Sure, the 25th is loose like all of LA, but to me it hits all the right spots, it's got the best of where they were taking the song at the end of the tour. I really want to like the March 5th version because Page throws in some neat tricks there. But it just doesn't completely come together for some reason. I may be biased towards the 4th, since for a very long time it was the only soundboard from '75 NA. Fort Worth's is the best of the Texas shows. (Overall the best of TX as well, very improvisational for '75, and great drumming from Bonham.)

Another good topic. I rarely listen to January shows, although Detroit is a pretty good version. From North America, in order (first to last): 3/25/1975 LA: Great, up-tempo version 3/21/1975 Seattle: Just a shade behind 2nd night in LA 3/12/1975 Long Beach: Unique version, almost has a tribal beat 3/20/1975 Vancouver: Another great, fast-paced West Coast version with some unique touches 3/19/1975 Vancouver: Almost as good as the next night 3/14/1975 San Diego: Long, unique version 2/13/1975 Nassau: Outstanding Feb version 3/3/1975 Fort Worth: Another unique version, hints of the long San Diego version 3/17/1975 Seattle: The start of the up-tempo West Coast versions 2/14/1975 Nassau: A little behind the previous night 2/6/1975 Montreal: Great version from their first great night of the tour 2/16/1975 St Louis: Beautiful version, shows what a roll they were on as the first leg ended 2/8/1975 Philadelphia: Great version from great, fluid night for Page 2/12/1975 NYC: Solid version from a fun show 2/4/1975 Nassau: Sounds like a great version, despite the poor recording 3/11/1975 Long Beach: Slightly subdued version, but very nice 3/10/1975 San Diego: Cool, gloomy vibe 3/4/1975 Dallas: Sadly cut, sounds like it could have been great (hints of Fort Worth) 3/5/1975 Dallas: Page does some cool things here, but overall there's just something disconnected about it 3/27/1975 LA: 2nd longest NA version, comes close to being great but like most of the LA run can't finish the job 3/24/1975 LA: Used to have a higher opinion of this one, it's hurt by the recent soundboard 2/10/1975 Landover: I like the audience version, nice wintry vibe, it's actually one of the few songs that holds up on the soundboard (very sloppy night overall) 2/28/1975 Baton Rouge: Overrated, like the show as a whole 2/7/1975 NYC: Kind of unremarkable 2/3/1975 NYC: Ditto The Earl's Court versions are all interesting, but come up short to NA in general, esp. the West Coast shows. In no particular order: I find myself listening to the 24th and 25th the most, because of the soundboards, but the playing is excellent. The 17th is a unique version, very reminiscent of the '77 versions. The 23rd has some unique aspects with the strat, and the 18th highlights Page's most fluid night of these shows.

Fair enough.

Sorry, just not hearing it, and I have nothing against the Osmonds. Too much funk to be similar to Zep (yeah I know, The Crunge and all that, but still), which is why I went with the Stormbringer comparisons (and even that's a stretch). BTW I always thought of Soundgarden as more Sabbath-influenced than Zep, I suspect this is a common assessment.

It's a decent 70's era rocker, nothing special. However, I don't hear any kind of Zep or early Rush there, and it'd even be a stretch to compare it to the funkier stuff on Purple's Stormbringer album.

It should also be noted that the number of covid "cases" can be manipulated as political conditions dictate via the cycle threshold (CT) count in the PCR test, as Fauci himself admitted to the NYT last summer. Crank up the magnifying glass and you can find a "crisis" of cases, tone it down and you can declare "victory", etc.

One of many questions. Another would be, how have the lockdowns themselves contributed to excess mortality? The mortality rate has been trending up in the US since 2009 (i.e., when the Federal government gutted the economy by bailing out the banks), so any discussions of excess deaths without accounting for the state of the economy are meaningless. There is no question of a relationship between economic and physical well-being. There's also the question of how government responses at all levels have contributed to the death toll (e.g. 40% of covid deaths have been in nursing homes, but all the media wants to talk about is how many women Cuomo hit on, not the fact that his policies [copied by other Democratic governors] led to 10K unnecessary deaths). Ultimately it is true that there seems to be a new bug out there that puts certain demographics at higher risk, and these groups should properly be the concern of public policy. However, the response of government here, namely the destruction of the economy and civil liberties, has been grotesquely out of proportion to the actual risk faced by the bulk of the population. Since government and media continue to find rationalizations for continuing the lockdowns indefinitely, it is quite accurate to call this a scamdemic at this stage.

This is really cool: PLANET CARAVAN • Fingerstyle Guitar Cover • Black Sabbath / Pantera - YouTube

I actually agree that Made in Japan is somewhat overrated, there are many other performances in their live library that are superior (esp. from the Coverdale era). Most of the songs on Made in Japan were done better on In Concert (also from 1972), and in truth there were actually better performances from that Japan tour that should have made the original release. (They eventually released all three shows, if only Page would do the same for MSG or Earl's Court.) But re. Uriah Heep, come on, you can't be serious here.

Yeah, that was my impression (shredder BS), and I actually couldn't listen to the entire thing because he's so full of himself he's intolerable for more than 1-2 minutes. (Skipping through it, he gave damning praise to the Highway Star solo, merely acknowledging it was ahead of its time.)

At the 17:58 mark. Metal guitarist destroys Loudwire's Top 15 Guitar Solos of All Time - YouTube Thoughts?

Whatever this thing is, it's not a vaccine, more like an expensive dose of theraflu. Straight from the horse's mouth: Q: If a person has received the the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, will the vaccine protect against transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from individuals who are infected despite vaccination? A: Most vaccines that protect from viral illnesses also reduce transmission of the virus that causes the disease by those who are vaccinated. While it is hoped this will be the case, the scientific community does not yet know if the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine will reduce such transmission. https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/mcm-legal-regulatory-and-policy-framework/pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine-frequently-asked-questions Also: Eugenio Derbez: (07:50) And now I have a question about that. The news has reported that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are 95% effective. Does this mean that if I get the vaccine, I won’t get infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus? Dr. Fauci: (08:05) That means that there’s a 95% chance that you will not get symptomatic infection, namely, that you won’t get infected to the point that you get symptoms. But we are unsure right now what the protection is against infection, because it’s conceivable that you could get vaccinated, get exposed, get infected, not know it because the vaccine is protecting you against symptoms, but that you could have virus in your nasal pharynx, which is the reason why we say until we prove that the vaccine prevents transmission, that people who were vaccinated should wear a mask when they’re near people who might be vulnerable to infection. https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/eugenio-derbez-grills-fauci-interview/ But hey, despite all the questions, if you take it, at least you'll be able to get back to something like a normal life, right?

And you're a religious fanatic who won't think for himself. Please, self-quarantine indefinitely.

Have a look at this, in particular see if anything sounds familiar from the Prevention section: Marek's disease - Wikipedia

This is a really fun rocker, but I can see why it was left off Heaven and Hell; sounds a bit too Rainbow-ish for a Sabbath album. Would love to hear more Sabbath outtakes.

I've heard the last show in Liverpool was a disaster, and the Asian tour in '75 was ill-fated to put it mildly. (I believe the reason Lord had to fill in the guitar parts in Japan was because Bolin got some bad smack in Indonesia and his left arm was immobilized. A former Zep roadie working for Purple was murdered in Indonesia, probably by the promoters who were shaking the band down.) But the bootlegs from New Zealand in '75 and Miami in '76 are both kick-ass, so I disagree that Mark IV couldn't get it done on stage. Obviously the drug problems made it hit-or-miss, but there was too much rock 'n roll talent in that line-up for it to be sub-par live.

A lot of good stuff here too: http://obeytheriffbelgium.blogspot.com/2016/03/international-womens-day.html

Here's a killer mixcloud station for this sort of thing (it's a descendant of the old stonerobixxx blog):

Yup, huge stoner/doom fan. Surprised no one's mentioned the foundational bands like Trouble, Kyuss, Fu Manchu, etc.

I completely screwed up my #'s for 2020, and I apologize for this. The 2.7M only covered the period Feb-Dec, provisional deaths for Jan were 260K, meaning projected total deaths for 2020 will be more like 3.2M and hence an overall mortality rate of 977, or a 12% increase. So yes, there is something very unusual going on this year. I stand by all of the other claims I've made here, however, specifically that the virus poses little risk to the population as a whole, as the CDC's own numbers show that 94% of "covid deaths" happened in people with an average of 2.6 co-morbidities (and no, being fat and out-of-shape as too many Americans are is not a co-morbidity). There is still no justification for rushing out and mandating an untested vaccine.

Fair enough, but this "people are dying" thing is a bit like "do it for the children": we're not supposed to ask any questions or express any kind of skepticism because the stakes are (supposedly) far too high. And I happen to believe that our obligation as free men is precisely to ask such questions.

Definitely amusing, and the one where they use Samuel L. Jackson's voice is also funny. But what's the tie-in? Video responses are a tried-and-true rhetorical device (I'm partial to the scene from The Godfather where Michael chides Kay for her naivete), but I'm not following it here.

In light of the actual numbers that have been shown here, I'm reminded of this quote from Orwell (1984): "How can I help it? How can I help but see what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four." "Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once."

Yes, another miracle of science: U.S. Influenza Surveillance System: Purpose and Methods | CDC From Section 3: "Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this system will suspend data collection for the 2020-21 influenza season. Data from previous seasons are available on FluView Interactive."