drowan
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Here's a full-length live recording of "You Shook Me" from the Olympia concert in Paris on Friday, October 10, 1969, precisely a week prior to the Carnegie Hall concert. The improvisation and creative twists added to this live song are what makes this band so much fun and entertaining! Enjoy! -
Here is a clip from Led Zeppelin's January 9, 1970 concert at Royal Albert Hall featuring "What Is and What Never Should Be" which was recorded a mere two and a half months after the Carnegie Hall concert in New York. This gives you the sense of the high energy and weaving interplay that the band is able to master toward the the end of the first full year they played together. Until a bootleg recording is found of the October 17, 1969 concert, this is the closest we're going to come to capturing the intense energy of that night.
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Here is a brief Led Zeppelin live clip of the band singing Communication Breakdown from their concert at the Oympia in Paris on October 10, 1969, a week prior to the Carnegie Hall concert in New York City.
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It’s worth noting that for the Led Zeppelin II sessions Page had now switched to using a Gibson Les Paul guitar as opposed to a Telecaster that had dominated his late Yardbirds and early Zeppelin work. He was already in possession of a vintage 1958 Les Paul, but added another model during the early American tours. “I had been mainly using the Telecaster, both on stage and in the studio,” Page remembered. “We were at the Fillmore at the time, and Joe Walsh, who was then playing guitar with his outfit The James Gang, said he had a Gibson Les Paul for sale – a 1959 model . He wanted to sell it for five hundred dollars – a right price at the time. Once I started playing it, that was it.” Unbeknownst to many rock music concert reviewers and authors, Jimmy Page payed that 1959 Gibson Les Paul the night of the Carnegie Hall concert (shown below): Source of quoted text above: Dave Lewis, Classic Rock: "Led Zeppelin: The Story Behind Led Zeppelin II"
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Here is a little more insight about Led Zeppelin's recording studio activity at Juggy Sound Studio in NYC in July and August of 1969 to complete LZ II: "It seemed that Zep would record whenever they had a moment to spare. Other studios used during this period included New York’s small independent set-up Juggy Sound, which was used to lay down the Tolkien inspired Ramble On." Source: Dave Lewis, Classic Rock: "Led Zeppelin: The Story Behind Led Zeppelin II" Quote Edit
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Another photo of Skip Juried in the Juggy Sound Studio (subsequently sold by Juggy Murray and renamed the Sound Exchange) where Led Zeppelin did some of their additional guitar overdubs in "What is and What Should Never Be" on June 2, 1969. In 1969 and 1970, this same studio was used by Jimi Hendrix to record the Band of Gypsy's album. As a gift, Jimi gave Skip one of his guitars that he kept stored at the studio as an act of friendship. Not only was Skip an engineer, but he was also a session guitarist for various bands. Jimi's relationship with Juggy Murray Jones goes back to roughly 1965 when he recorded some of the the Electric Ladyland tracks there. Here is some additional color on this relationship: "In 1965, Jimi Hendrix was then known as Jimi James, he recorded frequently with Henry "Juggy" Murray at Juggy's studios in New York City. On July 27th 1965, Jimi signed his first exclusive recording artists contract with Sue Records at the Sue offices on 265 West 54th Street, New York City, with Juggy Murray. Skip Juried was the chief engineer at Juggy Sound studios. He was a very good friend of Jimi Hendrix and Skip kept this special guitar for Jimi at the studio on his request. After Jimi's success with the Experience he returned to Juggy Sound to complete the Band of Gypsys album that was to be given to Ed Chalpin."
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In 1969, Led Zeppelin also recorded and mixed part of LZ II at Juggy Sound Studio, owned by Juggy Murray Jones and located at 265 West 54th Street in New York City (see picture of the studio). Skip Juried was a chief engineer there. A year later, the studio was sold to Orville Green and renamed as the "Sound Exchange". The original building in which the studio was located has since been demolished and replaced with a new modern structure.
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Here is a photo of A&R's recording studio building at 322 West 48th Street in NYC and a receipt from a May 22, 1969 recording session for LZ II :
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Here's a photo taken of the Grove Sound Studios in NYC, owned by Art Talmadge, during the recording of "Ramble On" on LZ II in 1969 several months prior to the Carnegie Hall Concert: Detail of caption from photo above:
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Here's a later pic of Grant with the band in May, 1969 along with their attorney Steve Weiss: For more color on Grant, take a look at the Forum online comments associated with the Carnegie Hall concert held on October 17, 1969. The concert came together through some intense persuasion made by Peter Grant and arranged through rock concert promoter, Howard Stein. Here's the link to some additional content on Peter Grant on the Carnegie Hall forum pages:
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Here is a picture of the Mayfair Studio in New York City where Led Zeppelin did some of their production work on LZ II 3-4 months prior to the Carnegie Hall concert in October 1969. The Mayfair Studio, which was located at 701 7th Avenue was in a building that was later torn down and redeveloped as 20 Times Square.
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Here is a little more background and color from Jimmy Page about why and how Eddie Kramer got involved with the production of the Led Zeppelin II album. It came together in the early part of 1969, roughly six months prior to the Carnegie Hall concert, when LZ had already started planning their concert tours of the US that year. During trips to the US, Page and Plant were able to carve out time at several studios to begin mixing and producing the album. Here is Page's recollection of how Kramer's earlier collaboration on the engineering work for the LZ II recordings later led to his further involvement with the album and continued his growing relationship with the band: PAGE: The theremin's eerie sound [for example, on "Whole Lotta Love"] begged for more experimentation. To get my guitar to sound surreal, I detuned it and pulled on the strings for a far-out effect. I was playing a Sunburst 1958 Les Paul Standard guitar I had bought from [James Gang guitarist] Joe Walsh in San Francisco when we were out there on tour. The Standard had this tonal versatility, allowing me to get a blistering high pitch. Robert's vocal was just as extreme. He kept gaining confidence during the session and gave it everything he had. His vocals, like my solos, were about performance. He was pushing to see what he could get out of himself. We were performing for each other, almost competitively. When we toured the U.S. again in May and June [of 1969], we took the rough-mix tapes along with us in a large trunk. In Los Angeles, we'd work at studios like Mirror, Mystic, and A&M to overdub material. In New York, we worked at Mayfair, Groove, and Juggy studios. Today, digital files are e-mailed all over the place, but back then you actually had to take your tapes if you wanted to work on the road. When we were ready to mix all the songs for the album, I wanted Eddie Kramer to do it. Eddie had engineered several of the album's songs from scratch in London, and he had worked with us in the American studios. He also had engineered Jimi Hendrix's albums. But by the summer [of 1969] Eddie had relocated to the States, so when we were in New York in August, we called him. "Whole Lotta Love" was all there on tape, but it needed a big, polished mix for the album.
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Here"s a little more color on the Led Zeppelin rendition of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" that talks about Page's acoustical guitar style and the musical interplay between Page and Plant: Jimmy Page explained how he adapted the song for Led Zeppelin in Daniel Rachel's The Art of Noise: Conversations with Great Songwriters: "I worked out this arrangement using a more finger-style method and then having a flamenco burst in it. Again, it's light and shade and this drama of accents; using the intensity of what would be a louder section for effect." There is a Led Zeppelin drinking game where you have to take a swig every time Robert Plant sings "baby." This song leads to inebriation in that one, since he repeats "babe" or "baby" 31 times. In his 2012 Rolling Stone interview, Jimmy Page cited this song as one that showed the empathy he and Robert Plant had when working together. "I knew exactly how that was going to shape up," he said. "I set the mood with the acoustic guitar and that flamenco-like section. But Robert embraced it. He came up with an incredible, plaintive vocal." Source: Songfacts - https://www.songfacts.com/facts/led-zeppelin/babe-im-gonna-leave-you
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Here's another photo of LZ attorney, Steve Weiss, with Peter Grant taken at some point well after (year unconfirmed) the Carnegie Hall concert in 1969.
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Another key player in the early years of Led Zeppelin's success is the band's attorney, Steve Weiss. Interestingly, Jeff Beck was in the Atlantic office the day Jimmy Page signed their contract with the recording label company. Shown here are two photos that include Steve taken the year prior to the Carnegie Hall concert held in October 1969. The first photo was taken the day on the record contract signing on 11/11/68. The second was taken six months later in New York at the Plaza Hotel, presumably during the last week of May in 1969 when the band played at the Fillmore East on May 30 and 31 of that week.
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Source: Keith Shadwick, "Led Zeppelin: The story of a band and their music: 1968 - 1980".
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Here is some additional insight on why in 1968 and 1969, Eddie Kramer, who had already done studio mixing and production work for the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and others later became so enamored with Led Zeppelin and their fresh new sound. Note Eddie's reference to John Paul Jones and the earlier days when he was originally know as John Baldwin: Source: Interview of Eddie Kramer by Finding Zoso, posted August 2012 - see link below: http://findingzoso.blogspot.com/2012/08/interview-with-eddie-kramer.html
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The Carnegie Hall concert was held a week before the release of Led Zeppelin II and included a visit by the band to Atlantic's New York studio with Eddie Kramer to talk about their tour, the concert they were playing that night at Carnegie Hall and the release of the album. Both Chris Wood (Traffic) and Dr. John were in the studio that day visiting with the Atlantic staff along with sound engineer Eddie Kramer and were subsequently invited to watch the Carnegie Hall concert back stage that night.
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For all of us sentimental fans hoping to one day find a bootleg from the Carnegie Hall Led Zeppelin concert, here is a 1969 video recording of "Baby, I'm Gonna Leave You - 1969":
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Here is the photo of Living Colour at the March 7, 2018 Led Zeppelin Tribute held at Carnegie Hall:
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The Steve Hoffman Music Forum had this commentary about the prospect of finding a bootleg recording of the Carnegie Hall Led Zeppelin concert: If memory serves (and it's less and less these days) I asked Eddie Kramer about taking all those Zep photos at Carnegie Hall. Was he there taping the show and took the chance to snap some photos?Unfortunately, he said no. I don't believe multis exist of that show. Source: https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/led-zeppelin-live-versus-studio.346572/page-6 (see the commentary at the bottom of Page 6)
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Here is a live video clip of Living Colour playing one of their favorite Led Zeppelin songs at the Carnegie Hall tribute last March 2018:
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Scarlet Macaw: Yes, the Living Colour band members put on a great performance at the Led Zeppelin Tribute last March 2018 at Carnegie Hall. Here is a photo I took of the band that night. Rock on!!
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Here is some additional background on Howard Stein who at the time of the 10/17/69 Led Zeppelin Carnegie Hall Concert was one of Bill Graham's big competitors and emerging as one of the top rock concert promoters in the New York metro area in 1969: Howard Stein was an important promoter in New York in the 60s and 70s, and he booked the Grateful Dead many times. Among the many venues where he booked the Dead were the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, Gaelic Park in the Bronx and the Academy of Music in Manhattan. Stein competed first with Bill Graham and later with John Scher for bookings from touring groups, not just the Grateful Dead. The ad for Singer Bowl and Pavilion ad from the June 5, 1969 Village Voice In the Summer of 1969, Howard Stein was booking both the Singer Bowl and The Pavilion, in Flushing Meadows Park in Queens. The park had been the site of the New York World's Fair in 1964, and subsequently became the site of Shea Stadium, home of the New York Mets (and for some time, the Jets as well). The Singer Bowl was the larger venue. You can see from the ad above that concerts at the Singer Bowl and the Pavilion did not directly conflict. The Grateful Dead had headlined a July 11-12, 1969 weekend at the Pavilion for Stein, supported by Joe Cocker And The Grease Band and Tribe. I believe the Pavilion shows were where Steve Parrish met the Grateful Dead.
