Well, I've gotten my chance to listen to L.A. 27/6/77 on the 36th anniversary...good show to listen to with a couple of doobies and a couple belts of Johnnie Walker thrown in for good measure I think Plant's post "Sick Again" remark about how the band intends to play until they fall over sums up things nicely. It's as though, knowing it was the final night in their spiritual home, they deliberately set out to play an epic show. Nearly every song seems to be a little bit longer, a little more drawn out than usual (particular praise to the even-more-extended-than-usual solos in "Over The Hills" and "No Quarter"). I still crack up over the references to Jonesy's "Strawberry Tart", and did I mention how much I enjoy the acoustic set from this gig? They seem so laid back they are indeed on the verge of falling over, and, goddammit, "Dancing Days" would have made a nice addition to the acoustic set across the board, not just on this night and on 26 May in Landover (Page also made an attempt at it in Tempe but was clearly shot down by Bonzo). Other than the Pontiac gig, I believe this is the only '77 gig where Bonham neglects to do the hand drumming section of his drum solo. And, Sue, just for you, I actually played through the entire 25:53 Noise Solo (even though a friend of mine who'd stopped by and I did sit out on the deck for a few minutes to have another smoke...) Annoying little cut in "Achilles Last Stand"...I could be wrong, but I think this is the only cut in a Mike Millard recording I know of that actually misses music. Yet another "Badgeholders" reference following "Stairway", "Whole Lotta Love/Rock and Roll" and then out. Surprised they didn't do "Black Dog" or something as another encore, but what the hell, they were probably zonked by this point. What a gig...I reckon when all is said and done 11/6/77 New York and 27/6/77 L.A. are my personal favourite '77 shows.

I know I'm responding to a member who has since been banned but it is worth mentioning that this famous 'Lennon quote' is actually an urban legend, and has never really been confirmed. Lennon did say in the 1980 Playboy interview that he thought both Ringo's drumming and Paul's bass playing were underrated in the vast scheme of things... It goes without saying that Ringo is the best drummer in The Beatles...when it comes to straight 4/4 time McCartney's pretty good, but he himself admits he cannot play a simple shuffle beat, and that, folks, is the sign of a good drummer, how good they can do a shuffle. Ringo can.

Happy birthday, Sue! Will you be listening to 27/6/77 tomorrow, the one with yer favourite Noise Solo? I plan on it, since it's my favourite Forum '77 show...if I get the three and a half hours of uninterrupted peace in which to do so...

McCartney does that a lot, actually, most obviously on the McCartney and McCartney II albums. Tug Of War, Flaming Pie, Memory Almost Full, Electric Arguments and Chaos And Creation In The Backyard for the most part all qualify as 'one man band' projects. Aside from some rhythm guitar from Denny Laine and a little keyboards from Linda, Band On The Run is as well (Keith Moon famously praised Paul's drumming on the album.) Ditto for some of the London Town LP after Joe English and Jimmy McCulloch left the band following the 'Fair Carol' sessions (about 2/3rds of London Town was recorded on a yacht in the Caribbean, The Fair Carol) Mind you, Paul's first 'one man band' outings date back to "Martha My Dear" and "Mother Nature's Son" on The White Album, so he was even doing it back in The Beatles (much to Lennon, Harrison and Ringo's annoyance). He famously played drums on "Back In The USSR" and "Dear Prudence" even though it was merely an open secret for many years. But even some of the Wings credited stuff is McCartney on his own, including what is probably my favourite of all his one man band outings...aside from Laurence Juber's spanish guitar overdub, "Goodnight Tonight" is actually all Paul (in spite of the rest of the band appearing in the video): ...Then of course, there's the famous video for "Coming Up" where Paul takes the idea of "One man band" to ridiculous extremes : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnHu-WLvY5U

Quite possibly the best '77 version. The blues bit in the 'boogie section' may seem a little WTF?! on first listen, but not a note is out of place in the whole twenty nine and half minute performance. Some of those long '77 NQ's can really meander in places (IMO even 21/6/77 is guilty of that) but not on Badgeholders night. And Bonham is pretty ferocious in places as well, which always gives the piece that little extra kick.

Well, why not, it's just another Zeppelin gig at the Forum, right? The thing about my time machine fantasy: if I did go back in time to see the gig -armed with the foreknowledge of how the night would play out- it would take all my self control not to freak people out by saying something like, "Keith Moon's gonna sit in" or "They're gonna fuck up 'Kashmir'" :lol: I want to say the same guy who lashed together that effects rig for Page is the same chap who did Neil Young's; they look very similar. And, to give Jimmy and Neil credit where its due, in spite of those massive effects panels they're actually pretty subtle with their use, unlike some effects-crazy guitarists (The Edge, I'm looking at you!)

I've busted out my old Dragonfly vinyl For Badgeholders Only Vols. 1 & 2 for the 36th anniversary today (of course!)...I've heard this show a thousand times and, goddamn, the performance -and recording- still blows me away. As I've said before, in spite of the occasional technical whoopsie this could be the best Zeppelin performance of them all. If I had a time machine, never mind killing Hitler or trying to prevent the JFK assassination, I'd settle just for going back and seeing this show. Strider and the others here on the forum who actually attended this gig were lucky motherfuckers one and all!

June 10th and 11th are my favourite nights of the tour period. At the risk of invoking the wrath of Strider, I prefer those two gigs even to the holy L.A. shows. Performances aside, the 10th and 11th also happen to be captured on very atmospheric audience tapes, which particularly appeals to someone like myself who was too young (though not by much) to attend any of these shows. If I had to give up my entire '77 collection (fat fucking chance of that ever happening ) except for one show, I'd seriously have to flip a coin over keeping June 10th or 11th...but I'd have to give the edge to the 11th because of that "No Quarter" and IMTOD (which I prefer to OTHAFA)... And just in case there's two or three of you out there who haven't heard the 11/6/77 "No Quarter", here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGbhcdr3dJM

Thirty six years ago today...New York, June 11, 1977. Most likely not the best '77 show from a technical/performance standpoint (though it's up there), but it's been my favourite for years. IMO the most kick ass "No Quarter" from a tour full of kick ass "No Quarter"'s. Decent sounding recording, too, and you can tell the taper and his girlfriend were having a good time- now that's a date that would be hard to top!

Yes, I think that particular trainwreck was due to Page momentarily nodding off or something and more or less missing his cue to start the solo rather than any technical difficulties Jonesy may have been having with the tripleneck...

Cool...let us know which performances you use. No argument there...the fourth Landover show was easily the best one, it's amazing how much they stepped up their game after the (IMO) very mediocre performance on 28 May.

I think so (it was uploaded over at dime a while back)...2nd gen "Presence Productions" is the definitive version of the 28/4/77 show I believe. "Pure and unadulterated, warts and all" as it says in the description...

I can only think of one or two other ways I'd rather spend half an hour, and even then you can still have a '77 "No Quarter" playing in the background... Amen, brother!

Fuck, based on this and some of yer other posts in this discussion you really are nothing but a troll, aren't you? I was not aware that Gospel Zone was the Final Authority on slide guitar playing...may we hear some of yer own slide playing, ma'am?

Ever heard Woody in The Faces? Or on his solo albums? Ron Wood can more than hold his own on slide...he's up there with Ry Cooder and Duane Allman as far as slide guitar goes IMO.

Finally had the chance to check that out...fucking awesome...it's almost like Taylor never left at all. You can tell Keith, Taylor and Woody are having a good time playing together. Got to admit, Ronnie did some nice things with that solo on the Licks tour, but actually having Mick Taylor play the thing takes ya right back to 1970...

I'm reading...I'm metaphorically weeping "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" is always worth the price of admission, but with Mick Taylor playing one of his most classic solos? Shit, bro, that's damn near priceless! Looks like you caught a great show, Strider- based on the setlist alone that could be the best gig of the tour thus far...would have been nice to see MT play on "All Down The Line" as well, but, eh, that's just a quibble... Hope somebody taped this one, nevermind the goddamn DVD...

Whaaat?! If so, that's fucking awesome...did Jagger happen to read my post about Mick Taylor and 'wasted opportunities' or something? "Sway" and especially CYHMK are mainstays of Taylor's solo gigs, so those songs are no brainers! They should just do a Sticky Fingers night and be done with it...

Yer correct, as Keith also explains in his book, the intricacy of the Stones' guitar parts comes down to recording multiple guitar tracks and then floating them in and out of the mix- not quite Jimmy Page's 'Guitar Army', but along the same lines. And the majority of those multiple guitar tracks are Keith; generally speaking a lot of Woody or Taylor's parts were overdubbed afterwards. In addition to his resume of open tuned riffs and more than a few classic basslines, Keith Richards has an incredible talent for song arrangement, and always has going back to the early Stones albums. Even in his most smacked out days in the seventies, as long as Keith showed up to the session he always brought his A-game both playing and production wise. Ultimately, the sound of The Rolling Stones is almost entirely Keith Richards' vision. Allen Klein: "...And which one makes the records?" Andrew Oldham (pointing at Keith):"He does."

They really should make another album...been ten years since the last one; Fagen's made two solo albums and Becker's done one in that time period, so it's not like they're not composing or running out of ideas or anything. As great as Sunken Condos was, it would have been that much better with Walter Becker's input. They're touring again this year, which is great of course, but without any new material to promote/play, I can't see the Dan's 2013 tour (again, only one Canadian date, goddamnit!) being anything other than a rehash of the 2009/2011 gigs. Playing Aja or The Royal Scam in their entirety was fantastic in 2009; a bit of the same old same old in 2011...if they do it again (no pun intended) in 2013...yawn...

Well...only partly recorded in a basement, to be accurate- when it comes to the Exile sessions, "When the legend becomes fact..." etc- but only some of the basic tracks were recorded at Villefranche; a lot of the recording was actually done at Sunset Sound in LA. The album itself is overdub city, but the band and Andy Johns (RIP) actually worked at getting that classic murky Exile sound. Often imitated, never truly duplicated. What Exile On Main Street really has in common with basements is that it's the Stones version of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes- both recordings are a total tribute to their roots and influences, and what seems at first as haphazard and ramshackle arrangements are really quite intricate. And arguably never topped by either artist...

I still can't believe Taylor agreed to participate in a whole tour, playing only about 12 minutes a night Nice work if ya can get it, I'm sure, but, Jesus Christ, they can utilize the guy for a lot more than just "Midnight Rambler"...it seems like such a wasted opportunity to me. If the Stones were smart they should have brought MT along on the Licks tour- especially for the Exile or Let It Bleed nights...

Ford is such an easy target, though...mind ya I reckon you can paint a pretty big bullseye on the fat fucker's chest I think the Rob Ford vs the media war all started with the This Hour Has 22 Minutes incident a couple years back (when they more or less trespassed onto his property then filmed & broadcasted his totally justifiable freakout). I think that incident proved to the media that Rob Ford can't take a joke but has a pretty thin skin on top of it. Once a politician shows weakness in front of the media, they're like pihranas (and I say that as a former freelance journalist. The parasitic nature of the trade is a big part of the reason I walked away and took up painting houses for a living...) Personally as far as this "Rob Ford smokes crack" controversy goes, I think I'll reserve judgment until they actually show the goddamn video. They want six figures for the video apparently...yer tryin' to tell me that the fucking CBC or the Toronto Star can't pony up the dough for such a hot piece of footage?

Yes, a totally obscure guitar they probably only played on one session, no doubt If it ain't in Andy Babiuk's Beatles Gear book it isn't worth mentioning IMO. Consider that George's Rosewood Telecaster sold for a couple of million as I recall at auction a few years back...imagine what an axe like Lennon's 3/4 size Rickenbacker or George's psychedelic Strat ("Rocky") would go for...they're probably damn near as priceless as 'famous' guitars can get. McCartney still busts out his old Epiphone Casino to play "Paperback Writer" -the guitar he played on the studio track- at his live shows. That's pretty cool.

Considering the Stones basically owe their career to Chuck and people like Buddy Guy, they'd better at least pass along an invite, instead of pissing about with Blues pretenders like John Mayer Even though IMO Buddy Guy blew them off the fucking stage with "Champagne And Reefer" at the Shine A Light shows, maybe Keith and Ronnie wouldn't want that kind of competition... Isn't Tina Turner more or less 'retired' now? It'd be nice to see her come out of retirement for the Stones, though. Jagger copped a lotta moves from her...