[Nitpicking Page 1985- Live Aid]

On 6/9/2020 at 7:49 AM, gibsonfan159 said:

Nitpicking Page Live Aid 1985

 

First time video nitpick. A legendarily bad performance, so let's see what really happens here. Featuring Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Paul Martinez (Bass), Tony Thompson (Drums), and Phil Collins (Drums).

Intro- This video opens with Phil Collins introducing the band. The stage crew are hurriedly grabbing equipment and scurrying away. 

Rock And Roll- 1:27, Page checks his tuning and it's obvious he's using a thick chorus effect. 2:14, Page throws a jab at a mic stand. Plant's voice is rough for 1985, more like 1975. Solo- now whether or not the guitar is in tune is hard to judge considering the heavy chorus effect, but it does sound slightly flat. The solo however is played fairly adequately. The drumming is a little loose but considering there's two drummers it's not bad. 5:48, there's a man wearing shorts that no man should ever wear. 

WLL- 6:22, Page looking a little too relaxed. 7:31, a tech runs out and adjusts something behind Jimmy. 7:50, Collins is lost and just stops while Thompson puts down the proper drum fill. Solo- Page gets a fairly basic, but good set of phrases down. 8:08, some confusion on drums. 9:09, Plant gives a look as to wonder if he should go for the high note. That's not happening, but he does alright. 10:02, Page comes in with an outro solo, a little inarticulate but not terrible. 

Stairway To Heaven- 11:44, Page does a very strange gesture. 12:37, the look Plant gives Page shown above. Page is fairly consistent so far. 15:14, a drum count in can be heard although it's not time for them to come in. 16:13, Page discards his scarf but it ends up hanging around his guitar cable. 17:34, Collins again not really playing as he follows Tony's lead. 18:20, Page's guitar again sounding a little flat. Solo- decent phrasing off the bat, but he's playing very reserved. 18:35, a cymbal flies off Rob's tambourine. 19:07, the drumming starts getting very messy here. Page utilizes lots of powerful bends in place of articulate phrasing, but it's an effective solo overall. 19:35, Page starts the final four phrases of the solo but Plant jumps in after only two measures, ending the solo prematurely. 21:42, those shorts again. 

Final Assessment- “Jimmy says, ‘We need to rehearse.’ And I said,: ‘Can’t we just go on stage and have a play?’ -Phil Collins. Was Phil the center of this televised disaster? Probably not. It's obviously a culmination of Plant being hoarse, Page being out of it, and under-rehearsed guest musicians. But let's be honest here, I haven't nitpicked anything from this show that comes anywhere close to rivaling the worst of Zep from previous years. Compared to Plant's previous hoarseness (Sheffield 73), Page's previous sloppiness (Berlin 1980), or Bonham's worst performance (Nuremberg 1980 or San Diego 1977), it's just not that bad. In fact, it's an overall fairly solid show with some blemishes. Had this been with one drummer and no chorus effect on the guitar, I don't think anyone would've noticed anything too out of the ordinary. 

Collins-  “Onstage I don’t take my eyes off Tony Thompson. I’m glued to him. I’m having to follow – he’s taking the heavy-handed lead and has opted to ignore all my advice. Putting myself in his shoes, he’s probably thinking, ‘This is the beginning of a new career. John Bonham isn’t around any more. They’re gonna want someone. This could be the start of a Led Zeppelin reunion. And I don’t need this English fuck in my way." No, Mr Collins, Tony played the song mostly the way it was supposed to be played. You were the one air drumming because you didn't know what to do. As far as Page blaming his guitar being out of tune, he knows how to tune a guitar and checked the tuning before launching Rock And Roll. No real excuses there. I still believe the chorus/flange effect is the main culprit here and most people are mistaking that effect as the "out of tune" sound. 

I think the way page looked quite possibly had something to do with it as well. For example, if you go on any video of the STH performance on YouTube, there’s endless comments insulting page for playing terribly and looked very intoxicated - which he may well have been, but the solo and the playing during that song in general, wasn’t too bad and wasn’t actually really sloppy at all, as you’ve said. 

[Hi guys]

Hi! I'm fairly new here. Achilles is probably my favourite. Nice to see someone else that loves that one too. Been a big fan for a number of years. I'd say my fav album is probably either Houses of the Holy or Led Zep 4, though 2 of my favourite songs are on presence (Achilles & Tea for One).

[Best Live Version Of Stairway To Heaven]

This is a fairly old thread, but I felt that I may as well add to it. In my opinion, I'd put TSRTS at number 1, with Earl's court at number 2, though it's really tough. O2 is also pretty good and the solo is nice and consistent, with great vocal delivery from plant. However, the solo is quite reserved, and very short at about 50 seconds, so this brings it to 3rd place. Knebworth is probably the worst of the lot. The solo from the 2nd is hard to listen to. The first night has a lot of nice licks in the solo, but it goes at the bottom because there was some noticeably sloppy playing.

The reason I put TSRTS at number one, is because we're judging the performance as a whole. It has an incredibly (for that year) consistent vocal performance during the outro, which was far better than the vocals for Earl's court. The solo for TSRTS is incredible as well. In the original (unedited) version, he has a couple of errors though (two to be exact), which could potentially bring it down, but the great singing keeps it at number one, and the rest of the solo is excellent, Earl's court had a phenomenal solo. The only issue is that he plays the ending lick an octave lower (or is 2 octaves? I can't exactly remember). There's another mistake during the solo. However, I'd say these two issues are excusable as Page's B string broke. So yeah, great solo, but the outro vocals are really quite bad. Not as bad as the Earl's court night that preceded it, but still not great. 

So in terms of these versions, I'd say my ranking is quite fair. Although if you include bootlegged audio performances, you'd obviously get a completely different list. 

[Ultimate Led Zeppelin Trivia Quiz]

Got 100% surprisingly