5/24/75 is definitely overrated, except for Trampled through to the end. And yes, a 6/22/77 soundboard would be a Godsend 🙏 I think the fact that the SB of the Noise Solo from 6/23/77 circulates, coupled with the release of the 3/21/75 & 9/29/71 SBs, proves that 6/22/77 and other 'holy grail' SBs likely exist...it's only a matter of time. And it's certainly encouraging that they would release 3/21/75 & 9/29/71 in consecutive years...

Thanks, Strider 😊

I think it's certainly one of the top contenders, but I don't think it's quite as obvious a choice as is sometimes suggested. As a drummer, I find different aspects of his playing stand out to me on each album/touring year. Led Zeppelin/'69 have his most aggressive bass drum work IMO (see "Good Times Bad Times," "Dazed And Confused," and "I Can't Quit You Baby"). Led Zeppelin II has some of his most interesting hi-hat work IMO (see how he makes straight 4/4 feel like a shuffle just by opening and closing the hat subtly on "Whole Lotta Love" & "Heartbreaker"). Led Zeppelin III has some very tight grooves in "Immigrant Song" and "Out On The Tiles," the latter featuring some excellent syncopation. The '70 shows still feature a lot of aggressive bass drum work and find his kit sounding as nice as it ever did IMO. Led Zeppelin IV finds him tackling some new time signature challenges ("Black Dog," which is easy enough to play, but would have been difficult to come up with the part (he plows ahead in 4/4 underneath the 5/4 riff), and "Four Sticks"). The '71 shows are sort of the last consistent hoorah for the super-aggressive bass drum work (aside from "Achilles Last Stand" later on I guess)--listen to "Black Dog" from 8/21/71 Los Angeles and notice how he never plays the bass drum that aggressively on BD in later years. His kit also sounds great in '71, and I find that his grooves sound very smooth in a kind of mobile, 'rollin' and tumblin''-sort of way--listen to "Heartbreaker" from 8/31/71 Orlando for an example of this. He does a lot of little partial rolls and ghost notes on the snare during the groove. 9/29/71 Osaka also features one the most spectacular "Moby Dick"'s of all time, and his rolling snare is evident on it too! I find '72 a bit more reserved than '71 for Bonham overall, but he's very tight, so you can't complain. Houses Of The Holy is maybe his most reserved album performance, but interestingly enough, a lot of its songs lent themselves to being live showcases for him ("The Song Remains The Same," "Over The Hills And Far Away," and "No Quarter"). It does have his funkiest groove though, in "The Crunge". Along those lines, '73 probably has his funkiest playing (particularly in the Dazed & WLL jams--especially in Europe). Europe '73 is kind of a final resurgence of the uber-aggresive bass drum at times. Overall, I would probably go with Europe '73 as his peak in the sense that it has the best combination of all aspects of his skill set/"game" being clicking at a high level and at the forefront, filtered through the very aggressive/'over-playing' mindset which would resurface in '77, if that makes sense. North America '73 is to Europe '73 what '72 is to '71 as far as Bonham is concerned, to me at least. Physical Graffiti has a lot of variety in his playing (as it does in everything else), but it definitely lays the blueprint for what would eventually be his '77 style with songs like "In My Time Of Dying" & "Sick Again". '75 gets an undeservedly bad rap on many fronts IMO, not the least of which is Bonham's playing. What his playing lacks here in spontaneity more abundant in earlier years, it makes up for with machine-like precision. '75 also features plenty of jaw-dropping individual songs from him (2/12/75 New York's "Heartbreaker" (precise) & his first two fills of the last verse of 2/10/75 Landover's "Heartbreaker" (spontaneous), 3/5/75 Dallas' "Moby Dick"), as well as legendary shows on his part (3/3/75 Ft. Worth). Presence is, in my opinion, his most impressive album performance. Other albums may have more fun or recognizable drum parts, but I would say Presence has the most technically difficult drumming, whether it's time signature stuff ("For Your Life") or pure physical difficulty ("Achilles Last Stand," which I consider to be the most difficult Zeppelin song to drum). Even "Candy Store Rock" has quite a trippy drum part for what is otherwise a fairly straightforward 4/4 song... I think it could be fair to say that '77 was the peak of his technical chops. His 'overplaying' in '77 sounds more calculated and controlled than it does in Europe '73. I think one of the best examples of his technical mastery of the instrument is 6/21/77 Los Angeles' "No Quarter". He completely takes the reigns and plays them like a lead instrument to perfection throughout a long jam meant to be a Jones/Page showcase, really, and contributes musical themes/ideas/riffs to the jam just like any other instrument would. Then, to top it off, he plays one of his most drool-inducing fills, at least for me, after the final "dogs of doom" line, which shows off his speed, precision, dexterity (getting back to the snare from the floor tom that quickly to go around the kit a second and third time) and syncopation (starting the first and second rotations around the kit on the bass in such a tight pocket). Really, his middle-years approach, which I consider to be his technical peak, was established on Physical Graffiti and in the '75 shows, and then elaborated upon on Presence and in the '77 shows. Basically, I would say that his chops continued to improve at least up until/through '77. It's sort of like what someone said in another thread back in the winter regarding the evolution of Page's playing over the years--Bonham's playing post-'73 may not have always been as fun, but it could be considered technically superior. I would say that his hands and his syncopation especially kept improving until their eventual peak in '77. Sure, the wild abandon of songs like "Good Times Bad Times" is great fun, and that is certainly an impressive drum track, but I find the machine-like precision of "In My Time Of Dying" and "Achilles Last Stand" even more impressive--and harder to replicate! You can hear this difference between early- and mid-years in his solos; the earlier ones are usually more spontaneous, which sometimes gives them a more energetic feel, but the '75 & '77 solos are, for the most part, so controlled and calculated (in a good way)...you can really hear him focusing on building tension in each pattern and just constructing it a bit more methodically. This, coupled with the overall increased length of the '75 & '77 solos (insane muscular endurance!), make these solos more difficult, and my favourites, though I would expect non-drummers to prefer earlier "Moby Dick"'s (understandably). In Through The Out Door is Houses Of The Holy's competition for Bonham's most reserved album, and this one stays just less reserved basically on the strength of "Fool In The Rain" alone, which is one of the greatest drum tracks of all time IMO. '79 has its moments that aren't a whole lot different than '77, depending on the song (7/24/79 Copenhagen & 8/4/79 Knebworth especially have great Bonham performances on "Achilles Last Stand"), but I have trouble noticing anything in his playing in '79 that's better than it was in '77. '80 is definitely his most reserved tour, but that certainly isn't to say that he played poorly (most of the time)...

Jimmy gets thrown off because Bonzo throws in the beat from "The Crunge"!

Totally agree. P.S. The bass and toms are the only variable, as he used the same snare (Ludwig LM402) across all of his kit changes.

As far as I know, it does/did circulate amongst a very elite group of collectors. I think Nutrocker is probably the guy to ask for more details on that.

Wow...please tell us everything you can remember since there's no (widely) circulating tape of it!! P.S. You mean 5/19/77, right?

Any reason you didn't mention Heartbreaker in your review?

Agree 100%! His explosion after the usual big fill towards the end of "The Song Remains The Same" just gets me every time 😵

Ok, sweet! I don't think it's any worse than Philly '75...

^ I agree with you final assessment. I tried to really pay close attention when I was listening to it on Tuesday, and I reached a similar conclusion: not spotless enough all the way through to be on par with, say June 3 L.A. and July 21 Providence for best show of the tour, but it's certainly in the upper-echelon of '73 shows, and has some tremendous peaks. As I'm typing that, I realize that it has a lot in common with 6/23/77! As far as Dazed from this show goes, it's always been one of my favourites as well. During the outro, Bonham sort of teases the stop-start rhythm he does on March 21 in Hamburg, but never fully commits to it, instead basically doing dotted 8th notes on the snare. I find what he does on this outro much harder to imitate than the full stop-start stuff he does in Hamburg. P.S. Can you please do 7/21 Providence next?

July 21, 1973 - Providence, RI -- Probably my favourite show of '73. Obviously a soundboard would be amazing, but the sound quality isn't even that bad, especially after the taper moves to a different location during "The Song Remains The Same". The bigger issue with the tape, to me, is the cuts (small one in "The Rain Song," much larger ones in "Dazed And Confused," "Moby Dick" & "Whole Lotta Love"). Basically every song is a highlight, but the song of the night is "No Quarter" in my opinion. Easily one of the best versions, and my personal favourite of the shorter ones.

One of the best '73 shows! You're in for a treat with the rest of the show too! And I'd agree with you, first 3-4 songs are a bit slow, but after that, it's killer.

Pretty sure it's from 8/21/71 LA--at some point in the acoustic set, someone near the taper says to some other guy "I'm not sure I want you behind me" 😂 Also, I'm pretty sure this is from 9/19/70 NY (Evening) right after "Heartbreaker," some girl near the taper yells "AM I STEPPING ON YOUR FOOT?!!?!"

Welcome! And as Ocean73 said, good choice!

Ahh, finally the listening eases up! Got through 6/27/72 Long Beach & 6/27/77 Los Angeles today. Observations: 6/27/72: - 'Dazed' from this show is really good! Must've been a tough call for Jimmy as far as which version to go with for HTWWW between this and 6/25 6/27/77: - One of the best NQ's ever, and one of the best climaxes of the jam section - Never noticed how good Jimmy's first solo in 'Achilles' is - Overall an unfairly maligned show amongst the LA '77 run; sure, it may not be as tight in spots, but, similar to the other epic tour-closer-type show in LA (3/27/75), it has a really unique vibe that IMO keeps it from dragging, despite its length

Ahh, interesting; thanks for checking--love that site!

Well, he hardly ever soloed with the mellotron--aren't this, 6/3/73 LA & 7/29/73 NY the only times "Thank You" was played after his switch to the mellotron from the Hammond, thus the only times he had a mellotron solo?

I'd have to disagree with you there. I think 6/22 is the best top-to-bottom show of '77, with 6/21 close behind. If any of the LA shows are overrated, I'd say it's 6/23--it certainly has very epic peaks (NQ, Stairway), but they're interspersed with more mediocre moments, such as maybe the weakest acoustic set of the LA run and the screw-up in Kashmir. I mean, it has a great, playful vibe to it, but I'd take the superior tightness of 6/21 & 6/22 if I had to choose. And I wouldn't call the last two blah--to me, blah would be just totally middle-of-the-road, paint-by-numbers, with nothing notable to recommend it. I would give this 'honour' to 6/7 of all the June '77 shows. 6/26 is great and tight all the way through IMO, highlighted by an excellent NQ (and a unique one, given that Jones goes back to the electric during Page's solo, like on 3/25/75), a great acoustic set, one of the best Noise Solos, one of the best and longest Stairway's, and the great and rare encore of It'll Be Me. 6/27, I'll admit, is the weakest of the LA run, but its NQ & acoustic set alone prevent it from being "blah" IMO.

Plant's introduction or the "Out On The Tiles" riff intro? Either way, both are great! I actually noticed some really cool stuff Bonham does during the intro for the first time today; haven't heard him do it on any other versions.

Oh yeah!! My personal favourite '77 show!

With respect to all of the mentions TSRTS version is getting, in my opinion, it should be disqualified due to the severity of the editing on that particular track. It's not like TSRTS Dazed or NQ, where the vast majority of the track comes from one of the three nights; TSRTS SIBLY is probably the go-to example of a 'Frankenstein' version of a live song. http://www.thegardentapes.co.uk/tgt6.html

June 21, 1977 - Los Angeles -- The only thing thou shalt listen to on June 21!

June 19, 1972 - Seattle -- One of their very best shows ever--I'd say it's in the top 5, along with 9/19/70 (Evening), 9/29/71, and some other two. Features the debuts of "The Ocean" (only time it wasn't an encore song), "Black Country Woman" (the only full-length live performance of it, and the only non-'77 performance), "Dancing Days" (twice) and "Over The Hills And Far Away" (only time as an encore). Jones' organ solo includes "Amazing Grace" and "Everyday People," before the rest of the band join in for "Louie Louie" and "Let's Dance," then finally into "Thank You". The three epics are all long and great, even with the cuts in the tape during each; "Dazed And Confused" (28 min, maybe 1-2 min cut) features some really unique bits that I haven't heard in other versions, "Moby Dick" (20 min, could be as much as 5+ min cut, who knows) is excellent, and "Whole Lotta Love" (26.5 min, probably 2.5 min cut) features what I'm pretty sure is the only time they covered "Only The Lonely," as well as the occasionally played "Heartbreak Hotel," in addition to the usual suspects for the U.S. '72 medleys. The short songs are all performed fantastically as well. One of the best acoustic sets of all time as well, right up there with 9/29/71 & 6/27/77. For those who don't have it, setlist: 1. Immigrant Song 2. Heartbreaker 3. Black Dog 4. The Ocean* 5. Since I've Been Loving You 6. Stairway To Heaven 7. Going To California 8. Black Country Woman* 9. That's The Way 10. Tangerine 11. Bron-Y-Aur Stomp 12. Dazed And Confused 13. What Is And What Should Never Be 14. Dancing Days* 15. Moby Dick 16. Whole Lotta Love (incl. Boogie Chillen, Let's Have A Party, Hello Mary Lou, Only The Lonely, Heartbreak Hotel & Goin' Down Slow) 17. Rock And Roll 18. Organ Solo (incl. Amazing Grace, Everyday People, Louie Louie & Let's Dance) 19. Thank You 20. Money (That's What I Want) 21. Over The Hills And Far Away* 22. Dancing Days * = live debut Setlist: 10/10 Performance: 10/10 Sound Quality: 5/10 (am I being too generous?) It's a terrible shame that this is the only recording we have of such an unbelievable, all-time great show. I wouldn't usually bother with sound quality like this, but this performance is way too good to let sound quality stand in the way.

June 13, 1977 - New York -- Has always been one of my favourites. Easily on par with the very best of the tour, IMO...