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Best White Summers?


johnlennon696

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3 hours ago, porgie66 said:

Yes, on some of the the complete BBC sessions.  Its on YouTube of course.

 

Yep, this is the definitive version IMO. It is compact yet does not diminish the song, in fact it makes it better and more intense. If it only had the tabla drums it would be perfect however I will gladly swap the tabla drums for another 10+ minutes of acoustic passages.

Jimmy really should have resurrected Bron-y-Aur for the 77' tour and placed a few measures of Spanish Blood at the end for the lead in to Kashmir. Three & one half minutes of pure bliss gets my vote. 

Though I love WS/BMS it had its time and place and after 1970 should have gone the way of As Long as I Have You.

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My favourites come from 1970 when he added that intense raga-like passage when he re-enters White Summer after finishing Black Mountain Side. RAH, Ottawa, Montreux, and Raleigh are all great versions.

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9 minutes ago, Strider said:

My favourites come from 1970 when he added that intense raga-like passage when he re-enters White Summer after finishing Black Mountain Side. RAH, Ottawa, Montreux, and Raleigh are all great versions.

Yeah, love those too.  He gets into a  trance like vibe in that era. 

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3 hours ago, porgie66 said:

Yeah, love those too.  He gets into a  trance like vibe in that era. 

Which is the point of the piece, so the length never bothered me. Until 1980 when his chops weren't up to the task and he frequently butchered it or aimlessly wandered.

Listen to the Ottawa 1970 version...around the 6 to 8 minute mark is truly mesmerizing.

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3 hours ago, Strider said:

Which is the point of the piece, so the length never bothered me. Until 1980 when his chops weren't up to the task and he frequently butchered it or aimlessly wandered.

Listen to the Ottawa 1970 version...around the 6 to 8 minute mark is truly mesmerizing.

I should have been more specific. I enjoy long pieces, but only if kept interesting. From 77' on (and sometimes in 75' even), Jimmy could begin to wander and repeat the same passages several times in the same run that it became boring. I figured the drugs and booze could make him lose focus and he would repeat these passages until he could figure out a direction. Though the few WS/BMS in 77' & 80' that he did pull off to proper effect were IMO very good versions. The butchering was bad enough but the wanton wandering like some zombie hobo looking for his lost shopping cart were just painful.

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2 hours ago, IpMan said:

I should have been more specific. I enjoy long pieces, but only if kept interesting. From 77' on (and sometimes in 75' even), Jimmy could begin to wander and repeat the same passages several times in the same run that it became boring. I figured the drugs and booze could make him lose focus and he would repeat these passages until he could figure out a direction. Though the few WS/BMS in 77' & 80' that he did pull off to proper effect were IMO very good versions. The butchering was bad enough but the wanton wandering like some zombie hobo looking for his lost shopping cart were just painful.

Case in point: Berlin 7-7-80. Somebody should play Page that version now and say, "What was that you were saying about your addictions not impeding your playing, Jimmy?"

Based on the audience tapes, the impatience of the audience during some of those interminable '77/'80 "White Summer"s is very noticeable. It's no wonder some assholes in the audience resorted to shit like lobbing firecrackers at Page (Vienna 26-6-80) while he was playing the piece...

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4 hours ago, Nutrocker said:

Case in point: Berlin 7-7-80. Somebody should play Page that version now and say, "What was that you were saying about your addictions not impeding your playing, Jimmy?"

Based on the audience tapes, the impatience of the audience during some of those interminable '77/'80 "White Summer"s is very noticeable. It's no wonder some assholes in the audience resorted to shit like lobbing firecrackers at Page (Vienna 26-6-80) while he was playing the piece...

Yeah, always strange that WS was included in the 1980 set list when the philosophy was to strip everything back.

They could have done another song from ITTOD instead or something from previous albums that they hadn't played live before.

Custard Pie would have sounded good on this tour with Page's scratchy guitar sound.

Opportunity missed.

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4 hours ago, Boleskinner said:

Yeah, always strange that WS was included in the 1980 set list when the philosophy was to strip everything back.

They could have done another song from ITTOD instead or something from previous albums that they hadn't played live before.

Custard Pie would have sounded good on this tour with Page's scratchy guitar sound.

Opportunity missed.

Agreed entirely. For Your Life would've fit well too, as would many other choices. 

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6 hours ago, rm2551 said:

Is there no better quality video than that posted above? Wow, that is rough....

 

Not that I've ever seen. It really is one of my favorite performances of Jimmy, because it's so unique. It's a gem. 

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1 hour ago, Boleskinner said:

A few bars of WS/BMS could have sufficed, rather than several minutes.

You're right. It's torture listening to the 1980 versions, especially Berlin. It was ok in 1977 though, particularly the LA versions. 

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16 hours ago, TheStairwayRemainsTheSame said:

The reason WS/BMS remained in 80' was because of it's fantastic lead into a bombastic Kashmir. That really always worked well

Except, of course for the fact that in 1980 Jimmy Page didn't have the chops to play the piece without sounding like a kid who's just picked up a DADGAD tuned guitar for the first time! As much as I despise Stephen Davis and Hammer Of The Gods, his assessment in the book that by 1980 "White Summer" "Sounded more Spanish than Eastern" is just about spot on.

7 hours ago, Boleskinner said:

A few bars of WS/BMS could have sufficed, rather than several minutes.

Indeed- the way it was done a the '77 Tempe gig (48 seconds). Simple but effective.

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The version from the 1969 BBC Playhouse Theatre gig is also excellent.  

Always a soft spot for the version on the classic old German bootleg LP titled, appropriately enough, White Summer.  Dusseldorf 1970 (?) if memory serves.

Agreed, playing it in 1980 was a mistake to say the least.

Also love the outtake acoustic version on the second disc of The Yardbirds Little Games special expanded edition of some years back.

 

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On 21/08/2017 at 0:36 AM, porgie66 said:

Yes, on some of the the complete BBC sessions.  Its on YouTube of course.

 

Do you know which BBC sessions boot label gas this on it George? It's really good. Not heard it before 

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