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Best live act from 1969 - 1975


kaiser

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  • the rolling stones
  • the who
  • led zeppelin

Who would you pick overall?

From 1969 to 1975 The Stones, Who, and Zeppelin were at their touring peaks. All did dynamite performances during that time but who do think were the best of the best, pound for pound out of the 3 live. I know Zeppelin will have bias in their favor but all 3 bands were just blazing away.

The Rolling Stones 69 tour was awesome. Mick Taylor had just joined the band adding great strength to the guitar line up. This was the first tour of it's size for any band ever. The setlists were great as well with "Jumpin' Jack Flash", "Midnight Rambler", "Sympathy For The Devil", & "Street Fighting Man" getting their first real live airings, along with such covers as "Carol", "Prodigal Son", & "Love In Vain"(beautifully played by Taylor)thrown into the mix. Their 72/73 tour was even better with the addition of Taylor now fully fitting in as well as an awesome horn section where "You Can't Always Get What You Want" & "Gimme Shelter" were highlights, along with "Exile" classics like "Happy", "All Down The Line", "Rocks Off", "Sweet Virginia", & "Tumbling Dice". The European tour of 73 added "Angie" (again beautifully played by Taylor) & "Dancing With Mr D" (which unfortunately never was played again) from "Goat's Head Soup. On their '75 tour they lost Taylor an added Ron Wood on guitar (who did play great on that tour, & only that tour), Billy Preston on keyboards, & a loads of percussion. These shows were a spectacle & definately funkier, with "Star Star", "If You Can't Rock Me", "Hot Stuff", & "Fingerprint File" being added to the set.

The Who from 1969-1975 had to be the most powerful & dynamic band in terms of volume & stage presence. In 1969 they refined their act & introduced "Tommy" to the world which they performed the whole set nightly along with older numbers. By 1970 they live performances were so tight they released "Live At Leeds", probably the greatest live rock album ever. "Summertime Blues", "Young Man Blues", & "Shaking All Over" were among the covers they did in concert & on the "Leeds" album while later in 1970 introducing newer songs into the set like "Naked Eye", "Water", "I Don't Even Know Myself". They did a few shows in 1971 to introduce songs off their "Lifehouse" project, dropping on audiences for the first time "Won't Get Fooled Again", "Getting In Tune", "Pure And Easy", "Love Ain't For Keeping", & "Behind Blue Eyes", most of which ended up on "Who's Next". Next up was their "Quadrophenia" tour which dig have snags do to playing to backing tracks for that albums tracks, but they were still in peak form knocking out covers like "Baby Don't You Do It" & "Roadrunner". After the "Quadrophenia" tour they dropped playing all of "Quadrophenia" & just did the parts that worked live & had an all around great setlist that provided them with their best all around shows in their entire history of the band.

Led Zeppelin, well if you don't know about their live performances from 69-75 I'm not going to explain it because I'm sure many will explain their performances in great detail which I'd prefer anyway.

It was a tough decision but I had to pick the Who. I love the Stones & Zeppelin on their respective 72/73 tours, absolute peaks for both bands which they never hit again, but the Who from 69-75 were just too consistently amazing & powerful even though I don't like their actual songs as much as the Stones & Zeppelin.

Discuss away....

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Out of interest, how many of us saw these three bands between these years? (Don't think I saw the Who till 1976-7.)

Yep, same here. I can only compare the Stones and Zeppelin . With no disrespect to the Stones , 72 was great , it was Zep by a country mile or two.

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Out of interest, how many of us saw these three bands between these years? (Don't think I saw the Who till 1976-7.)

I did all 3 and more but only from 72 onwards.

Zep will always be the one for me but I am biased. :)

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I did all 3 and more but only from 72 onwards.

Zep will always be the one for me but I am biased. :)

I saw all three, and like ledded1 I have to admit I am biased... Zeppelin for me, but the Stones and The Who are right up there. What a great time for music!!!

Edit: I saw Zeppelin for the first time in 73, can you even begin to imagine seeing these men live and the impression it left on me. I can't really put it into words as it is and has always been more of an emotional connection.

The Who and The Stones were amazing , and I still buy anything I can get my hands on from those days as they were right up there musically.

But I was completely ruined after seeing Zeppelin live, just could not get a band to measure up to that emotion. I have said in the past...the 70's for music was the best IMHO

Edited by Deborah J
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