I'm thoroughly convinced Neil Young thinks for himself and always has.

If the contributions of John Bonham and the chemistry between the four band members doesn't speak for itself, then I guess we're going to agree to disagree.

Perfect Strangers Is not only a great album but a knockout comeback album. And despite production woes of the era. Certainly a more solid statement for Purple than Chocolate Factory has been for Primus. "Your lights are burning bright, but nobody's home"

There aren't any good songs on Perfect Strangers, Abandon, or Purpendicular (to begin with)? "Wring That Neck" isn't a worthy jam? Shit.

Here's a short list just from the 70's: Jim Croce Gordon Lightfoot Joni Mitchell Neil Young Harry Chapin Bob Dylan James Taylor Don McLean Joan Baez Neil Diamond Maria Muldaur Carly Simon Arlo Guthrie John Denver Willie Nelson Waylon Jennings Bruce Springsteen Townes Van Zandt Paul Simon Patti Smith Stevie Wonder Paul McCartney John Lennon George Harrison Nick Drake Kris Kristofferson Johnny Cash Billy Joe Shaver Bill Withers Curtis Mayfield Lowell George Leo Kottke Jackson Browne Iggy Pop Gerry Rafferty Elton John/Bernie Taupin David Allen Coe Crosby, Stills, Nash The 70's was actually a time of great variety. It's often referred to as the singer-songwriter decade. Time will tell if any of the current crop will be remembered and overplayed in 40 years.

My -Tribute To Ronnie James Dio- Playlist 1973-06-10 ELF "Nevermore" Going Down Live at The Bank, Cortland, NY 1974 ELF "Rocking Chair Rock n Roll Blues" L.A. 59 1975 ELF "Prentice Wood" Trying To Burn The Sun 1975 Rainbow "Self Portrait" Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow 1976 Rainbow "A Light In The Black" Rising 1977 Rainbow "Catch The Rainbow" On Stage 1978 Rainbow "L.A. Connection","The Shed","Rainbow Eyes" Long Live Rock n Roll 1978 Rainbow "Man On The Silver Mountain" Finyl Vinyl Live in Atlanta 1980 Black Sabbath "Neon Knights" Heaven And Hell 1980-10-17 Black Sabbath "Heaven And Hell" Live at Nassau Coliseum 1981 Black Sabbath "Turn Up The Night" The Mob Rules 1982 Black Sabbath "Children Of The Sea" Live Evil 1983 DIO "Stand Up And Shout" Holy Diver 1984 DIO "Evil Eyes" The Last In Line 1984-10-05 DIO "The Last In Line" Live in London 1985 DIO "Sacred Heart" Sacred Heart 1987 DIO "I Could Have Been A Dreamer" Dream Evil 1987-10-04 DIO "Stars" Live in Tokyo 1990 DIO "Wild One" Lock Up The Wolves 1992 Black Sabbath "TV Crimes" Dehumanizer 1992-09-08 Black Sabbath "Time Machine" Live in Boston 1994 DIO "Strange Highways" Strange Highways 1996 DIO "Golden Rules" Angry Machines 2000 DIO "Turn to Stone" Magica 2002 DIO "Better In the Dark" Killing The Dragon 2004 DIO "I Am" Master Of The Moon 2007 Heaven and Hell "Lonely Is The Word" Live at Radio City Music Hall 2009 Heaven and Hell "Breaking Into Heaven" The Devil You Know All Hail Ronnie James Dio A man who dedicated his life to his vision, his fans, and rock and roll.

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines and dates by which bills must be paid" - FZ "Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible" - FZ "With a tongue like a cow she can make you go wow" - FZ

This is infinitely fascinating to me. The desperate drive to invalidate not only a man's work but his character because his music isn't your style. And the pathetic need to expose yourself as ultimately one dimensional. How dare anyone think outside your box. How grateful i am i'm not imprisoned in your mindnumbingly boring wasteland of a reality. Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and STP pass muster because they had the good sense to keep their crayons inside your lines. Because the secret to all great rock bands is playing it safe and verbatim regurgitation. But Nirvana didn't play it safe yet they still achieved success and cast a long shadow, and you just can't deal with that. I think that's more your problem than Kurt Cobain's. That's one reason why i admire the guy. Because he was successful in spite of his own problems. And in spite of people like you. Seems like people could just say good riddance or oh well and leave him in the past. Just forget about the talentless fluke. Right? But no. He seems to become more polarizing as time goes on. For the record, Kurt Cobain was: A great vocalist A talented unique guitarist An epic songwriter And if you can't or won't peek outside your little box of rules long enough to consider this, that's your sad fucking problem. Now go crawl back to your comfort zone where you belong. And for the love of Jimi stop trying to define greatness with your color by numbers bullshit. You're embarrassing yourself.

　 Could it be one man's trivialities are another man's demons? nah... Gotta say this post really surprised me. Not the content, as this point of view is rampant under every Cobain story, Nirvana video and thread online. But when there's a post count that high, one might expect that the poster has quality information or even some wisdom to bring to the table. Turns out i know you from somewhere else, Steve. A song called "Ballad of a Thin Man". Yeah, Mr. Jones didn't "get" Bob upon his arrival. But it's been twenty years and you still don't understand Kurt. Consider now for a moment the value in a fan hearing a lyric which commiserates, a lyric which addresses everyday problems which are universal but make many feel alone. Here's the news, like it or not. Kurt Cobain was very talented at writing those kind of lyrics. Consider the value when someone feels like someone else understands. Can you calculate that? The voice of dissent in rock n roll which speaks to and for the outsiders. The nobodies. For people whose voices are never heard. It's therapeutic. It's medicinal. Can you dig that? You make it clear he wasn't here to speak for you, but can't you muster the respect to say he was here to speak for someone? Common sense might look at the album sales and passionate fanbase and think, there is something happening here. I just don't know what it is. Sucks to be an outsider, huh Mr. Jones? No, you're definitely an important somebody. Your post count proves that, right? Or maybe that's just compensating for... If there hadn't been so much of this hateful rhetoric throughout the years you might not come across as such a mindless follower now. Maybe thoughtless potshots at an easy target is just your style. This begs the questions: Why would such a positive, together guy need to use that lame Kurt Cobain as a punching bag? Since he's so talentless, what is that really proving anyway? Shit, he's been dead for over twenty years and he's still a burr under your saddle? It's that old classic move, right? Attack what you don't understand. Personally, i don't have patience for knee-jerk reactions or foundless judgements. Something is still happening here, and you still don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?

Dark Lord, you ignorant slut. There's finally a thread for the great lost song Fire and you use it to grandstand a crackpot theory about some phantom Jimmy Page misstep. Maybe you should find a Radioactive thread to fall apart in. But first, isn't it the very riff you're complaining about now that you thought connected Radioactive to Fire?

Yeah, this song has a lot more in common with ALS and Presence in general than it does with Radioactive or The Firm.

6-27-69 and 8-31-69

I don't have a real dislike for any LZ songs. I will say that I got in to LZ when I was 15 and when at that time Presence and ITTOD didn't deliver the rush I found in LZ II, I didn't have much use for them. Fifteen years down the line after collecting everything I could official and boot wise, I decided to put a mixtape together using official songs that had never really been on my radar; primarily stuff from Presence, ITTOD and Coda. I ended up finding a whole new group of favorite songs. Common punching bags such as South Bound Suarez, Ozone Baby, I'm Gonna Crawl, Hots On, Carouselambra, Hot Dog, Candy Store, Darlene have all become indispensable favs. You may be surprised which songs, given some time, end up growing on you. As far as hating Stairway, especially here, that sounds like straight up button pushing. I say like and dislike whatever you want, but as Brad pointed out it would be only fair to elaborate on what makes the song NOT tick. For the most part everyone else on this thread provided reasoning for their choices. Most fans would probably agree that STH showcases to some degree what is great about the band. I've always thought a great rock concert is like a great roll in the hay. Catch a buzz before you go in, play a lot of favorites, some new stuff. Throw in a ballad or two to change up the rhythm. Spend about two hours giving everyone what they want, building momentum until you finish with a bang. Then head to Denny's. And I always felt STH was an that entire concert boiled down to song form. It's very "satisfying".

Closest thing and Real thing are two different things. For whatever reason, you're working overtime to miss the point. Like the great Peter Green once sang, "Oh Well..." I will concede that I was off-base to a degree. This thread is titled "Best Version Of Kashmir", not "Best Version Of Kashmir Performed By Led Zeppelin". I did assume conventional wisdom would dictate a great version featuring John Bohnam would trump any post Zep project version. That is not the case. My mistake. Apologies to the personal preferences of anyone who felt the need to take offense. There are, however, a few things I cannot and will not concede: 1. Jason Bohnam has never been an official member of Led Zeppelin. Only a fill in on special occasions. This is NOT a slight towards Jason. Only a known fact. Please, your emotional baggage and whatever John Bohnam said to you (or me) in a dream is not relevant here. (*insert smiley face here) 2. Choosing a favorite version of a song by a band who specialized in improvising and living in the moment based on the sound quality of the recording seems somewhat shallow. This is an opinion, one I feel I'm entitled to, and one that hopefully won't offend anyone here. Thank you for the opportunity and freedom to express it. Of course, being shallow isn't a crime. Only a small crack in the foundation of our civilization. (*insert winky face here) If you are new to Zep and O2 is your introduction to the journey, that is awesome. If you aren't savvy when it comes to obtaining unofficial recordings, that's totally understandable. Hopefully if you are interested you can get some help getting on board. If you truly believe O2 versions are among the best ever, OK. Believe what you want. I sure do. On that note, I'd like to throw Kashmir from San Diego 6-19-77 in the ring. Not a solid show all around, but the band had rallied by this point in the setlist.

What John Bohnam's wishes were/are is speculation and beside the point. Is there a more qualified person than Jason to occupy that seat in a tribute to Led Zeppelin? No. Absolutely Not. Nowhere did I day anything about O2 was disrespectful to JB. In fact, I tipped my hat to it. I say enjoy it for what it is, i do. I tip my hat to Jason and his LZ Experience shows. My point is that the line-up for that show is, by universal definition, not Led Zeppelin. And that this can't be agreed upon by fans, especially here, www.ledzeppelin.com, baffles me. What I said was a fan choosing a best ever version of a song from that show seems to disregard the mountain if epic recorded versions the band left behind for us. (Did they really not leave enough behind for you?) Maybe there isn't a mountain of epic Kashmir performances, but certainly a few which represent the heights the band could reach. No? That the surviving members couldn't move forward with someone new as Led Zeppelin I guess touched me and I consider it an important part of their story. That The Who could reload shows they had a different chemistry and different values. That's all. I'm a big Who fan and the Moon-less Eminence Front and The Quiet One are two of my all time fav songs. Zep and The Who have a lot in common but most of all in their respective glory years they were each a band with 4 equal and distinctive personalities. Most bands in rock and roll history have had members come and go. Zep didn't. That means something. I think Moon was such a unique talent and personality that he shouldn't have been considered replaceable. I don't think Roger and Pete are "doing justice" to their past. I think Pete's desperately living in the shadow of The Who's glory days and has been doing so since around 1983. Artists such as Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Rush, and Bob Dylan seem to have been somewhat more graceful in existing in the present with new material while celebrating their past. It seems Pete is still trying to prove something and certainly believes The Who should be held in higher regard than Zep. My wish for Pete is that he can relax and enjoy the fruits of his labors and his place in RNR history. At the end of the day, these kind of politics pale in comparison to the magic of the music that has stood the test of time. I'm in it for the songs and when I need the real thing I go straight to the source. I prefer to accept no substitutes.

The first unofficial recording I acquired 28 years ago. 6-23-77. I've been comparing every Stairway to this one ever since. This is the one. Page is too wasted to play? Plant isn't interested? Bonzo isn't on? Overplays? Such strange dogma which surrounds 1977. Inconsistent on the whole? Sure, no doubt. Maybe it's Moon's presence. Maybe it's the spell the Forum had over them. Maybe they had their Wheaties that morning. Listen as Page and Bonzo lock like eagles in heat. That stop and go section - NAILED! Page's flourishes as he comes out of that part. Everything that is awesome and beloved about this show leads up the that Achilles(best ever?)/Stairway double whammy. And how you gonna top that? Hopefully you've got Keith Moon waiting in the wings. Sloppy. Sloppy? Do fans really want to hear Jimmy replicate what's on the record instead of taking chances? He doesn't always nail it, but when he does... "Technique doesn't come into it - I deal in emotions" - Jimmy Page This version of Stairway is a beautiful example of that.

Watch this go over like a lead balloon. O2 is NOT Led Zeppelin. It was a beautiful tribute to and celebration of Led Zeppelin. LZ ended abruptly with the departure of John Bonham. To pick a best ever LZ performance from that concert shows a serious lack of respect not only for Bonham's contributions but also for the surviving members who felt they "couldn't go on as they once were". Yeah, they were billed as Led Zeppelin at that concert. That doesn't change the fact that Bonham wasn't there. I always felt that not replacing a fallen member was one of the things that elevated Zep above some of their contemporaries (I won't say "WHO"). Zep wasn't a band you could just reload. And picking a best performance based on sound quality? Huh? Do yourself a favor and put the '75 soundboards away for awhile and spend some quality time with the Third European Tour. That said, Kashmir from Cologne 6-18-80 recently caught me by surprise. Check it out. It's my new fav.

Long time fan and show collector - First time poster! In general, I prefer girls with long dark wavy hair, Les Pauls, and audience recordings. Now playing: Munich 3-17-73.