Ranking The 1972 North American Shows

[Bonzo_fan]

I found ranking the 1975 shows a few months ago to be a fun and useful exercise, so I've decided to do the same with all of the other years as I go along.  This year was the first time that I've listened to all of the North American '72 shows -- I listened to all of the Australia/New Zealand shows and the two European warm-up shows for the first time this year as well, but didn't include them in my ranking.  One general observation I have is that this is my least-favourite year of the "Whole Lotta Love" medley.  They did include some really great songs here and there, but I'm not a fan of "Hello Mary Lou" or "Let's Have A Party," and "Goin' Down Slow" is my least favourite of the slow blues medley closers.  Even though the Europe '73 medleys were more static, I love "You're So Square (Baby I Don't Care)," and much prefer "I Can't Quit You Baby" as the medley closer.  Plus, the playing in Europe '73 was on a whole other level.  "Honey Bee" was a great closer in the earlier medleys as well.

I also started a podcast recently, which is mostly focused on Zeppelin's and the Grateful Dead's tours and live history, at least for now.  I did an episode about this tour where I go into more detail about my ranking of the shows if any of you are interested:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1119254/4542359

1.   Seattle - June 19 -- At least a Top 5 show of their career, probably Top 3, perhaps the very best.  Phenomenal, unique playing; epic, unusual setlist full of previews, debuts and one-offs; best string of encores of their career -- wish they had played "Louie Louie" more often.

2.   Los Angeles - June 25 -- Features a similar setlist to Seattle and similarly fantastic playing.  A slight notch below on both fronts to my ears, though.  Love "Slow Down" in the WLL medley.  I haven't added it up, but I'm guessing it edges Long Beach on running time accounted for on How The West Was Won, seeing as all three of the epics come from this show...

3.   New York - June 14 -- Gave this one the bump over the night before since the encores are missing from the tape on the 15th.  Unbelievably fast and good "Dazed And Confused" this show.  I also love it having "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" in the "Whole Lotta Love" medley and "Weekend" in the encores.

4.   New York - June 15 -- Missing encores hold it back slightly.  Great playing throughout and another breathtaking Dazed.  Only WLL medley of the tour to feature seven songs.

5.   Tucson - June 28 -- Stacks up well with any of them on a song-for-song basis, held back slightly by the shortened acoustic set and standard encore of only "Rock And Roll."  Really love the inclusion of "Stuck On You" in the WLL medley and Jones' keyboard solo later in the medley.

6.   Long Beach - June 27 -- Obviously well played since more than half of the songs on How The West Was Won are from this show.  Potential best-ever version of "Since I've Been Loving You" -- sure, you can find '70/'71 versions where Plant is better.  Very good Dazed, even though it was left off of HTWWW.  WLL medley features their final performance of "Blueberry Hill."

7.   Baltimore - June 11 -- Pretty tenacious start-to-finish.  Longest "Moby Dick" of the tour at over 27 minutes with a cut, very nice Dazed.

8.   Montréal - June 7 -- Tough call between this and Baltimore.  Love that they play "Running Bear" in the WLL medley -- wish it had been a constant in the medley this tour instead of "Hello Mary Lou" and "Let's Have A Party."  The longer string of encores almost bumped this ahead of Baltimore.

9.   Detroit - June 6 -- Ranked this the highest of the fragmentary tapes because: a) as a Deadhead as well, I love the inclusion of "Turn On Your Love Light" in Dazed, and b) the WLL medley has "Running Bear."

10.   Philadelphia - June 13 -- Gets points for uniqueness for having "Bring It On Home" early in the set like it was in 1970.  Roughest sound quality of the tour so it's a little hard to judge, but it sounds like they're playing really well.

11.   Portland - June 17 -- Plant is in great shape, but it's hard to give a fair assessment with the first five songs missing.

12.   Seattle - June 18 -- Another, even more fragmentary tape -- hard to judge these four.  This one has a great SIBLY though.

13.   San Bernardino - June 22 -- A bit subdued other than Page, who has a great night.  They were probably tired from the (reportedly) long show in Denver the night before, compounded by the altitude factor and perhaps the time change, although it's only an hour.  Most standard version of the medley as was possible (aka. the way it appears on the original HTWWW -- weird to be referring to it the way we do The Song Remains The Same eh?)

14.   Charlotte - June 9 -- Still has its bright spots -- it is 1972, after all -- but is probably the most relaxed/sloppiest of the tour. Gains points for having the only North American version of "Celebration Day" in '72, but loses them for not having a medley in WLL.

[pluribus]

Love this ranking. Although I would put Nassau 6/14 as the easy number 2, over LA Forum 6/25. Nassau 6/14 was the last show with Plant’s “real” high range in his voice. Weekend is amazing. Epic show.

Denver 6/21 and San Diego 6/23...where are you?????

[Bonzo_fan]

13 minutes ago, pluribus said:

Love this ranking. Although I would put Nassau 6/14 as the easy number 2, over LA Forum 6/25. Nassau 6/14 was the last show with Plant’s “real” high range in his voice. Weekend is amazing. Epic show.

Denver 6/21 and San Diego 6/23...where are you?????

I could accept that for sure. 6/25 has a great "Black Dog," which I forgot to mention here and in the podcast -- good enough to be the reference version, given the sound quality with it being on HTWWW.  Love the way Page so violently launches into WLL on 6/25 as well. "Weekend" and "Louie Louie" sort of cancel out, so the presence of "Over The Hills And Far Away," "Dancing Days" and "The Ocean" tipped the scales towards 6/25.  I'm with you though that several songs are played better on the 14th.

[pageluvva]

8 hours ago, Bonzo_fan said:

 

9.   Detroit - June 6 -- Ranked this the highest of the fragmentary tapes because: a) as a Deadhead as well, I love the inclusion of "Turn On Your Love Light" in Dazed, and b) the WLL medley has "Running Bear."

 

As a fellow Deadhead I loved that you would point this out. Much respect my friend. 

God bless the fat man in the black t-shirt 

[The Only Way To Fly]

23 minutes ago, pageluvva said:

As a fellow Deadhead I loved that you would point this out. Much respect my friend. 

God bless the fat man in the black t-shirt 

+1

[Bonzo_fan]

2 hours ago, pageluvva said:

As a fellow Deadhead I loved that you would point this out. Much respect my friend. 

God bless the fat man in the black t-shirt 

+2

[Sticks of Fire]

2 hours ago, Bonzo_fan said:

+2

+3

[Sticks of Fire]

14 hours ago, Bonzo_fan said:

I found ranking the 1975 shows a few months ago to be a fun and useful exercise, so I've decided to do the same with all of the other years as I go along.  This year was the first time that I've listened to all of the North American '72 shows -- I listened to all of the Australia/New Zealand shows and the two European warm-up shows for the first time this year as well, but didn't include them in my ranking.  One general observation I have is that this is my least-favourite year of the "Whole Lotta Love" medley.  They did include some really great songs here and there, but I'm not a fan of "Hello Mary Lou" or "Let's Have A Party," and "Goin' Down Slow" is my least favourite of the slow blues medley closers.  Even though the Europe '73 medleys were more static, I love "You're So Square (Baby I Don't Care)," and much prefer "I Can't Quit You Baby" as the medley closer.  Plus, the playing in Europe '73 was on a whole other level.  "Honey Bee" was a great closer in the earlier medleys as well.

I also started a podcast recently, which is mostly focused on Zeppelin's and the Grateful Dead's tours and live history, at least for now.  I did an episode about this tour where I go into more detail about my ranking of the shows if any of you are interested:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1119254/4542359

1.   Seattle - June 19 -- At least a Top 5 show of their career, probably Top 3, perhaps the very best.  Phenomenal, unique playing; epic, unusual setlist full of previews, debuts and one-offs; best string of encores of their career -- wish they had played "Louie Louie" more often.

2.   Los Angeles - June 25 -- Features a similar setlist to Seattle and similarly fantastic playing.  A slight notch below on both fronts to my ears, though.  Love "Slow Down" in the WLL medley.  I haven't added it up, but I'm guessing it edges Long Beach on running time accounted for on How The West Was Won, seeing as all three of the epics come from this show...

3.   New York - June 14 -- Gave this one the bump over the night before since the encores are missing from the tape on the 15th.  Unbelievably fast and good "Dazed And Confused" this show.  I also love it having "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" in the "Whole Lotta Love" medley and "Weekend" in the encores.

4.   New York - June 15 -- Missing encores hold it back slightly.  Great playing throughout and another breathtaking Dazed.  Only WLL medley of the tour to feature seven songs.

5.   Tucson - June 28 -- Stacks up well with any of them on a song-for-song basis, held back slightly by the shortened acoustic set and standard encore of only "Rock And Roll."  Really love the inclusion of "Stuck On You" in the WLL medley and Jones' keyboard solo later in the medley.

6.   Long Beach - June 27 -- Obviously well played since more than half of the songs on How The West Was Won are from this show.  Potential best-ever version of "Since I've Been Loving You" -- sure, you can find '70/'71 versions where Plant is better.  Very good Dazed, even though it was left off of HTWWW.  WLL medley features their final performance of "Blueberry Hill."

7.   Baltimore - June 11 -- Pretty tenacious start-to-finish.  Longest "Moby Dick" of the tour at over 27 minutes with a cut, very nice Dazed.

8.   Montréal - June 7 -- Tough call between this and Baltimore.  Love that they play "Running Bear" in the WLL medley -- wish it had been a constant in the medley this tour instead of "Hello Mary Lou" and "Let's Have A Party."  The longer string of encores almost bumped this ahead of Baltimore.

9.   Detroit - June 6 -- Ranked this the highest of the fragmentary tapes because: a) as a Deadhead as well, I love the inclusion of "Turn On Your Love Light" in Dazed, and b) the WLL medley has "Running Bear."

10.   Philadelphia - June 13 -- Gets points for uniqueness for having "Bring It On Home" early in the set like it was in 1970.  Roughest sound quality of the tour so it's a little hard to judge, but it sounds like they're playing really well.

11.   Portland - June 17 -- Plant is in great shape, but it's hard to give a fair assessment with the first five songs missing.

12.   Seattle - June 18 -- Another, even more fragmentary tape -- hard to judge these four.  This one has a great SIBLY though.

13.   San Bernardino - June 22 -- A bit subdued other than Page, who has a great night.  They were probably tired from the (reportedly) long show in Denver the night before, compounded by the altitude factor and perhaps the time change, although it's only an hour.  Most standard version of the medley as was possible (aka. the way it appears on the original HTWWW -- weird to be referring to it the way we do The Song Remains The Same eh?)

14.   Charlotte - June 9 -- Still has its bright spots -- it is 1972, after all -- but is probably the most relaxed/sloppiest of the tour. Gains points for having the only North American version of "Celebration Day" in '72, but loses them for not having a medley in WLL.

One could argue little changes here and there but you nailed it really.   One of the best tours of their too short of a career.  Relaxed, fun, powerful and throwing in lots of rarities and extras

[reesergreaser]

Baltimore was Killer Show - I was there to Witness Their Peak June 11, 1972 - Stairway to Heaven Tour Show.

Edited February 18, 2023 by reesergreaser

[ohjimmy]

Love that Baltimore gig. I have to take it for a spin….I haven’t listened to it in awhile. Glad you had the chance to see them live. You must have had quite the time.