It would take longer to hand off a guitar than to drop the D.

The notable thing about the St. Louis show from 2-16-75 is it's by far Plant's best night in all of 75.

One of those things you don't know until you play in a band and experience it yourself on stage. I've had this happen and it's very frustrating. Unless you play in a band, you would think it's just sloppy playing, bad timing or just being human and less than perfect, but if you play gigs, you KNOW what not hearing the monitors can do and you can sense it in recordings. Another thing about not having a good monitor mix is that it can really make it hard to play on an inspired level, because it sounds like crap on stage and you hate it, so it's hard to get into it. The best you can do is rely on being well-rehearsed and go through the motions, but there's something missing.

I used to wonder why this part was so hard for Jimmy to play, and also why he didn't do the big bend at the end. Furthermore, instead of pulling off at the 20th fret (high C), he pulls off at the 19th fret (B). Now I know why. A few years ago I picked up a double neck to use in my tribute band, and I never noticed this until I played it, but the neck is short. The body of the guitar doesn't allow you to reach that far up the neck. A normal electric body allows you to easily reach the 22nd fret, but with the double neck, the 19th is the cut off, but even that's not easy. I have to cram my hand in there to get that lick to work - and I don't do the big bend on the end either. No thanks (lols). By the way, that double neck took me a long time to get used to, and it's still unwieldy. The 12 string neck is pretty easy to play, but the 6 string one is very difficult for me during the intro of Stairway. It's hard for me to fret the chords because the weight of the guitar is strange. It's like there is a small child hanging on to the neck with his feet off the ground. I have to hold the neck up (sorta) while playing and it requires some concentration. It's a beautiful guitar and looks really fun to play, but I only ever play it at shows, and when I'm done with it, believe me, I'm happy to put it back on the stand!

Guys, the simple reason I think Jimmy didn't want to play on the album and doesn't play much, in general, is that he's a very old man. Yes, Clapton and the rest are old too, but people age differently. Jimmy's almost 80. Anyone still hoping to see Jimmy go on tour soon is nuts. Time to let it go. My gut tells me he's not in the studio (lols), not recording at home, not getting his chops together (what for?) or anything like that. He seems to be adrift, just as he has been since the demise of Zeppelin in 1980. With a few exceptions, Jimmy hasn't really known what to do with his time. He's a bit eccentric, so he probably spends a crazy amount of time entertaining himself with oddities. If he did put out some new material, it would probably be something like Walking into Clarksdale - only less exciting.

I’d love to have a link to this!

Ana is the Mona Lisa of The Song Remains The Same.

You're the only one who keeps saying everything is "creepy" - The rest of us are as enthusiastic and excited as can be.

Ana, I've known you almost all my life because of you being featured during Since I've Been Loving You. Amazing to finally have this mystery solved after all these years - and you have the hoodie to prove it! Welcome to the forum. I bet you have a story to tell about that concert.

Well said! I've purchased all the cassettes more times than I can remember, and then when CDs came out I purchased them as well, not to mention the VCR tapes of TSRTS and then the CDs of that, and then the later stuff. I've purchased all the Zeppelin material over and over and over and over again. Now I have them on Spotify (sheesh) - how many times do I have to pay for the (same) rights to listen to the tunes? And about the bootlegs, I'm right there with you. I used to spend good money on those, and that was back when I barely had two nickels to rub together. Of course, it was very exciting when it dawned on me on day back about 1998, that perhaps there might be someone who knows something about Zeppelin bootlegs on the World Wide Web! I started tape trading and then CD trading. I loved when a record convention would come to a nearby city, and sometimes not so nearby, and I would make a journey out of it, a mission. I'd get there and look carefully over everything I could find, picking up a few Zep cassettes and listen to them on the ride home. Those were good times. But now, with the amazing work this community does with the remastering, I just wait until they do their magic and listen on YouTube or get the FLAC.

Any update on this? That was one of the best parts of the website.

That's a pretty good list. Honolulu 1970 is, perhaps, Plant's best vocal ever.

Why is it mostly these acoustic players that seemed to have influenced Page so much? Who was the bigger influence, Graham or Jansch?

Finally, someone else appreciates 2-14-75 as much as I do. I purchased The Diagrams of Led Zeppelin's version of this boot back about 2001 or so. It was a very good audience recording with only one drawback, which was some overloading and distortion caused by the bass and especially the bass pedals. Having said that, I'll take that incredibly ambient recording over the much-improved remastered recordings that have come out over the last 10 years or so. They're amazing, but something is missing for me. The Rain Song on TDOLZ's version is my all time favorite. It feels like I'm there. The rawness of the audience recording makes NQ an amazing listening experience. It's not the same with the "perfect" recordings. Plant's plantations are great on this show as well. My favorite solos are Dazed, NQ and Stairway. This was the first 75 show that I listened to that finally seemed to measure up to the great 73 shows. Dazed is monstrous! The feedback during the NQ solo is the kind of controlled chaos that made Zeppelin so great and it's accentuated on TDOLZ recording. What a great and special show that is.

Excellent post. I did a deep study of Crowley a few years ago, just to see if he ever actually did anything in his life, and to see what all the fuss is about. I learned a lot about him and I discovered that he was a disgusting, filthy pig of a man, who did detestable things. He was a complete loser, a pig, a rich, spoiled, lazy sloth, and all around just a very low quality person. The world is better off without him. To me, he is remarkable only in that he was such a scum bag. Why Jimmy was so fascinated with such a person is beyond me, but it does not speak well of Jimmy, frankly. I mean, we're all grown men here now, right? We aren't fanboys who have to excuse everything Jimmy does, so I'm just being candid about my take on this. By the way, if anyone wants to gain a bit of context regarding Crowley and the era he grew up in, I suggest looking closely into both Madame Blavatsky and Manly P. Hall. Oh, and let's not overlook the interesting tidbit about the connection (possible connection) between Crowley and George Bush! - Just google it.

Why would Steve A. know best and who is he?

That's my favorite 75 show. I have The Diagrams of Led Zeppelin version, which has some bass overloading here and there, but the audience ambience makes up for it. I like it better than the upgraded remastered versions.

I used to hate soundboards because they were always so dry and the tone was terrible, not to mention they highlight the mistakes, especially Jimmy's, but nowadays people are remastering the soundboards so they sound great! My favorite is when they overlay an audience source over the soundboard and mix it just right, the result being excellent audio but with the slight ambience of the audience recording. Without the ambience the shows lose a lot of magic imo.

I agree with you. I've always been in the minority on this. To me, these shows suffer from some sloppy Page playing, maybe due to his infamously injury finger.

This show starts a bit sluggish but heats up soon thereafter, and finishes very strong. It's amazing how much they improved from the beginning to the end. This was one of my first bootlegs. I haven't listened to it in a long time, but I do remember it had a great SIBLY, with excellent atmosphere and audience ambience. I forget which version I have. Maybe Blues Quaaludes, but not sure.

Great topic! I'm surprised February 14 is so low on the list. I have that one at the top of my list. Years ago, I had the version put out by The Diagrams of Led Zeppelin and it was an audience source. It was a pretty good audience recording, but some of the low notes played by Jones on the bass pedals were highly distorted, yet it didn't ruin the listening experience. On that particular recording, NQ came across to me as the best ever. I've heard this show more recently with upgraded sound and it's great. The person who remastered it did a brilliant job. However, it was almost too nice and NQ lost some of it's ambience to my ears. Glad to see March 27 high on the list. I think Page sounds brilliant there.

I just went to the concert timeline to read some live show reviews, as I've been doing for years, and they're apparently all gone. Does anyone know what the deal is?

I think Page's peak was 73, Europe and the end of July, but a close second is 1971. On another day, I might have said 1971 was his peak, especially the Japan tour. I agree with those who said he started playing sloppy in 1975 and beyond. I noticed this right away, as soon as I started listening to my first 75 boots way back in the day. I was disturbed by his slop. He was this towering figure in my life, the ultimate guitar hero, my musical idol, and I was suddenly faced with the reality that Jimmy was human, all too human, when I listened to his playing in 75 and beyond. In fact, it wasn't until many years later when I started picking up lots of boots from 75 (because of the internet), that I finally came across a few shows that showed me Jimmy still had the spark of genius in him. I was so happy to hear his playing on 2-14-75, and I had the version from TDOLZ, which was a nice audience version. Then I heard the show from March 27, 1975 and was blown away by the NQ. It was great to see these flashes of greatness return here and there. But in 1973, Jimmy played at an inspired level almost every show, with just a few exceptions. His playing was fresh, inventive, aggressive, sharp, articulate and fast. He was very energetic. Same can be said for 69-72. In 1975, I found him drifting and repeating some used up boring licks over and over again. I found him incoherent at times, like he forgot what he was playing and had to reorient himself on stage in the moment. I do not see it as Jimmy "exploring" and being "inventive". I can tell the difference. There's simply a level of slop that crept into his playing after 73. To me, it sounds like he stopped practicing. He probably wasn't as hungry as he was in 69-73, when he had something to prove. He was always on tour and always recording. That keeps the rust off. After an 18 month break from 73 to 75, he sounds like he came back really rusty and slowly got back in shape, somewhat, during the tour. When you stop playing for a while, you lose your vocabulary and your technique both, and that's what Jimmy sounded like to me. There are a number of notable exceptions in 75, but in general, I think he was consistently less great than in 73. Not to mention, if he was getting drunk then forget it. The fingers do not behave. And once the heroin became a problem, well, then there's no time at all for discipline and practice. A top musician is like a top athlete: they must train and train hard to maintain their top form.

Agree 100%

Back around 1990 I caught a live version of Communication Breakdown being played on the Zep set. Pro quality sound, must have been a BBC bootleg. They went into It's Your Thing (do what you wanna do - I can't tell you, who to sock it to...) with excellent wah pedal work. It was kind of funky sounding. Really great. I can't find it anywhere on YouTube. Does anyone know for sure what show this was from and what the deal is with not being able to find it?