time great.
Consider this: 5/25 Earls Court is the longest show of their career, clocking in at 3h 48m 50s. 3/27 Los Angeles clocks in at 3h 40m 34s and 3/21 Seattle clocks in at 3h 40m 32s. 5/25 is 20 songs long compared to 17 songs for 3/21 and only 15 songs for 3/27! No, length is not necessarily synonymous with quality, but an average of 11m 27s per song the last night at Earls Court compared to 12m 58s the last night in Seattle and 14m 42s the last night in LA is a significant drop -- decreases of 11.7% & 22.1%, respectively.
5/18 is a phenomenal show from start to finish, but is the only one on par with 3/21 Seattle and 3/12 Long Beach IMO. 5/23 & 5/25 are also quite good, probably on par with a typical good show from March like 3/17 Seattle maybe. 5/24 is a lot like 3/25 L.A. in that it has an incredible finish from Dazed to the end, but starts very sloppy. 5/17 is well below the rest.