Bonzo_fan
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Posts posted by Bonzo_fan
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4 hours ago, WD52 said:
Just spent an enjoyable 3 months listening to the 1975 Tour in order, so my top five would be.....19th March Vancouver, 21 March Seattle, 28th Feb Baton Rouge, 27th March L.A. Forum, and 18th May Earl's Court. No set order 1-5, depends on mood.
Can't argue with that, all good choices. I listened to them all in order back in January, February and March -- it's a nice little journey, isn't it? Especially once you get to March.
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3/19/75 Vancouver
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2 hours ago, pageluvva said:
As a fellow Deadhead I loved that you would point this out. Much respect my friend.
God bless the fat man in the black t-shirt
+2
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9 hours ago, paul carruthers said:
I do love Plant's ad lib in the "Oh Georgina" section on this one 😆 He also didn't sing the "Oh Georgina" bit live that often...
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1 hour ago, paul carruthers said:
Just going on what I'm really familiar with (I still need to find time to listen to the whole 2/16 show), here's how I would rank 'em:
3/19
3/5
2/14
5/25
2/28
2/13
3/21 (Definitely need to revisit this one soon, A Blazing NQ and a few others)...
3/12
3/20
3/11
3/19 is certainly among the small handful of acceptable choices for the top spot. Time spent listening to 3/21 is never wasted, so definitely revisit it! A blazing NQ indeed, and the best '75 Dazed IMO.
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13 minutes ago, pluribus said:
Love this ranking. Although I would put Nassau 6/14 as the easy number 2, over LA Forum 6/25. Nassau 6/14 was the last show with Plant’s “real” high range in his voice. Weekend is amazing. Epic show.
Denver 6/21 and San Diego 6/23...where are you?????
I could accept that for sure. 6/25 has a great "Black Dog," which I forgot to mention here and in the podcast -- good enough to be the reference version, given the sound quality with it being on HTWWW. Love the way Page so violently launches into WLL on 6/25 as well. "Weekend" and "Louie Louie" sort of cancel out, so the presence of "Over The Hills And Far Away," "Dancing Days" and "The Ocean" tipped the scales towards 6/25. I'm with you though that several songs are played better on the 14th.
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I recently started a podcast based upon Zeppelin's and the Grateful Dead's respective live histories, and did an episode on Zeppelin's '75 shows:
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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.
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I finished watching this in its entirety two nights ago with my best friend, who I've gotten pretty into Zepp but would not have the attention span to just listen to a bootleg, and we both loved it! We're far too young to have actually seen Zepp, so it was awesome to enjoy the next-best thing together. We watched on my laptop with a bluetooth speaker in the backyard to stay 6' apart and spread it out across two nights so as to comply with the noise bylaws 🙄 I look forward to getting my hands on the right type of discs to burn it onto so that I can watch it on the big screen in the basement.
Thank you so much to everyone who worked on this project! I can't imagine how long it must have taken to put together, but the finished product is fantastic and very professional looking.
It also got me wondering -- is there enough fan footage out there to make something similar for the '75 tour? There's obviously a decent amount of pro footage with the last two nights at Earls Court, and a plethora of good soundboards to work with audio-wise. You could probably even limit the audio to the soundboards of the four Pacific Northwest shows...
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Unfortunately not, as far as I know...
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Listening to St. Paul '73 for the first time today...what a stunning version of Dazed! Wow. Cool NQ as well and an all-around great show.
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6 hours ago, Strider said:
Probably because it depresses most people. I myself have preferred to concentrate on the 50th anniversary of the various 1970 tours. Much more fun and optimistic times for the band...and better shows.
Lastly, anyone who thinks a bunch of 70-year olds owe them a tour needs to get a life. Stop with that "doing fans a disservice" nonsense.
My thoughts exactly. I did listen to the Berlin "Whole Lotta Love" because I've always liked it for the uniqueness anyway, but that's about all I bother with from that show. I listen to the Frankfurt show once a year for its anniversary because I happen to have it in my iTunes library, but that's the extent of my 1980 listening. The 50th anniversaries of various 1970 shows and other happenings are certainly more fun to celebrate.
As for the tour stuff, I agree. As someone born in 1995, of course I would jump at the chance to go see them no matter what state they were in if they decided to do something, but it wouldn't be the real "them" without Bonzo, and they are acutely aware of that. Besides, Jimmy was right a few years ago when he said (paraphrasing) that if it was going to happen, it would stand to reason that it would have been shortly after the 2007 show, so as to strike while the iron was hot. The gap from that 2007 show to the present is now by far the longest period of inactivity at almost 13 years (if you count the 1998 Page & Plant tour as "Zeppelin activity"). Even if you don't, there was a 12-year gap between their Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction in 1995 and the 2007 show, so there's already been a longer gap than that. They were 63, 61 and 59 at the 2007 show. Even if the virus clears up on the most optimistic timeline and they could tour next summer, they'd be 77, 75 and almost 73, not to mention that Jason would be 55. I'm sure he could handle it, but John never had to play this stuff beyond 32 -- it's not easy material to play to the level that they and their fans expect, unlike the Stones (who I also love and am happy to have seen five times even at this late stage of their career). Five years ago I thought there was a decent, if unlikely chance. Now I think there is no chance, but I'm at peace with that as I think it is the right decision for their legacy and shows the love and respect that they continue to have for Bonzo.
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^Very interesting stuff, thanks guys! I had wondered this for some time as well, but always forgot to ask.
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Listened to the two Chicago '73 shows for the first time yesterday and today...those July 7 tapers might be the funniest I've heard -- their pre-encore banter alone is worth the price of admission 😂
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6 minutes ago, Zep Hed said:
Gotcha, Strider! The pandemic's not cleared just yet. Making good use of the down time. What a trip it is to go chronologically. Very educational!
It's a damn shame more of this show isn't available. They seemed in a playful mood this night. Seattle's next!
I've been making good use of the down time binging on concerts as well...I've listened to 135 since April 24 between Zepp, Dead, Stones, Doors and Phish lol.
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Just to clarify as there seems to be a bit of confusion about the original question, the options are:
June 7 and June 21, or;
June 8 and June 22, or;
June 10 and June 23, or;
June 11 and June 25, or;
June 13 and June 26, or;
June 14 and June 27.
So far 10th/23rd is in the lead with three votes, while 7th/21st and 13th/26th have one each. All others were spoiled ballots lol.
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2 hours ago, gibsonfan159 said:
I think your question is going over people's heads a bit.
Definitely 10th/23rd for me. As strong as the 21st is, I don't think the 7th can balance out the combo. There were a lot of nerves in that show.
I'm noticing that lol.
Fair choice for sure. I agree about the 7th.
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On 6/27/2020 at 3:34 AM, Strider said:
Okay, to use Rumsfeld's classic line about "known knowns and known unknowns", I dove into your hypothesis, Bonzo_fan.
Let me start with the known unknowns...the New York shows. I wasn't there. A few dodgy audience tapes and a soundboard is all we have to go by. But every person I have talked to that went to one of those Madison Square Garden gigs in 1977 said it was tremendous. So, I feel confident that whatever New York night I pick, I am going to enjoy the concert.
Now, let's move to the known knowns...The L.A. Forum shows. Five of these I saw and while all were great, and even the tape I have heard of the show I missed (June 22) shows that it also was a great night, if I had to pick one to go back in time to see all over again, it would be the one with Keith Moon, June 23. You cannot deny the historical aspect of Keith Moon's last appearance on an American stage. His appearance lent a Looney vibe to a concert that already was a crazy party.
So my pairing to go back in time to see would be the third night shows...June 10 and June 23.
Now, if you are talking only about which pairing of shows to choose based on available tapes, then I would pick the first night...June 7 and June 21. None of the NY audience tapes sound any good and the newly improved June 7 soundboard is one of the better '77 soundboard I have heard. As for June 21, I like the sound of this tape a tad more than the June 23.
I expected the third nights to be a popular choice. June 23 certainly sounds like it would have been a fun one to attend -- Moon's presence doesn't really add anything musically, but I can appreciate how cool it would have been in person, and yes, the historical significance is worth noting.
I agree that the first nights are the way to go if it's listening to the existing recordings.
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5 hours ago, NegativeCrepe said:
My remaster of my favorite Led Zeppelin concert, 43 years gone
All-time favourite eh? I do have a soft spot for it, and like it better than most do I think. "No Quarter" is fantastic, as is the acoustic set.
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9 hours ago, Strider said:
By 1973 Bonham had set the template by which most people know "Moby Dick", courtesy of the movie and soundtrack to "The Song Remains the Same".
1. Snare work
2. Hand drumming
3. Tympani
4. Back to the kit for final crescendo
For 1977 though, he eliminated #4 for the most part...at least at the shows I saw. Except for June 23 when he did a brief section #4 after him and Keith Moon finished the tympani section and before his snare hits signalled the return of Jimmy and John Paul.
For 1977, it was usually 5-10 minutes on the snare, 2 minutes with the hands, and 5 minutes or so of tympani.
Frankly, I am glad Bonham mostly kept it short for the LA Forum shows. One reason I rarely bother listening to the 1977 Landover shows is because of the godawful boring 30-plus minute drum solos.
Right. I hear ya...those middle two Landover ones are definitely a tough listen. I like Seattle '73 for the 30+ minute versions.
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On 6/25/2020 at 6:48 PM, SteveZ98 said:
I think our expectations of how good a '75 or '77 soundboard can sound need to be revised upwards now that they can easily be remixed into stereo. Here's a sample of No Quarter from the 3/21/75 show. Having the guitar panned into both the left and right channels is a choice that I went with because I liked how it sounds, but it could as easily been placed in just the right channel like a traditional live album, similar to what I did for the 3/14/69 remaster below. The cool thing is that once you have the instruments separated from each other, there are lots of creative things that can be done with them. I'm not sure this kind of thing will ever be good enough for Jimmy to consider releasing, but I'm guessing other bands will be looking at their back catalog of soundboards and seeing an opportunity. And before anyone asks, I'm still working on the 3/21/75 show so I don't have links for it yet.
That Seattle sample sounds fantastic!
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Added this to the OP but will say it down here as well: for argument's sake let's assume that we have all 12 shows complete and in the same excellent sound quality -- 12 soundboards, 12 Millard's, 12 multi-tracks...whichever is easier for you to imagine. I realize that the current sound quality (June 8) or completeness (June 14) can make it hard to judge, though...
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3 hours ago, Strider said:
The only "Over the Top" solo I stayed and watched all the way through was the first night and the second night...June 21 and June 23. The other three nights we used that time to go to the bathroom and grab a coke and a snack and check out the action on the concourse and the merch table.
So I really couldn't tell you the details of those drum solos. It was all a hail of banging drums so loud it shook the Forum walls. Only that Keith Moon joined in the banging on June 23 and June 21 was short and sweet.
In fact, after the marathon 25 minute renditions of 1975, I was prepared for more of the same in 1977. Therefore, the conciseness of that first one on June 21 took me by surprise.
But the last three nights were considerably longer. It came down to whether Bonham felt like adding the section after the tympani or going straight to the end after the tympani.
Fair enough...I can only imagine what an endurance test attending those shows would have been -- on the bladder at the very least!
I'm always a bit surprised actually by how short the June 21 version is, considering it's one of Bonham's all-time best shows -- on previous tours, the nights when he was really feeling it usually got a long, epic "Moby Dick."
Isn't the June 27 one fairly short? I seem to recall it being somewhere around 14 minutes, but an entertaining 14. Funny you should mention that about the section after the tympani, because when I was listening to June 25 yesterday, I noticed that he jumps straight to the end after the tympani, despite it clocking in at just under 27 minutes! I had it in my head that he did the section after because of the length like you say...
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21 minutes ago, SteveZ98 said:
I'm going with the first nights in each city. My buddy Mike was at the initial show in NYC, so I get to relive it vicariously through his recollections. And I love how Bonzo storms the stage when he gets to L.A.
Interesting. I didn't expect there to be many takers for that combo, although your remaster of June 7 definitely helped me to see it in a different light. That opening explosion of the June 21 show may well be the greatest start to a concert by anybody, ever.
What show or live song are you listening to now?
in Led Zeppelin Live
Posted
Seattle '77 a day early so I can spin Seattle '73 tomorrow.