Nitpicking Page 1977

[Nutrocker]

18 hours ago, tom kid said:

No Quarter from one of those Cincinnati shows (I forget which) absolutely smokes. The outro soloing from Page is killer.

April 19th (the NQ from the second Cincinatti gig doesn't circulate). John Paul Jones sorta kinda tries playing "Lady Madonna" by The Beatles at the end of the "Boogie Jam" section.

[Nutrocker]

22 hours ago, wordev1977 said:

Definitely a rusty show for Zeppelin they seem to hit their stride at the last Chicago show onto the two Cincinnati shows which have decent recordings. The first leg of the tour has some pretty underrated shows and is often overlooked other than the Destroyer show.

If the OKC show was that rusty, imagine what opening night in Dallas musta have been like...

Be nice if a couple more recordings popped up for a couple of them early '77 gigs- five of the missing seven '77 recordings date from the first leg of the tour (Dallas, Minneapolis, St Paul, St Louis, Indianapolis, and a recording exists for Indy)

[wordev1977]

1 minute ago, Nutrocker said:

If the OKC show was that rusty, imagine what opening night in Dallas musta have been like...

Be nice if a couple more recordings popped up for a couple of them early '77 gigs- five of the missing seven '77 recordings date from the first leg of the tour (Dallas, Minneapolis, St Paul, St Louis, Indianapolis, and a recording exists for Indy)

I'd really like to hear some of the missing shows, I think the first leg of the 77 tour is pretty underrated it suffers from having poor audience recordings.

I imagine Dallas would've been pretty rough, but would be interesting to hear how Robert sounded the first night of the tour.

[Nutrocker]

On 7/13/2020 at 12:26 AM, wordev1977 said:

I'd really like to hear some of the missing shows, I think the first leg of the 77 tour is pretty underrated it suffers from having poor audience recordings.

I imagine Dallas would've been pretty rough, but would be interesting to hear how Robert sounded the first night of the tour.

"Bootleg Ears" is a term made with most of the '77 first leg audience recordings in mind. The second Cleveland gig and Cincinatti are the only really decent sounding audience tapes from the first leg. Other than April 7th the Chicago shows are a rough listen, same with April 23 in Atlanta.

[Strider]

10 hours ago, Nutrocker said:

"Bootleg Ears" is a term made with most of the '77 first leg audience recordings in mind. The second Cleveland gig and Cincinatti are the only really decent sounding audience tapes from the first leg. Other than April 7th the Chicago shows are a rough listen, same with April 23 in Atlanta.

I just listened to Louisville 1977 last night for the first time. Say no more.

[Nutrocker]

11 hours ago, Strider said:

I just listened to Louisville 1977 last night for the first time. Say no more.

The Louisville recording is alright, I suppose, coulda been a lot worse, too bad it's not a better performance...

[Strider]

11 hours ago, Nutrocker said:

The Louisville recording is alright, I suppose, coulda been a lot worse, too bad it's not a better performance...

It's a weird recording. First of all, Led Zeppelin's sound is overwhelming the poor guy's tape recorder. His puny machine is no match for the beast that was Led Zeppelin.

Second of all, the recording seems to float all over the place. At first the sound is fractured, splintered. Then it seems to come together a little bit and is centered. Then at times the sound of the band drifts to the left and you hear a lot of audience murmer and chatter in the center and right part of the sound spectrum. Then with Kashmir, the sound is back in your face and you can hear the machine straining to cope with the volume.

One thing that is great about these early shows is that Bonzo and Jimmy keep their solos pretty brisk and concise. I had no trouble listening to Bonzo's drum solo on both the Oklahoma and Louisville gigs. They don't drag like Landover.

And Jimmy's noise solos are a breeze, too. He gets on with it and doesn't belabour it to death. The Louisville has a very cool intro into the Theramin part. The only surprise for me was that Jimmy didn't play "Dixie". I would have thought that would be a natural for a show in Kentucky.

Again, the tape quality makes it hard to accurately tell how the band is playing but Kashmir sounds monstrous as always and Stairway and Rock and Roll sounded like great versions...especially for 1977.

Correct me if I'm wrong but it sounds like Jimmy is using the wah-wah pedal on Stairway to Heaven. Listen to the tone of his 12-string during the "When I look to the west" part of the verses. I've never heard it that high-pitched before and you definitely hear some wah-wah accented strums.

The Louisville crowd is lively and raucous throughout. The acoustic set turns into a hootenany.

Edited July 15, 2020 by Strider

[Zep Hed]

1 hour ago, Strider said:

 Louisville has a very cool intro into the Theramin part. The only surprise for me was that Jimmy didn't play "Dixie". I would have thought that would be a natural for a show in Kentucky.

They may have thought it was in the midwest like Salt Lake City. 🙃

Edited July 15, 2020 by Zep Hed

[Strider]

3 hours ago, Zep Hed said:

They may have thought it was in the midwest like Salt Lake City. 🙃

There's no way seasoned travellers and blues nuts such as Led Zeppelin would ever confuse Louisville for Salt Lake City. 

In addition, only geographically-challenged rubes like ESPN's Michael Wilbon think Salt Lake City is in the midwest. Utah is in the west, plain and simple.

[Nutrocker]

13 hours ago, Strider said:

The Louisville crowd is lively and raucous throughout. The acoustic set turns into a hootenany.

Didja catch hearing Page snarl "Fuck off!" after "Ten Years Gone" when the thrown bottle hit his guitar? They nearly stopped the show for good at that point, but cooler heads prevailed. IMO the reason it sounds like a sloppy show -hell, even Jonesy makes a rare mistake here and there- is because the band was distracted by the crazy crowd. Which was probably par for the course in those days, but the Louisville audience seems a little crazier than usual. That may also explain the short and to the point "Noise" and drum solos on the night as well.

[ZepHead315]

6 hours ago, Nutrocker said:

Didja catch hearing Page snarl "Fuck off!" after "Ten Years Gone" when the thrown bottle hit his guitar? They nearly stopped the show for good at that point, but cooler heads prevailed. IMO the reason it sounds like a sloppy show -hell, even Jonesy makes a rare mistake here and there- is because the band was distracted by the crazy crowd. Which was probably par for the course in those days, but the Louisville audience seems a little crazier than usual. That may also explain the short and to the point "Noise" and drum solos on the night as well.

I think the rowdy crowd also explains Plant's unique delivery in The Battle of Evermore. He's practically screaming the lyrics at one point. Probably pissed off by the audience! 

[Zep Hed]

18 hours ago, Strider said:

There's no way seasoned travellers and blues nuts such as Led Zeppelin would ever confuse Louisville for Salt Lake City. 

In addition, only geographically-challenged rubes like ESPN's Michael Wilbon think Salt Lake City is in the midwest. Utah is in the west, plain and simple.

Fair enough, Strider, but there was the time Zeppelin were in Salt Lake (73) and referred to it as the midwest. That was my reference. But I'm with you, a bit of southern style would've fit nicely.

[Nutrocker]

17 hours ago, ZepHead315 said:

I think the rowdy crowd also explains Plant's unique delivery in The Battle of Evermore. He's practically screaming the lyrics at one point. Probably pissed off by the audience! 

"Probably"? No question about it- when the bottle hit Pagey's guitar after "TYG" they nearly called it a night. Check some of the pix in this thread- Robert was pissed, all right...

 

[wordev1977]

I've never listened to this performance of The Battle Of Evermore before now but its definitely one of Robert's best vocal performances of the song.

Edited July 17, 2020 by wordev1977

[Strider]

On 7/16/2020 at 9:42 AM, Zep Hed said:

Fair enough, Strider, but there was the time Zeppelin were in Salt Lake (73) and referred to it as the midwest. That was my reference. But I'm with you, a bit of southern style would've fit nicely.

Haha. It's been a long long long time since I listened to Salt Lake City 1973. I'll have to put it in the queue to check out that particular Plantation.

15 hours ago, Nutrocker said:

"Probably"? No question about it- when the bottle hit Pagey's guitar after "TYG" they nearly called it a night. Check some of the pix in this thread- Robert was pissed, all right...

 

I didn't know about a bottle incident at Louisville...or I forgot about it. Either way, I like the intensity of Plant's "Battle of Evermore". It just points to the different level of crazed atmosphere that crowds had in 1977 as opposed to the frigid and luded up crowds of the 1975 tour. 1973 and 1977 were both way more hyped compared to the 1975 crowds.

I also reckon that once you get past the opening Dallas and Oklahoma dates, those first seven missing shows are a lot better than people expect. Much like the January 1975 shows are better than people give them credit for.

I have a friend in St. Louis who's dad went to Led Zeppelin's St. Louis show in 1977 and swears it was the greatest concert he saw in his life. I desperately WANT to hear a tape, any tape...audience or soundboard...of St. Louis '77.

Bottle incident and all, Louisville actually sounds like a good concert to my "bootleg ears".

Then of course, there is Baton Rouge '77, which I have never heard. Given that Led Zeppelin usually played well in New Orleans/Baton Rouge, I figure that show in '77 must have been pretty good.

Edited July 17, 2020 by Strider

[Nutrocker]

7 hours ago, wordev1977 said:

I've never listened to this performance of The Battle Of Evermore before now but its definitely one of Robert's best vocal performances of the song.

It's a passionate delivery of the tune, that's for sure!😁

3 hours ago, Strider said:

I also reckon that once you get past the opening Dallas and Oklahoma dates, those first seven missing shows are a lot better than people expect. Much like the January 1975 shows are better than people give them credit for.

I have a friend in St. Louis who's dad went to Led Zeppelin's St. Louis show in 1977 and swears it was the greatest concert he saw in his life. I desperately WANT to hear a tape, any tape...audience or soundboard...of St. Louis '77.

Bottle incident and all, Louisville actually sounds like a good concert to my "bootleg ears".

Then of course, there is Baton Rouge '77, which I have never heard. Given that Led Zeppelin usually played well in New Orleans/Baton Rouge, I figure that show in '77 must have been pretty good.

Well, if you put a gun to my head the Vancouver gigs in March aside, the January '75 shows are my favourite part of the tour- oddly enough, Plant's shot voice -reminiscent of George Harrison on his '74 tour some nights- bugs me more than Page's iffy fingering, but, as with George, I can live with it😄. As far as early '77 goes, once they finally work out all the kinks over the four nights in Chicago, the tour is off and running. The April 10 Chicago performance is probably the first '77 gig that is fully up to their normal standard and it gets better from there. I have the St Louis '75 audience tape around here somewhere, and it's not bad. If the same guys who taped Zeppelin in '75 taped them in '77 it would have been a decent recording. But with those missing '77 tapes we simply don't have enough to go on in regards to how good (or bad) the performances were. I mean, Baton Rouge could be a shite performance like Houston and not a barnstormer like Birmingham for all we know...there doesn't even seem to be a helluva lot in the way of eyewitness accounts for those shows, for a couple we don't even have the fucking setlists 100% pinned down (i.e. "Black Dog" being an unconfirmed encore at a couple of the shows, Dallas and Minneapolis if memory serves)

[Bonzo_fan]

4 hours ago, Nutrocker said:

It's a passionate delivery of the tune, that's for sure!😁

Well, if you put a gun to my head the Vancouver gigs in March aside, the January '75 shows are my favourite part of the tour- oddly enough, Plant's shot voice -reminiscent of George Harrison on his '74 tour some nights- bugs me more than Page's iffy fingering, but, as with George, I can live with it😄. As far as early '77 goes, once they finally work out all the kinks over the four nights in Chicago, the tour is off and running. The April 10 Chicago performance is probably the first '77 gig that is fully up to their normal standard and it gets better from there. I have the St Louis '75 audience tape around here somewhere, and it's not bad. If the same guys who taped Zeppelin in '75 taped them in '77 it would have been a decent recording. But with those missing '77 tapes we simply don't have enough to go on in regards to how good (or bad) the performances were. I mean, Baton Rouge could be a shite performance like Houston and not a barnstormer like Birmingham for all we know...there doesn't even seem to be a helluva lot in the way of eyewitness accounts for those shows, for a couple we don't even have the fucking setlists 100% pinned down (i.e. "Black Dog" being an unconfirmed encore at a couple of the shows, Dallas and Minneapolis if memory serves)

Isn't "Black Dog" rumoured for Greensboro as well?

[Strider]

20 hours ago, Nutrocker said:

It's a passionate delivery of the tune, that's for sure!😁

Well, if you put a gun to my head the Vancouver gigs in March aside, the January '75 shows are my favourite part of the tour- oddly enough, Plant's shot voice -reminiscent of George Harrison on his '74 tour some nights- bugs me more than Page's iffy fingering, but, as with George, I can live with it😄. As far as early '77 goes, once they finally work out all the kinks over the four nights in Chicago, the tour is off and running. The April 10 Chicago performance is probably the first '77 gig that is fully up to their normal standard and it gets better from there. I have the St Louis '75 audience tape around here somewhere, and it's not bad. If the same guys who taped Zeppelin in '75 taped them in '77 it would have been a decent recording. But with those missing '77 tapes we simply don't have enough to go on in regards to how good (or bad) the performances were. I mean, Baton Rouge could be a shite performance like Houston and not a barnstormer like Birmingham for all we know...there doesn't even seem to be a helluva lot in the way of eyewitness accounts for those shows, for a couple we don't even have the fucking setlists 100% pinned down (i.e. "Black Dog" being an unconfirmed encore at a couple of the shows, Dallas and Minneapolis if memory serves)

All I know is that Robert Hilburn's review of the Dallas '77 concert in the April 5, 1977 issue of the L.A. Times listed "Black Dog" and "Rock and Roll" as the encores. Now, Bob may have missed the mark in realizing how great Led Zeppelin was and their enduring impact until it was long after the fact (he told me point-blank many years later he was wrong about Led Zeppelin), but he was generally a meticulous note-taker. He would not write down "Black Dog" if it wasn't played and he wasn't one of those writers who would mistake "Whole Lotta Love" for "Black Dog".

So I believe "Black Dog" was played at Dallas.

[Nutrocker]

On 7/18/2020 at 12:01 AM, Bonzo_fan said:

Isn't "Black Dog" rumoured for Greensboro as well?

"Black Dog" was rumoured to have been played at a couple of other '77 shows but, as Strider points out, the only other show where BD has been more or less confirmed to have been played was in Dallas. 

Now, where's the Dallas tape?! 😂 

[tom kid]

On the topic of '77 tapes and the quality of said tapes.

If the second night in LA (22/6) had a better quality tape, or at least the partial source which is quite a good quality tape the whole way through then I think that it would be viewed as maybe the best show of the whole run.

It's overlooked, much like 26/6 show because Millard didn't tape it, but boy oh boy, does it absolutely smoke. Maybe Page's best show of the tour, the intensity of his playing is phenomenal and just so on point. The version of SIBLY is up there with the best versions of their career, let alone the best versions from '77...

Those of you who haven't dusted off that show in a while, I would encourage you to do.

[bluecongo]

Black Dog was played in Oakland & MSG in 77, too 

[Bonzo_fan]

5 hours ago, tom kid said:

On the topic of '77 tapes and the quality of said tapes.

If the second night in LA (22/6) had a better quality tape, or at least the partial source which is quite a good quality tape the whole way through then I think that it would be viewed as maybe the best show of the whole run.

It's overlooked, much like 26/6 show because Millard didn't tape it, but boy oh boy, does it absolutely smoke. Maybe Page's best show of the tour, the intensity of his playing is phenomenal and just so on point. The version of SIBLY is up there with the best versions of their career, let alone the best versions from '77...

Those of you who haven't dusted off that show in a while, I would encourage you to do.

Without a doubt.  June 22 is my favourite '77 show.  It's a real shame that the source for NQ is so distant and hissy.

[Nutrocker]

21 hours ago, tom kid said:

On the topic of '77 tapes and the quality of said tapes.

If the second night in LA (22/6) had a better quality tape, or at least the partial source which is quite a good quality tape the whole way through then I think that it would be viewed as maybe the best show of the whole run.

It's overlooked, much like 26/6 show because Millard didn't tape it, but boy oh boy, does it absolutely smoke. Maybe Page's best show of the tour, the intensity of his playing is phenomenal and just so on point. The version of SIBLY is up there with the best versions of their career, let alone the best versions from '77...

Those of you who haven't dusted off that show in a while, I would encourage you to do.

June 22 is a killer show no matter how you slice it. Song for song, it arguably is a better performance than the 21st. The goddamn bootleg is one designed for "bootleg ears",  but if you got the forgiving ears it is a rewarding listen. Bonham is kicking ass and taking names on the night, that's for fuckin' sure!

June 22 is the one L.A. '77 show where I want the fucking soundboard.

19 hours ago, bluecongo said:

Black Dog was played in Oakland & MSG in 77, too 

Shit, that's right, my bad😅

[Cosmic_Equilibrium]

On the subject of Houston, is it really that bad a show? I personally think it's decent. It was the first 77 soundboard I heard so got a soft spot for it.

[Bonzo_fan]

4 hours ago, Cosmic_Equilibrium said:

On the subject of Houston, is it really that bad a show? I personally think it's decent. It was the first 77 soundboard I heard so got a soft spot for it.

I think it's better than the much ballyhooed first night in Cleveland.  Bonham is on fire at the very least.  The following night in Ft. Worth is much better though IMO.

Edited July 24, 2020 by Bonzo_fan