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1977 Soundboards...which do you do you think is the best?


Nutrocker

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They only had ranges of dates anyway, the pattern is very obvious.

2/12/75 was the first board, and the next one after that was Orlando 8/31/71. Then, Dallas 3/4/75, Earls Court 5/24 and 5/25, St Louis 2/16/75, Houston 5/21/77, Vancouver 3/19/75, Dallas 3/5/75, Landover 5/28/77, etc.

Not sure how you are seeing a pattern there. They've been releasing boards mainly from Feb-March 1975, just as they have been for years, with some 1977 scattered in there. No surprise there. The 1971 Orlando board was a one-off, along with other shows that circulated online, like Southampton 1973.

They get the boards either from a former Showco employee, a person close to the band (like Ross Halfin), members/family of the band themselves (Jason Bonham), or from people who managed to get copies from the aforementioned. Unless you are one of those people, nobody knows what they still have.

Don't know why this is always such a mystery. It's not as if the tapes have been smuggled out of a bank vault.

Every time someone says "there are no more boards out there" another one shows up which proves everyone wrong. If there are any boards from January 1975, the only ones worth hearing would be the last night in Chicago (audience recording already exists), Detroit (another which the audience already exists for), or the unheard Pittsburgh show from 2/1. Hearing the tour opener, from 1/18, is probably the last thing that anyone really wants to hear, even though they might say they do. Plant's voice is trashed, Page has a broken finger, and who knows what shape the performance was in. I'd much rather have something from February or March instead. We already have audience recordings of Levee live, and you can see why the band dropped the number.

Give me Long Beach 3/12, San Diego 3/10, Philadelphia 2/8, Landover 2/10, Seattle 3/21, even Houston 2/27 or New York 2/3. Those are the remaining 1975 boards really worth hearing. Everything else is either too rough of voice, broken finger, or under-rehearsed. The LA shows are already covered by the Millard recordings.

Edited by pluribus
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Even though the LA shows are recorded by Mike Millard, the matrices that could be made with those would be amazing, perhaps better than 2/12. I want the soundboard for 3/27 almost more than 3/21, as it has my favorite OtHaFA (the longest!), and the longest No Quarter of that tour.

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I want the soundboard for 3/27 almost more than 3/21, as it has my favorite OtHaFA (the longest!), and the longest No Quarter of that tour.

3/27 is one of those oddities to me. You can tell that Page is really trying to put on a great "end of tour show" by playing all of his solos longer, but there are a ton of mistakes and missed cues all over the place. Over the Hills in that show has Page going off key in his solo twice, and then fudging the return. In My Time of Dying is another one that has more than a few errors, right down to Page playing the wrong notes to the You Shook Me part at the end of the song. That show to me is an example of what happens when the band try to force a performance but don't have the creative energy to back it up.

Dazed from that show is the biggest example of this. Honestly, I think that 40+ minute version is actually one of the worst of the tour. Page goes on and on, but his soloing doesn't actually go anywhere like so many of the other versions on the tour did. You can actually hear Bonham try to get Page to end his soloing, making for a bizarre stop-start. And yet Page keeps going.

3/27 reminds me a lot of 6/27/77, where Page did the same thing, playing each solo for what sounded like 2-3 minutes extra in each song, yet not having enough of that spontaneous real inspiration to give the show that spontaneous energy.

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3/27 reminds me a lot of 6/27/77, where Page did the same thing, playing each solo for what sounded like 2-3 minutes extra in each song, yet not having enough of that spontaneous real inspiration to give the show that spontaneous energy.

I love the June 27/77 show, but you nailed the main issue with the performance. There's no need to try and impress the audience with excess if you don't really have the energy to do it. As Plant said on the night, "We're gonna play...until we fall over."

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I dunno, I've always found 1975/03/27 to be an excellent show. It never came off as spontaneous, and I don't think it was meant to. They were playing for the last night's sake, and the show has a loose, jamming feel to it. If I want tighter, no-nonsense playing I'll just put on 03/12.

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I dunno, I've always found 1975/03/27 to be an excellent show. It never came off as spontaneous, and I don't think it was meant to. They were playing for the last night's sake, and the show has a loose, jamming feel to it. If I want tighter, no-nonsense playing I'll just put on 03/12.

I completely agree with that. The same goes for Earls Court. They had a specific agenda for those shows (to deliver the big American set to their countrymen), and it has kind of the same effect. Not the best playing the band ever did, and it's almost more about the vibe and feel of the shows. Whether they played good or not, the shows were still important events. I think that applies to the entire Forum run of 1975.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Like 30/5 but jimmy's guitar sound at Fort Worth sounds gutsier especially from what I have heard of the tour.

Personally I struggle with the 77 tour. Maybe it's because I had a cassette of destroyer as a teen and was blown away by the quality of the recording but in time found the show itself to be no better than ok in many places. So a bit underwhelmed. Mind you the quality of recordings now compared to the nth generation recording I listened to with rubbish quality speakers bears no comparison.

A best of 77 from what is available now would be excellent. Bands have released albums on that basis with studio overdubs for years.

Maybe the issue I have with 77 is the lack of consistency within a show let alone a series of shows so I tend to play the odd number rather than listen to a gig.

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A best of 77 from what is available now would be excellent. Bands have released albums on that basis with studio overdubs for years.

Maybe the issue I have with 77 is the lack of consistency within a show let alone a series of shows so I tend to play the odd number rather than listen to a gig.

Some of the members here might be getting sick of me constantly going on and on about the April 28 '77 Cleveland show :lol: (the night after Destroyer) but I still insist, once again, that April 28 is the most consistently well played show of the tour. Give it a listen if you've never heard that one, Slowfoot. It's not a soundboard recording but it is one of the best sounding non-Millard '77 audience tapes.

As for a "best of '77" try this one on for size:

http://forums.ledzeppelin.com/index.php?/topic/19217-how-the-west-was-won-ii/

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Some of the members here might be getting sick of me constantly going on and on about the April 28 '77 Cleveland show :lol: (the night after Destroyer) but I still insist, once again, that April 28 is the most consistently well played show of the tour. Give it a listen if you've never heard that one, Slowfoot. It's not a soundboard recording but it is one of the best sounding non-Millard '77 audience tapes.

As for a "best of '77" try this one on for size:

http://forums.ledzeppelin.com/index.php?/topic/19217-how-the-west-was-won-ii/

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 5 months later...

Honestly lately, I've been more towards the audience recordings of 77. Most of the SBD's from 77 kind of sound really flat and lame. But the audience recordings always sound full and ambient and really open and spacious. Just my opinion :) But the best SBD i like listening to is between the Texas shows 5-21-77 and 5-22-77. And also the Landover shows as well. Other than that, like i said, I think the audience recordings are better and you will probably enjoy them much more!

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  • 3 weeks later...

funny I've been wondering that for a whole year

Considering that it seems to me that the 'new' soundboards that get released usually pop up (or get announced) around this time of year, it seemed appropriate to ask...

Whaddya think it's gonna be next time? '75 or '77?

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Considering that it seems to me that the 'new' soundboards that get released usually pop up (or get announced) around this time of year, it seemed appropriate to ask...

Whaddya think it's gonna be next time? '75 or '77?

Probably '75. We're at a very interesting time because if EVSD doesnt have any shows from before 1975/02/12, there's a strong chance that something unheard like Houston '75 or a really good show like 1975/03/12 or the second night in Seattle or one of the LA shows could come out. Also maybe San Diego which I've heard is supposed to be a really good show. Now '77 on the other hand, all that's left from the 2nd leg is Birmingham (which could make a good matrix), Baton Rouge(!), Greensboro(!!), the other NYC dates (!!!) and LA(!!!!). Tampa could be released as a bonus disc. Anything EVSD releases within these parameters would be an absolute treat.

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I've been wondering when the next release will come out for a while as well! I'm really hoping for a great one this time. I'm not sure why anyone would want another '75 soundboard.. I mean any of the last 4 shows in March would be incredible or a good one from January.. But I would much rather have something from 1970-1972 than anything. LA 8/21/1971 or Seattle 6/19/1972 are at the very top of my list besides shows that we have never heard (Denver 6/21/1972..). A soundboard from 1972 would be something else...

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If there is any substance to the long standing rumours that it is former Showco employees who have been supplying EVSD with the goodies in theory any show from after Showco started doing Zeppelin's sound (1970, I believe) would be fair game.

In theory...

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For the most part, I believe it is contingent on whom the Empress is, and what was lifted from the vault.

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If there is any substance to the long standing rumours that it is former Showco employees who have been supplying EVSD with the goodies in theory any show from after Showco started doing Zeppelin's sound (1970, I believe) would be fair game.

In theory...

Hey bootleg people, if you're reading this, give us some early soundboards once in a while! B)

Edited by Sathington Willoughby
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I'm glad that us 1977 fans don't feel as alone as we used to, and now we have more soundboards from '77 to really show the magic that was happening on stage. Here is my list, and they are all great, but some really shine more than others. (by the way, I don't think 5.28 is as bad as folks say it is... IMO the muddy recording and thin guitar sound makes Jimmy's playing seem worse than it really was. i'm sure in the audience he sounded great!)

6.23.77 (only a snippet, but it's #1 on my list because its a good sign that the rest of the show was recorded! B))

5.30.77 (simply stunning performance and sound quality)

5.22.77 (SIBLY through Kashmir especially)

6.7.77 

5.25.77 

5.26.77

5.28.77 

6.11.77 snippet (Jimmy sounded sloppier than I'd expected, given the fact that the NYC gigs were known to be well played, but also means the rest of the show may surface B))

4.27.77 (not sure if its the sound quality that turns me off, but it sounds thinner to my ears than the other boards, and Jimmy sounds really damn sloppy to me... ???)

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