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HTTWW


ZepRon

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After some serious listening, I think this album represents the band at its finest, and Jimmy's playing is scary good.

Is there a thread on this subject for some background about the album ?

 

 thx

 

I agree with you about the caliber of Page's guitar playing on that album.  IMO, it contains the definitive recording of Immigrant Song, the song that made me a Zep fan. Page's guitar solo during the HTWW  version of Immigrant Song rocks.

Edited by Disco Duck
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A very poor album in my opinion. No plantations, atmosphere and sacrilege in missing out "Thank You" or any of the encores. Even the crowd sounds like it's been added

A hybrid of 2 shows except for the bit that was nicked from the Southampton show for the start of Stairway. Far better is the bootleg of the LA Forum show. I also believe the Seattle show a few days before is the zenith of the Zeppelin live experience

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Jimmy said the same exact thing himself about this being Zeppelin at their very best. However it's all opinions as I think they were awesome, but a year earlier in LA they were f***ing great and 5 years later in LA they were f***ing great and had some additions to the set list like Kashmir, Ten Years Gone, No Quarter, and Achilles Last Stand!! In other words, Zeppelin had a lot of finest shows from every single year of their career and hit several peaks over the years (September 1970, June 1972, March 1973, March 1975, June 1977... All some of their very greatest months no matter who you ask, unless the person doesn't know their Zeppelin lol). If you have never listened to the bootleg of LA 6/25/1972 (what HTWWW mainly is) titled Burn Like A Candle, then I would strongly reccomend it. Many fans including myself think it's superior to HTWWW, though the sound quality may not meet up of course. The single show is about 30 minutes longer than HTWWW and includes Tangerine, Communication Breakdown, Louie Louie, and Thank You. Plus has such an awesome feel like you're actually there as it's an audience recording. Seattle 6/19/1972 a week earlier is possibly a superior show than this and includes one of the most interesting set lists of all times including Dancing Days played twice, but the recording is poor so it's difficult to say if the entire show is actually better than LA. Overall I am very glad to have HTWWW, but I wish Jimmy would have gave us the complete LA show, the way it is on Burn Like A Candle with better sound quality. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who is disgusted by Thank You not being included on HTWWW, that performance is amazing. Absolutely no reason for it to not be included.

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Got all the boots and remasters, but for the last 10 years I've listened to this more than any other Zep release from their catalog.  My favorite moment is now during "Bring It On Home"....that delayed power chord Jimmy plays at about 3:15 in....gets me every time.  This should have been released in 1973.

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Even though it captures the band (maybe) as good as they ever were, it's altogether a disappointment.

I'm grateful it came out, because it is what got me into listening to Zeppelin live, but after I started listening to bootlegs, it wasn't long until this album was left in the dust.  It's pace is exhaustively frantic because Jimmy oftentimes eliminated the natural space between songs, and it's missing a lot of character since there are so few Plantations.

The sound quality is unmatched, and I agree with Jimmy using multiple nights to make the best performances possible, but there really is no reason for the cuts.  I mean, how sad is it that songs were excluded to avoid copyright infringement?  I'll blame the government for that one but I won't give a pass for Thank You, Tangerine, or Communication Breakdown.

It would be one thing if Jimmy was making some attempt to only show the highlights of the concerts.  I personally fit the best bits from the whole triple-album on one CD now (here's the track list), but that clearly wasn't Jimmy's goal.  CD's max out around 74 to 78 minutes and the discs ran 56, 53 and 41 so there was plenty of room for the whole damn setlist (with every Plantation!).  When you reach the point where "editing" means you are releasing 90% of the show, it becomes insulting to the last few ones that weren't released (and Robert Plant!)

Anyway, it's great for getting people into Led Zeppelin, but the really good stuff is on the bootlegs.

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A very poor album in my opinion. No plantations, atmosphere and sacrilege in missing out "Thank You" or any of the encores. Even the crowd sounds like it's been added

A hybrid of 2 shows except for the bit that was nicked from the Southampton show for the start of Stairway. Far better is the bootleg of the LA Forum show. I also believe the Seattle show a few days before is the zenith of the Zeppelin live experience

If HTWWW  is a poor album, then if only every other live album by any other band was as poor!!!

I'm presuming that 'Thank You', 'Tangerine', and 'Communication Breakdown' were excluded because in putting the album together, Jimmy had his producer's hat firmly on and wanted the album's pacing and rhythm to go a certain way, and he maybe felt it flowed better without those tracks... kind of like cutting a scene from a film to aid the overall pacing, no matter how much you like the scene in question.  It's probably the same reason he put 'The Ocean' at the end of Disc 1 on TSRTS... the album flowed better with 'Whole Lotta Love' being the finale.  That's just my guess, but has anyone ever asked him about it personally...?

Other than that (and some dynamic-range compression on the mastering, thank you Mr Shirley!), it's a magnificent beast of an album, and a very welcome (not to mention long-overdue at the time) official documentation of the band captured on one of those "magic nights" - as Jimmy phrased it - where they showed what they were fully capable of...

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Nice thread, a few random babblings to contribute...

It is great to have the album, it represents the band near the end of (just my opinion) their peak years (culminating in 1973).  Page's playing is spectacular here and I enjoy the sound of the album overall.  In the end, I might prefer The Song Remains The Same a little bit more (the original 1976 version), but that may well only be because I bought the album right when it was released back in the stone age, and it's been with me ever since. 

That said, Burn Like A Candle is still absolutely essential.  It's a different sonic experience of course, and as noted the complete show.  My guess is some of the omissions in the medley have to do with monetary considerations, iirc if they include covers played within the medlies, they are looking at forking over fees to the artists that wrote the songs, so the desire to minimize those costs likely factors into the decision making.  My biggest disappointment on HTWWW was the omission of the white-hot, scorched earth version of Slow Down, Jimmy's riffing in that is some of the most exciting playing in the history of rock guitar imo.  

Seattle 6/19 is unquestionably one of the great concerts they ever played, maybe a slight notch above the LA show.  As noted, the unfortunate part is the sound quality of the circulating recording, a strenuous listen.  But like most of the shows on this tour, it's a barn burner!  

It still seems the ultimate live Zep album has yet to be released.  Perhaps a complete show from Japan 1971 might fill that bill...?  

 

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I enjoyed this mainly because the quality is much better than most bootlegs. What I thought was underwhelming is the version of "Dancing Days", that is on there, not much energy, just seems like they were going through the motions on that one.

Sure it could have been better, but overall, this is a nice Live album.

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Wow, you guys and gals are great.  I'd never heard of "Burn Like A Candle" - so mucho thanks.   I have heard / owned a couple Zep boots ("Destroyer" and "Studio Daze"), but in my defense google sez there are  380+  Zep bootlegs circulating out there. 

 thx

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http://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBBA2EDA8C04C6A6F

Here's a link to Burn Like A Candle on YouTube. Check out some of your favorite songs from it plus check out the songs from the show that weren't included on HTWWW. Just remember that the sound quality is nothing like HTWWW (HTWWW has the benefit of being recorded by the band themselves with professional equipment. BLAC was recorded on ameteur equipment by a fan in the audience, yet is definitely one of the best audience recordings you will come across.). It is nearly like hearing a completely different show! HTWWW almost sounds like it was just recorded in the studio, which BLAC sounds like you're actually at the concert plus the show has a magic atmosphere as did every show at the LA Forum.

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