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Moby Dick


Cletus

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On the HTWWW version of Moby Dick, Does anybody else feel that the drum solo goes on for way to long. The entire track is around 19:00 in total, with the bulk of that time being taken up by the solo.

I love HTWWW, for the most part, but find it hard to stay away during that track.

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Sometimes I don't really feel like listening to any of the longer songs like Dazed, No Quarter, Drum Solos(Moby Dick, Pat's Delight, Out on the Tiles or whatever it's called in what ever era)

But I think that's the same way with most people. The human attention span isn't meant to last over 7 minutes.

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As a drummer, I enjoy listening to that over and over. I find tapping my hands to it helps with actual drumming too. That may seem ridiculous, but it's incredibly true. Loads of drummers do it - Bonham did it! Anyway, Moby Dick is amazing, no matter how long or short it is.

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Basically the attention span issue with -moby dick is addressed with the current moby dick on -tsrts cd in my opinion. I turn to the version on -htww for the quality of the recording because there are only a couple that i go out of my way to listen to on bootleg. But i have put on -htww just to listen to this version of moby dick, i think its great.

Ofcourse there's the dvd version, which is insane to actually watch -john bonham play.

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I agree that HTWWW was a better version of Moby Dick. I think mostly only drummer's will appreciate most of what Bonzo is doing. Although the drumming community and such did not feel Bonzo was doing anything miraculous. I personally don't believe this myself, but he got a lot of criticism about his solo's just turning into a long drawn out show-off attempt and often lost most of the crowds interest. I don't think Bonzo was trying to be the best drummer in the world, but simply the loudest.

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I've got to be honest, Moby Dick, Out on the Tiles etc spoil every live Zeppelin CD for me, I'm not saying it's not great drumming I just find it so boring, so what I do is edit it so it includes the Intro & outro music & erase the drum solo altogether, I've managed in one instance to get Moby Dick down to 01.38 mins. I keep copies of the complete versions on a hard drive for trading etc, I also do a similar thing with Dazed & Confused on the 75 tour editing out the Violin solo & cutting it down to around 20 mins, so all 5 of the 1975 SBD's I have and enjoy fit nicely on to 2 CD's.

I know some will see this as Sacrilege but we all like & dislike different things, and I think the reason I enjoy Knebworth & some of the 1980 shows is the absence of all the long solo's.

Graham

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i'm with you graham. the cutting down of the excess lengthy solos is what made knebworth so good. i think its probably their best ever set list. a long set still, but mostly full of songs rather than the 77 style drawn out ego stuff, which make it much more enjoyable. when i occasionally dig out 'eddie' and wonder which disc to put on, i mostly put it away again realising i'd spend more time skimming through to the good bits than actually playing it

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Yes thats spot on, Knebworth worked perfectly for all the above reasons and because of that it makes you want to keep going back to it, which is why I edited moby Dick & dazed on those 75 SBD's, I never wanted to go back to them as they were because I was dreading those 2 numbers I now go back to them all the time because I cut out the chaff, I also did the same with HTWWW & tomorrow I'll edit moby dick & Dazed on TSRTS soundtrack.

Graham

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've always preferred TSRTS solo over HTWWW because of its length. I'm not saying what Bonzo does for 19min is any better or worse then what he does for 12min, but I like what he crams into the 12min performance better-where as the HTWWW solo is more up and down and inconsistent. Also, everyone must remember-he played different lengths every night, judging on his mood and the mood of the crowd. It's not quite fair to critique when you're sitting on a couch and listening. Not the same experience. I personally would have been going ape shit for a 30min solo.

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  • 3 months later...

Hey,

does anybody know why Bonzo didin't play a drum solo on the last concerts? (1979-1980). Was Seattle 1977 really the last time he played a solo? Can't believe. But on the first 1973 tours they also didn't play "moby dick". Was bonzo to lazy in the late years?

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:D

Hey,

does anybody know why Bonzo didin't play a drum solo on the last concerts? (1979-1980). Was Seattle 1977 really the last time he played a solo? Can't believe. But on the first 1973 tours they also didn't play "moby dick". Was bonzo to lazy in the late years?

i think by 79 solos had become passe' ,they were battling with in insurgense of punk,where bands like L Z were considered self indulgent dinasours buy the next generation,so they changed to the Knebworth set ,also there music was changing as they were always moving forward (the only glimpse of what might have been can be heard on Coverdale/Page) but according to the bio's 40 shots of vodka and a monkey on your back cant encourage a solo live ! even Bonzo ,the greatest ever. B)

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On the HTWWW version of Moby Dick, Does anybody else feel that the drum solo goes on for way to long. The entire track is around 19:00 in total, with the bulk of that time being taken up by the solo.

I love HTWWW, for the most part, but find it hard to stay away during that track.

Dude it's a drum solo....that's how it's supposed to be....

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The HTWWW version is probably one of the shorter versions of the drum solo. It may be an edited version from what I can tell. Some of Bonzo's drum solos would go for about 30 or 40 minutes.

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I can listen to Moby Dick over and over, because I enjoy what he did and really love the way Bonzo's kit sounded. Back in the day we always looked at those solos as being heroic on his part, because we felt that it was his way of picking the show up on his shoulders and carrying the guys, giving 'em a blow on a night when they could use it. Kind of like "The mighty arms of Atlas", ya know? :D

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I love Moby Dick. I can listen to it over and over. Many different versions of it. It gives me goosebumps every damn time I hear or see it. But, then I love drumming. And I adore Bonham. I also, really love to listen to Pat's Delight and Bonzo's Montreux.

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Sometimes I don't really feel like listening to any of the longer songs like Dazed, No Quarter, Drum Solos(Moby Dick, Pat's Delight, Out on the Tiles or whatever it's called in what ever era)

But I think that's the same way with most people. The human attention span isn't meant to last over 7 minutes.

You skip Dazed and Confused and No Quarter. Blasphemy !!!! These are 2 of their greatest live songs.....!!!

Maybe your attention span doesn't go past 7 minutes, but don't generalise that to the rest of the world's population.

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