Whiskey A Go Go: January 5 1969

[nick2632]

I've been trying to get into early Zeppelin for a while but the sound quality of most of the '69 concerts are quite poor and difficult to really enjoy a full show. The other day I got a hold of this concert and gave it a couple listens and damn! It's pretty dang good! Such a weird setlist: As Long As I Have You- I Can't Quit You Baby- The Train Kept A Rollin'- Babe I'm Gonna Leave You- Dazed And Confused- Killing Floor- For Your Love. A simple 7 song performance which was freaking amazing! I always thought As Long As I Have You and For Your Love were just some short songs not worth listening to, but dang these are 2 solid tracks (12 and 7 minute tracks) which you can hear where Jimmy started developing riffs for later songs. I believe this is the earliest performance we have a copy of, besides Spokane 12/30/68. They really remind me of live Jimi Hendrix here, I think it's Page's guitar tone and his energy.. I think Page should clean this up and release it officially in the future, it's a very great show with some rare tunes. I find this to be as enjoyable or more than the Paris Olympia 10/10/69 show released on Zep I companion disc. Anyway..

Was How Many More Times or any other songs performed at this concert that we don't have a copy of?

Are there any other bootlegs from '69 better or as good as this, besides the April San Francisco shows?

Please feel free to share any thoughts, pics, or anything else about this show.

And I apologize if anyone else created a thread about this years ago

[Sathington Willoughby]

Are there any other bootlegs from '69 better or as good as this, besides the April San Francisco shows?

This is about as good as it gets in terms of both performance and sound quality:

[The Only Way To Fly]

^^ The Only Way To Fly!

[Sathington Willoughby]

^^ The Only Way To Fly!

[Northstar]

If you haven't already try listening to the shows with headphones, I find headphones can really help make the lesser quality recordings more enjoyable. And yeah 1/5/69 is a great performance, another great performance is 1/26/69 Boston, the recording is not quite as clear or balanced as 1/5/69 but the performance more than makes up for what the recording lacks. Gotta love 1969 Zeppelin.

[juxtiphi]

jan 10th is killer too.!

[Bong-Man]

Always had a soft spot for October's Buffalo show. It's distant, but with headphones and a few tweaks it sounds fine.

[Strider]

The Whisky has always been one of my favourite Led Zeppelin shows to listen to, and "As Long As I Have You" and "For Your Love" are the primary reasons why.

Bit of a mystery about this run of gigs...they were scheduled to play January 2 thru the 5th, 1969 at the Whisky, with Alice Cooper also on the bill. Then Jimmy Page was sick with the flu or something...some accounts suggest some of the Whisky shows were cancelled; others that Jimmy still played.

We know he played at least one show...the 5th...as we have the bootleg. But so far no other audio has come out of any other set from that Whisky run. There is also no way of knowing if they did two sets a night, as was customary at venues like the Fillmore. If they did a second set, then it's highly probable that they played "How Many More Times" during that set.

[nick2632]

If you haven't already try listening to the shows with headphones, I find headphones can really help make the lesser quality recordings more enjoyable. And yeah 1/5/69 is a great performance, another great performance is 1/26/69 Boston, the recording is not quite as clear or balanced as 1/5/69 but the performance more than makes up for what the recording lacks. Gotta love 1969 Zeppelin.

Oh yeah I listen to pretty much everything with headphones, I think almost all music sounds best with some good headphones (especially when listening to the companion discs). But I listened to this concert off my phone and it sounds fantastic and even better in my car that seems to always favor Zeppelin, I would say this might be in the top 10 best audience recordings, probably because Zeppelin wasn't famous and didn't have 50,000 people screaming in the audience haha.

Bit of a mystery about this run of gigs...they were scheduled to play January 2 thru the 5th, 1969 at the Whisky, with Alice Cooper also on the bill. Then Jimmy Page was sick with the flu or something...some accounts suggest some of the Whisky shows were cancelled; others that Jimmy still played.

By listening to this it's a fact they played atleast on the 4th because Plant asked the audience if anyone was at the gig the night before and a couple people cheered..

[juxtiphi]

Damn!! I just put this show in Adobe Audition to take a look and its lossy! the drop in frequency starts at 11K!! That's a big drop in audio information.

Dont know if its EVSD or the person who ripped it from their silver but its lossy.

[messengers]

On 10/9/2014 at 4:07 PM, juxtiphi said:

Damn!! I just put this show in Adobe Audition to take a look and its lossy! the drop in frequency starts at 11K!! That's a big drop in audio information.

 

Dont know if its EVSD or the person who ripped it from their silver but its lossy.

 

Noticed this as well, is it noise reduction or lossy though?

[Jimmywalnutz]

Considering how little " listenable" material we have from 70-71, 1969 is truly a blessing. The 1/5/69 show is great but it's interesting to hear just how much better the band was getting . The Fillmore/Winterland shows are "must have". Texas 8/31 even with the clicking may be the best show they did all year but the 10/10/69 & 12/6 /69 shows on Godfather are really polished efforts and Plant's growth as a front man is remarkable. The 10/10 show on the Zep 1 Companion disc has a lot of editing ( 3 minutes of Heartbreaker!) and while the sound is superior I still prefer the L'Olympia document. Graf Zeppelin did a great job with 12/6. the Godfather offering is not quite as good but IMO it was the definitive source for that show before Graf's release. Cheaper too.

For 1/5/69 I found a great source (For Your Love is virtually crystal clear) on an obscure site featuring just about every recording from 69 & most of 70. The frequency levels for most titles are depicted making it easier to find the show you want in the best fidelity. PM for link, I'd hate to see that site go down.

 

[76229]

On 09/10/2014 at 6:01 PM, nick2632 said:

Bit of a mystery about this run of gigs...they were scheduled to play January 2 thru the 5th, 1969 at the Whisky, with Alice Cooper also on the bill. Then Jimmy Page was sick with the flu or something...some accounts suggest some of the Whisky shows were cancelled; others that Jimmy still played. By listening to this it's a fact they played atleast on the 4th because Plant asked the audience if anyone was at the gig the night before and a couple people cheered..

Wasn't it the 3rd that was cancelled due to Page's flu? I think they played the 2nd, 4th, 5th.

[Jimmywalnutz]

I checked Concert File and it only lists Zep playing the 2nd and the 5th. Not written in stone but it's usually on the money .

Plant's comment would indicate they played the 4th. However, the rest of the band could very well have been hanging out at the club and had a good time. They weren't Rock Stars yet...

It does make me wonder how many amazing shows that were not booted and we "missed" them.

 

[sam_webmaster]

4 hours ago, 76229 said:

Wasn't it the 3rd that was cancelled due to Page's flu? I think they played the 2nd, 4th, 5th.

Correct.

[badgeholder]

[Xolo1974]

On 29/12/2016 at 0:10 AM, Jimmywalnutz said:

Considering how little " listenable" material we have from 70-71, 1969 is truly a blessing. The 1/5/69 show is great but it's interesting to hear just how much better the band was getting . The Fillmore/Winterland shows are "must have". Texas 8/31 even with the clicking may be the best show they did all year but the 10/10/69 & 12/6 /69 shows on Godfather are really polished efforts and Plant's growth as a front man is remarkable. The 10/10 show on the Zep 1 Companion disc has a lot of editing ( 3 minutes of Heartbreaker!) and while the sound is superior I still prefer the L'Olympia document. Graf Zeppelin did a great job with 12/6. the Godfather offering is not quite as good but IMO it was the definitive source for that show before Graf's release. Cheaper too.

For 1/5/69 I found a great source (For Your Love is virtually crystal clear) on an obscure site featuring just about every recording from 69 & most of 70. The frequency levels for most titles are depicted making it easier to find the show you want in the best fidelity. PM for link, I'd hate to see that site go down.

 

Please pm me the link

[Jimmywalnutz]

7 hours ago, sam_webmaster said:

Correct.

Thank you.

Love the photograph. I think Bonzo was 5'6- 5'8 and he's hulking over that drum kit. A testimony to his greatness and certainly before Carmine Appice lobbied Ludwig for a kit worthy of said greatness.

 

Edited December 30, 2016 by Jimmywalnutz
Vinny Appice changed to Carmine