Full Live Best of Performance Compilation - Take 2 Again

[HollywoodBowl1998]

I posted this in the master forum, but with hindsight I think it's better served in this category as it discussed nothing but live songs, haha. ok, lets try this again:

This was an effort that was sparked the day of the O2 concert. Zeppelin was going to play a song they’ve never done live before, in any way. Zep fans such as yourself boiled it down to 4 songs, if I recall correctly; when accounting for various reunions etc.  This got me wondering how many different live songs do I have in my catalogue. This led to all kinds of discoveries. One of which is just how many songs were not played live in the Bonham years. I believe we were meant to get more, but the ’75, ’77, and ’80 tours were each cut short due to separate tragedies.  I believe those tours would have transitioned to include more songs, from the latter albums, as those tours would have progressed.  Regardless, of the songs they did perform, I had a poor 2/3, at best. Then I turned to the internet, where I discovered that nearly all of their concerts were available on line, which blew me away. I thought I was going to have to hunt them down in the one record store left in town that might have any bootlegs. I must have been stuck under an internet rock to not have realized what was available this whole time. Regardless, this massive project finally got underway.

I started out tracking down my missing live songs.  With so much available, this turned into finding the best version of those songs.  Then I turned my focus to this project, finding the best version of each live performance they did and make a massive playlist (or mix tape…does anyone else still listen to those?). This morphed into a huge endeavor that grew a life of it’s own and became a massive best of “concert”. While best means something different to each fan here, I tried to focus on sound quality over anything else…which thankfully still leaves a lot! Then I focused on the best version of.

My search also dug up a lot of non-studio songs they only performed live.  I assume they were all covers, like Blueberry Hill, but some I’ve never heard at all.  So I collected those along the way and picked up over 20 songs, which are included in this “concert”.  I like the historical accuracy of including them; because it’s something they did do a lot live.  Not to mention it makes this concert longer.  And who doesn’t want an epically long Zeppelin concert? Well, maybe not the fans at Knebworth (who apparently waited outdoors for a very long time to see all the concerts), but probably the rest of us. Some cover songs I dropped were either poor in quality or I just didn’t like them.  The good covers also increased the song variety and further break up multiple versions of some of their best stuff. I mean, how does one decide that TSRTS Stairway is so much better than the '77 LA Forum Stairways as to cut one over the other? I couldn’t do it, so several versions of a few songs made the cut, as they differ so much.  SIBLY, WLL, CB, HMMT, and Heartbreaker show up a few times, so these ~20 cover tunes keeps it from sounding too repetitive as well.

Because of quality, a lot of the performances below are from the official releases: Olympia, BBC Sessions, HTWWW, TSRTS, and even a few from Celebration Day.  Familiarity of my old CD boots has influenced this as well, so some concerts' songs show up more; I make no apologies, haha. I really want this full, best of “Concert” to be a charge to listen to, from start to end. And in the end it’s just shy of 15 hours! 

When I set out to assemble the set list, I didn’t intend on it being chronological, but it mostly morphed that way. The early stuff just sounds better amongst itself. Ditto that the mid years and then the latter years. There are exceptions throughout, heck, the whole set list starts off in the O2 Arena. But if it’s one thing I’ve learned about Zeppelin is they cannot fit into any one box. There is no rule that defines this band. They were just too creative to make any logistic sense out of them. Which is what makes them the best rock ARTists I’ve ever heard.

One problem,  I found the ‘best’ versions tended to be played in the later years. So there are things that appear out of order, so again, try to no think of this as a chronological set list. Example, in the Set B Dazed melodies The Crunge, which wasn’t even created yet….or was it? Heck, half of Physical Graffiti was made during their early concert touring years, but just didn’t fit other albums, so hopefully this isn’t too painful for ya. But really, this was a function of picking the best of versions and then evenly distributing them amongst the whole; which ended up being 109 songs!

This took me roughly a year to pull off, and even still I didn’t digest all of the material. I covered their well known or best live concerts. I’ve scoured many "best of" posts or recommendations on this Forum. I took feedback from my first cut at this about 6 months ago. I’d also like to give a big shout out to Mike Fry [check out his 50th Anniversary Box Set post as well as many others] who’s done some pretty cool Zep stuff. A solid portion of the tunes below have his finger print on them in one way or another, from song recommendations to having better quality version than I had to even the editing app Audacity. I can definitely say this project would not have been nearly as good without his assistance! This site makes people, literally, across the world become cool Zep allies!

 

I ended up breaking down the 109 song set list into 7 different sets; each set I tried to have listen as a mini concert within the whole massive concert.  This wasn’t easy, and there were many musical struggles along the way. I had to compromise one cool version over another, and had to get creative doing so. To minimize some repeated songs I created B Sides to some songs and combos for others. I tried to edit everything as best I could so one song blends to the next as though you were actually listening to a fluid concert. Hopefully you’ll like a few of the hidden gems I threw in, here and there, along the way. I also took quite a few liberties with WLL that you’ll either like or hate me for. All of this is explained in each set below. Set G is much longer than the others. I couldn’t make it work as separate sets, the flow wasn’t there. So this massive concert suitably finishes off with a massive final set.

 

I’ve referenced where each song comes from.  Most of these songs are from the CD releases or from a dozen of their better overall shows; these are referenced by concert name or CD acronym. The remainder are referenced directly. Hopefully this is easy to follow. Each mini set has a bit of a descriptor of it’s songs.  Enjoy!

 

Set A 
Most of this set is targeted at songs created in 1968-69. Some of the better versions included here were played later on though. And some songs seemed to fit well in Set A too, which happens throughout all of these sets. Again, this wasn't supposed to be chronological, it just mostly ended up this way. Try not to get too fixated on the song year being out of place, otherwise this whole thing might drive you bonkers, haha. I also cut A13 down to mostly just the melodies for two reasons. Firstly, the 'studio' part of WLL was of poor quality, but the melodies were in much better condition…and just sounds cool. Secondly, there is a lot of WLL influence throughout this whole project (no surprise as it influenced nearly all of their concerts) so I didn’t feel too guilty cutting it off, knowing it comes back several times elsewhere.

A1 Good Times Bad Times – Celebration Day
A2 I Can't Quit You Baby – Live At Olympia CD
A3 The Train Kept A Rollin’ – Texas Pop Festival
A4 I Gotta Move – Stockholm March 14, 1969
A5 Sitting And Thinking – Fillmore West
A6 As Long As I Have You - Fillmore West
A7 White Summer/Black Mountain Side – Live At Olympia CD
A8 Killing Floor/Lemon Song – Fillmore West
A9 Pat’s Delight – Fillmore West
A10 The Girl She Got Long Brown Wavy Hair – BBC Sessions CD
A11 Babe I'm Gonna Leave You – Whiskey A Go Go
A12 Your Time Is Gonna Come, WLL excerpt - Tokyo Sep 24, 1971
A13 WLL Melodies - Osaka
A14 You Shook Me – Live At Olympia CD
A15 How Many More Times – Fillmore West
A16 Communication Breakdown – Live On Blueberry Hill

Set B
This set is aiming towards 1970 songs. I didn’t mean for a lot of consecutive concert songs to be presented here together, it sort of happened that way organically. B5,6,7,8 then B12,13, ditto B15,16.  I just started arranging them together and eventually realized they're from the same moment in time. Happy coincidences I guess.

B1 We’re Gonna Groove – Royal Albert Hall
B2 C’mon Everybody – Royal Albert Hall
B3 The Girl Can’t Help It – New York, evening Sept 19, 1970
B4 Something Else – BBC Sessions CD
B5 Out on the Tiles – Live On Blueberry Hill
B6 Bron-Yr-Aur – Live On Blueberry Hill
B7 Since I've Been Loving You – Live On Blueberry Hill
B8 Organ Solo – Live On Blueberry Hill
B9 Thank You – BBC Sessions CD
B10 Ramble On – Celebration Day
B11 What Is and What Should Never Be – BBC Sessions CD
B12 Bring It On Home – HTWWW CD
B13 Dazed and Confused – HTWWW CD
B14 Heartbreaker – Earls Court
B15 Whole Lotta Love – Live on Blueberry Hill
B16 Blueberry Hill – Live On Blueberry Hill

Set C
In this somewhat 1971 set I did another WLL melodies. The first part of WLL HTWWW was very similar to TSRTS and others, so I cut it and focused on the material that was totally new, knowing what was cut would show up it the other sets. I wanted to not have WLL in every set list as to not get too sick of it, or to let it overshadow the play time from the other shorter songs.  Please keep in mind, this thing was 18+ hrs at one point, so some things did have to go.

C1 Immigrant Song – HTWWW CD
C2 Celebration Day – TSRTS CD (original)
C3 Long Tall Sally – Royal Albert Hall
C4 The Lemon Song – Whisky A Go Go
C5 Friends – Osaka September 29, 1971
C6 That's the Way – HTWWW CD
C7 Gallows Pole – Copenhagen May 3, 1971
C8 Four Sticks – Copenhagen May 3,1971
C9 WLL Excerpt – HTWWW CD, Cut ~10 mins, starts w Millionaire
C10 Stairway to Heaven – TSRTS CD (original)
C11 How Many More Times – Texas Pop Festival

Set D
This is sort of a 1972 set that begins to transition into 1973. Note, the some songs were seldom played live, so good sound quality or cool versions don't exist, but to me they are still a must have for this project. D6 is one of those cases. This set has the first B Side song. This only occurs three times in this overall best of ‘concert’. It was a way I could reduce the song repetition, while not entirely throwing a song away.  The idea is, sometimes listen to the overall Concert as shown. Switch it up other times by swapping out D5a with D5b. I’ve edited them to flow with their sets, so you can just slip the B Sides in or out as you please.

D1 Communication Breakdown – BBC CD
D2 Dancing Days – HTWWW CD
D3 Money – Frankfurt June 30, 1980
D4 Louie Louie – HTWWW bootleg LA June 25, 1972
D5a Over the Hills and Far Away – Snow Job
D6 Black Country Woman – Seattle June 19, 1972
D7 Bron-Y-Aur Stomp – Destroyer
D8 Travelling Riverside Blues – BBC Sessions CD
D9 Misty Mountain Hop – TSRTS CD (2007)
D10 Since I've Been Loving You – TSRTS CD (2007)
D11 Stand By Me – Osaka Oct 9 1972
D12 Rock and Roll – HTWWW CD

Set E
The songs I had amalgamated for this set started to eerily look a bit like the 1973 TSRTS, so I went with it. I think E5 is the only real exception, otherwise it somewhat follows the order of the original NYC set list. While D12 finishes off Set D, it helps blend into the start of Set E being the concert opener in ’73. E9 has another B Side. The 1973 WLLs were very good, in my opinion. I just couldn’t delete E9b, but again, had to reduce the WLLs; I had around 10 really good versions at one point. And this was after cutting a bunch.

E1 Black Dog – HTWWW CD
E2 The Song Remains the Same – TSRTS CD (original)
E3 The Rain Song – TSRTS CD (original)
E4 No Quarter – Snow Job
E5 The Crunge – WLL excerpt Dallas Mar 5, 1975
E6 Dazed and Confused – TSRTS CD (original)
E7 Stairway to Heaven – Last Concert
E8 Moby Dick – HTWWW CD
E9A Whole Lotta Love – Detroit July 13, 1973
E10 The Ocean – HTWWW CD
E11 Thank You – NYC July 27, 1973

Set F
This is aimed at songs that were played or existed in some way in 1975 and is attempted to feature Physical Graffiti a bit. F6 and F10 are excellent versions provided by Mike Fry, really cool listens. I added a small touch to F10, hopefully it's not noticed, which would mean I blended it well.

F1 Going to California w Custard Pie interlude – Houston May 21,1977
F2 Trampled Under Foot – Earls Court
F3 In My Time of Dying – '77 LA Show 4
F4 Sick Again – Snow Job
F5 Sex Machine, WLL Excerpt – Inglewood Mar 25, 1975
F6 Night Flight (Rehearsal) – Chicago July 7, 1973
F7 The Wanton Song – Chicago Jan 20, 1975
F8 When the Levee Breaks – Chicago Jan 20, 1975
F9 Since I've Been Loving You – Last Concert
F10 Tangerine – Earls Court combo 18th & 24th
F11 White Summer – Royal Albert Hall
F12 Kashmir – Destroyer
F13 WLL/Rock And Roll – '77 LA Show 3

Set G
The final set is focused on live material they played after 1975 and then also has some very cool versions of a lot of their earlier stuff. There’s a lot of songs, and each version tends to be long, culminating in a nearly four and a half hour grand finale!  The last B Side is here with G26. So many good versions of Trampled, I just wish they played it earlier on so I could have added G26b elsewhere in the set list; but it just doesn’t jive with the early stuff, so B Side it is. Set G originally was a 1977 set and the 'Set H' was their latter years. Not only did I have set list flow problems, but Sets G&H were almost the same as they didn't really add a lot of new material in 1979/80; likely because so few concerts were actually played.  So I scrapped Set H and squished a lot into the now bigger Set G, which I find is a much better listen.

A note on NQ; This is such an artsy concert song, that at a first listen, almost every version sounds unique, which did not make this song easy on me. I literally listened to about 12 NQ versions, multiple times over, for a week straight. And at ~30 mins each, that was an undertaking, haha.  Surprisingly, I did start to hear faint similar themes in some of the versions, so I was able to reduce it finally to the few that made this Concert.  I also ended up merging two versions together. Firstly it cut down the overall NQ playing time in this already 15 hr concert. But secondly, the start of my June 11 version is cut off (I later found the full recording). So merging it with the first half of Destroyers NQ and finishing it off with the June 11 show worked really well, I felt.  This was another way I could reduce the repeat occurrences of NQ while keeping the creativity of the each. For similar reasons, I did this with Stairway as well in this set, I hope you like this what I did here too.

A note on WLL; Firstly, there’s 2 versions in this set. But the 1980 version is so different, that G13 and G27 are hardly the same song…and I spaced them out by over 2 hrs, so I hope it’s not too much WLL. Lastly, I had another version of The Crunge in my pile of songs I liked, but had no place left for it to go. So I decided to extend WLL by adding it to the Crunge portion of the song. I don’t expect most will like this, but it is nice to have the final song of the long final set of this massive concert to be a bit longer than just 14 minutes.

G1 Heartbreaker – '77 LA Show 1
G2 Black Dog – Snow Job
G3 It’ll Be Me – Fort Worth May 22, 1977 w Mick Ralph of Bad Co.
G4 Black Country Woman – Destroyer
G5 Hot Dog – Rotterdam June 21, 1980
G6 The Battle of Evermore – Destroyer
G7 Nobody's Fault but Mine – Destroyer
G8 Ten Years Gone – Destroyer
G9 Since I’ve Been Loving You – '77 LA Show 1
G10 How Many More Times – BBC CD
G11 That’s Alright Mama, w D’Yer Mak’er interlude – '77 LA Show 5
G12 Communication Breakdown, w D’Yer Mak’er melody– Earls Court 
G13 Whole Lotta Love – Last Concert
G14 Over The Top, Out On The Tiles intro – Destroyer
G15 The Ocean – TSRTS CD (2007)
G16 All My Love – Last Concert
G17 For Your Life – Celebration Day
G18 Achilles Last Stand – Brussels June 20, 1980
G19 No Quarter – Combo first 16 mins Destroyer + last 26 mins NYC June 11, 1977
G20 In My Time of Dying – NYC June 7, 1977
G21 Over The Hills And Far Away – '77 LA Show 1
G22 Stairway To Heaven – Combo of 80% '77 LA Show 3 + 20% Destroyer
G23 We Shall Over Come – Osaka September 28, 1971
G24 Kashmir – '77 LA Show 1 
G25 In the Evening – Last Concert
G26A Trampled Under Foot – Destroyer
G27 Whole Lotta Love – Combo of TSRTS (Original), with The Crunge Seattle Mar 21, 1975

B Sides
Again, the idea here is to slip these versions in and out of their respective places in the set lists.  If I get more cool version ideas from you all, I will likely extend the B Sides, but we'll see how this goes. I do hope this post takes off a bit in this forum and I get a lot of constructive responses. I may add a really cool Youtube We're Gonna Groove version to the B Sides if I can get around to it.

D5b Over the Hills and Far Away – Inglewood Mar 27, 1975
E9b Whole Lotta Love – Offenburg March 24, 1973
G26b Trampled Under Foot – Brussels June 20, 1980

Reference Concerts
Songs used multiple times in the set lists from these concerts are referenced by the concert name. Here are their date and location details.

Whisky A Go Go - LA Jan 5, 1969
Fillmore West - San Francisco April 27, 1969
Texas Pop Festival - Dallas August 31, 1969
Royal Albert Hall - London Jan 9, 1970
Live On Blueberry Hill - Inglewood, September 4, 1970
Osaka - September 29, 1971
Earls Court - London, May 25, 1975
Snow Job - Vancouver March 19, 1975
Destroyer - Cleveland April 27, 1977
LA Forum 1977 Concerts
    '77 LA Show 1 - June 21, Listen To This Eddie 
    '77 LA Show 3 - June 23
    '77 LA Show 4 - June 25
    '77 LA Show 5 - June 26
Last Concert - Berlin July 7, 1980
Celebration Day - London December 10, 2007

As best I can tell, these songs were never performed live by Led Zeppelin. I’m kinda hoping someone will show me a rare performance that I missed.

Boogie with Stu – Never performed
Candy Store Rock – Never performed
Carouselambra – Never performed, only a sample soundcheck
Custard Pie – Never performed
Down by the Seaside – Never performed
D'yer Mak'er – Sampled but never performed
Fool in the Rain – Never performed
Hats Off to (Roy) Harper – Never performed
Hots On for Nowhere – Never performed
Houses of the Holy – Never performed
I'm Gonna Crawl – Never performed
In the Light – Never performed
Living Loving Maid – Never performed live
Night Flight – Never performed, only a soundcheck
Royal Orleans – Never performed
South Bound Saurez – Never performed
Tea for One – Never performed
The Rover – Sampled in '77 concerts but never fully performed; there is a few soundchecks

Got any favourite versions of their live performances? I’d love to hear them. Again, I didn't go over all of their material, rather I focused on their legacy concerts and recommendations in the Forum from you folks. So surely I've missed some gems. If I get enough feedback, I may make a Take 3.  Hopefully this collection is pretty solid though, it represents over a year of effort.

Don’t like my set list? Take this set list and then make it your own. Remove what you don’t like and put in what ya do.  The above should at the very least make a very good starting point for ya. Overall, as I’ve been listening to these versions (amongst many, many others) for over a year now, I am STILL not sick of it. Man, this band is just too good. If you start a project, I strongly recommend good record keeping from day 1. A few versions I didn’t record which concert they were from…it took me forever to figure it all back out. It wouldn’t surprise me if there’s still 1 or 2 errors up there. But I guess you'll have to listen to it to find out! DM me and I'll send you the downloadable links. Cheers,

Brad

[John M]

I have a few more suggestions for you to consider, in addition to those I listed in the original thread.  Here goes.

Something Else - Royal Albert Hall.  There is no piano as in the BBC version, but this version is to me more powerful and energetic.  And Plant is over the top.

Celebration Day - Toronto 1971 or Osaka 9/28/71.  I prefer the 1971 versions of this song.  More energy and I like Page's soloing in the outro better.  For years all I knew were the 1973 versions (as represented by TSRTS) which I love, but when I started hearing the 1971 versions it was a revelation.  Of course it comes down to personal preference.  Maybe have a 1971 version and the 1973 version both.  They are very different.

Over the Hills - HTWWW.  Plant in all his glory before he had to rewrite the melody.  Such a tremendously powerful version.

Stairway to Heaven - for creative guitar soloing you cannot beat the TSRTS version you listed.  But for Plant's vocal I would go with the 1971 BBC version where he sings pretty much the original melody on the ending, something he was no longer doing as of 1972 as evidenced by HTWWW.

 

[BobDobbs]

14 minutes ago, John M said:

 

Stairway to Heaven - for creative guitar soloing you cannot beat the TSRTS version you listed.  But for Plant's vocal I would go with the 1971 BBC version where he sings pretty much the original melody on the ending, something he was no longer doing as of 1972 as evidenced by HTWWW.

 

This is what I love about this forum, everyone has their own personal favorites. For me, I simply cannot stand this version of Stairway because of the way Robert sings the song. IMO Robert is approaching the majority of this song in pseudo-Bing Crosby mode, he sounds like he is overly dramatically crooning the vocals. I have never heard Robert sing the song in this fashion on any other live version. The whole point though is to each their own. I prefer Robert's 77' voice in particular as a point of reference but I believe the majority of Zep-heads are more in line with your preference and really love the 71' BBC version of STH.

STH is a difficult song to find a "best of" as there are so many amazing versions and variations but I love most of the 71' versions best due to a combo of Robert's voice and Jimmy's fluidity however there are tons of great versions from other years and the Copenhagen 7-24-79 version is one of my favorites.

Believe it or not I have a jazz musician friend who absolutely loves the Berlin 80' version of STH which I just cannot stand, Jimmy just shits all over an incredibly overly long solo. Though the friend looks at his solo as improvisational genius of which the execution gets a bit lost here and there. Lost is one thing, IMO Jimmy is not even on the same planet and I don't mean that in a good, far-out way either.

[1975NQ]

Hi Brad, here are some more suggestions to consider:

OTHAFA - Vienna 73 Nite Owl Matrix (also Dazed from this night is one of their best ever) 

NQ - Earl's Court May 18th. If the sound quality of this is too rough (I'd say it's on par with Copenhagen 71), then check out Detroit 1-31-75, Montreal 2-6-75 and MSG 2-7-75

WLL - Bradford 73 (also Dazed from this night is insane, one of my favs). This one is, in my opinion, one of their all-time best and is my own personal favorite. Plant has fully evolved into his 73 swaggering iteration and is in his best voice of 73 (up there with Baltimore and LA 6-3). The band is really, really tight - the whole thing sounds like a well-oiled machine. While the Europe 73 versions of WLL are insanely good, the experimentation didn't always suit the song and sometimes detracted. I prefer the earlier 73 UK versions, and this one is the best.

CB - I think for your project Blueberry Hill is the perfect choice. For the second slot using the BBC version, are you using the one from 69 that has "It's Your Thing?" in it? One of my all-time fav versions. Beyond that, there are some absolutely killer versions of CB from 71. I'd check out Leicester 71 for sure.

Wanton Song -  Chicago 1-22

Edited January 7, 2022 by 1975NQ

[HollywoodBowl1998]

On 1/6/2022 at 9:31 AM, John M said:

I have a few more suggestions for you to consider, in addition to those I listed in the original thread.  Here goes.

Something Else - Royal Albert Hall.  There is no piano as in the BBC version, but this version is to me more powerful and energetic.  And Plant is over the top.

Celebration Day - Toronto 1971 or Osaka 9/28/71.  I prefer the 1971 versions of this song.  More energy and I like Page's soloing in the outro better.  For years all I knew were the 1973 versions (as represented by TSRTS) which I love, but when I started hearing the 1971 versions it was a revelation.  Of course it comes down to personal preference.  Maybe have a 1971 version and the 1973 version both.  They are very different.

Over the Hills - HTWWW.  Plant in all his glory before he had to rewrite the melody.  Such a tremendously powerful version.

Stairway to Heaven - for creative guitar soloing you cannot beat the TSRTS version you listed.  But for Plant's vocal I would go with the 1971 BBC version where he sings pretty much the original melody on the ending, something he was no longer doing as of 1972 as evidenced by HTWWW.

 

Thanks again John! I didn't give Something Else much thought beyond the BBC version. Just listened to this one again, yes, it is much better. Way more explosive. I tried as much as possible to avoid the BBC Sessions. I can't describe why. Maybe they just seem a bit tame being on TV? kinda like several decades later their Unplugged (good) vs the live concerts (Exceptional). So making this switch up will be an easy one.   I guess I'm headed for a Take 3 after all, haha. Kinda not surprised. Keep these unique thoughts coming if you have any more.

I'll take a look at Celeb Day soon too. TSRTS version is solid, and like you, all I knew for so long. I didn't search much for a replacement for it feeling it stood on it's own 2 feet pretty well.  I know this version of Over The Hills was on my top 5 or so.  OTHAFA was definitely a hard one to conclude on. It was the song that made me start to consider my B Sides, haha. I just couldn't decide with some of them, such good performances of that one.

Hmmm a BBC Stairway, after I just dissed the BBC concerts, haha. I'll listen to it again as I admittedly didn't give many songs on that collection a chance. I'm sure I glazed right over Stairway with my sights on other versions.

 

Thanks again John, let me know if you have any more insights. You've been nicely picking off some of the lesser discussed songs, which I'm liking a lot. Great insight!

 

[HollywoodBowl1998]

On 1/6/2022 at 9:56 AM, BobDobbs said:

This is what I love about this forum, everyone has their own personal favorites. For me, I simply cannot stand this version of Stairway because of the way Robert sings the song. IMO Robert is approaching the majority of this song in pseudo-Bing Crosby mode, he sounds like he is overly dramatically crooning the vocals. I have never heard Robert sing the song in this fashion on any other live version. The whole point though is to each their own. I prefer Robert's 77' voice in particular as a point of reference but I believe the majority of Zep-heads are more in line with your preference and really love the 71' BBC version of STH.

STH is a difficult song to find a "best of" as there are so many amazing versions and variations but I love most of the 71' versions best due to a combo of Robert's voice and Jimmy's fluidity however there are tons of great versions from other years and the Copenhagen 7-24-79 version is one of my favorites.

Believe it or not I have a jazz musician friend who absolutely loves the Berlin 80' version of STH which I just cannot stand, Jimmy just shits all over an incredibly overly long solo. Though the friend looks at his solo as improvisational genius of which the execution gets a bit lost here and there. Lost is one thing, IMO Jimmy is not even on the same planet and I don't mean that in a good, far-out way either.

Huh, maybe it's the jazz fan in me that explains why I like this Stairway, haha. I just love how different it is, but so many people dislike it. It would seem the more hard core the fan, the more the dislike, lol.  Hmmm, that makes me sound like not a hard core fan...lemme rethink this.    For me, I think the 77 Plant is best for Stairway. Probably why I mashed two '77 versions together. I liked most of LA Forum version I used, but couldn't drop Jonesy's improve organ I threw into the latter part of the song from Cleveland.  Something I've always wanted to do, but didn't have the tech to do it right until now.

Interesting, you like the 71' versions. I didn't give these much of a try as I already had pre-sold myself on the versions I had prior to this project. I also presumed the early versions would be more studio like and less of wat they turned into over the years. Probably a bad assumption to make. I think I had to do this at times to reduce the overall time (~15 months) spent on this project. Got a few recommendations from 1971 that I should check out?  Maybe I'll throw the Berlin concert to the B Sides and move my STH's around a bit to better suit Sets C & E.

Thanks for the input!

 

[BobDobbs]

46 minutes ago, HollywoodBowl1998 said:

Huh, maybe it's the jazz fan in me that explains why I like this Stairway, haha. I just love how different it is, but so many people dislike it. It would seem the more hard core the fan, the more the dislike, lol.  Hmmm, that makes me sound like not a hard core fan...lemme rethink this.    For me, I think the 77 Plant is best for Stairway. Probably why I mashed two '77 versions together. I liked most of LA Forum version I used, but couldn't drop Jonesy's improve organ I threw into the latter part of the song from Cleveland.  Something I've always wanted to do, but didn't have the tech to do it right until now.

Interesting, you like the 71' versions. I didn't give these much of a try as I already had pre-sold myself on the versions I had prior to this project. I also presumed the early versions would be more studio like and less of wat they turned into over the years. Probably a bad assumption to make. I think I had to do this at times to reduce the overall time (~15 months) spent on this project. Got a few recommendations from 1971 that I should check out?  Maybe I'll throw the Berlin concert to the B Sides and move my STH's around a bit to better suit Sets C & E.

Thanks for the input!

 

Ahhhh, it's all good. One's taste does not dictate such trivial labels as hard core or whatnot. What you like is what you like, it's all good because taste is subjective. Stairway, like Rain Song, Kashmir, etc. were played pretty much the same night after night with the exception being Jimmy's solo. Later, as you pointed out, Jones started using they keys differently and in some later shows like 79' he uses the piano in parts as well. So it's all what you like. Good for you Hollywood, keep rockin'!

[HollywoodBowl1998]

On 1/6/2022 at 12:38 PM, 1975NQ said:

Hi Brad, here are some more suggestions to consider:

OTHAFA - Vienna 73 Nite Owl Matrix (also Dazed from this night is one of their best ever) 

NQ - Earl's Court May 18th. If the sound quality of this is too rough (I'd say it's on par with Copenhagen 71), then check out Detroit 1-31-75, Montreal 2-6-75 and MSG 2-7-75

WLL - Bradford 73 (also Dazed from this night is insane, one of my favs). This one is, in my opinion, one of their all-time best and is my own personal favorite. Plant has fully evolved into his 73 swaggering iteration and is in his best voice of 73 (up there with Baltimore and LA 6-3). The band is really, really tight - the whole thing sounds like a well-oiled machine. While the Europe 73 versions of WLL are insanely good, the experimentation didn't always suit the song and sometimes detracted. I prefer the earlier 73 UK versions, and this one is the best.

CB - I think for your project Blueberry Hill is the perfect choice. For the second slot using the BBC version, are you using the one from 69 that has "It's Your Thing?" in it? One of my all-time fav versions. Beyond that, there are some absolutely killer versions of CB from 71. I'd check out Leicester 71 for sure.

Wanton Song -  Chicago 1-22

Thanks for this 1975NQ. With a name like that, I wish I stumbled across you when I was going thru my NQ part of this project, haha. With such a long song, it was no easy task. Finding stand out versions, and then listen to those for over a week straight to further reduce it...that was intense, but totally worth it. I could actually see some common themes to Jones's improvs and then also see his true improvisations as well. To say 'so full of talent' is an understatement. I'll dive into those three '75 versions you've listed above.  I think with all of these great recommendations I've been getting from everyone, I'll be making a playlist from them alone. Then get familiar with them and see if I include them into this massive concert. It wouldn't shock me if in a years time I come up with a Take 3 to this...and then convince myself that this is it...until more forum members come out of the woodwork with yet even more cool tunes, haha.

Great endorsement for the Bradford WLL. WLL was also a difficult one for me to boil down. And seeing as there's several versions, part versions (melodies), pull outs (Sex Machine, Crunge) and a B side; I don't say I really boiled it down at all, haha.  But I'm ok with WLL influencing this Project so much as this song was with them on nearly every tour they did and it changed with them along the way.

For CB I just used the BBC CD version, and I don't recall it has "it's your thing" as part of it. But I'll check out their BBC bootleg concerts to find what you're talking about; could be an interesting replacement. Like I said in a previous post, I don't mind ousting the BBC performances. I think my bitterness towards that CD is that I had just purchased a bootleg of it and less than a year later Zep officially released it. I was like "can you release something I don't have!?!" This was back when boots for me were CD only and weren't cheap or easy to find in my home town. So I think this is my own baggage to deal with as the performance is good...maybe I need to see a shrink and get over this. 

I'll add this OTHAFA to my Take 3 playlist as well. OTHAFA was another difficult one. Same issues as NQ and WLL in a way, so many good versions; luckily this song, even live, is relatively short so I could boil things down with less of an undertaking. But it wasn't an easy one, with an obvious winner over the others; as it is, I kept 2 versions and a B side for it. This is the second Wonton song recommendation for me to try. Funny, as I think it was only played about 5 times total, haha. I didn't think I nailed it when I chose the date used in Set F. I struggled to figure out which was the best quality version as they were all a little sketchy, imo. I'll have another look into this one for sure!

Thanks for the Dazed recommendations too. I wanted another Dazed on this, but just couldn't find one that differed enough to justify bringing it in over TSRTS version, which is lights out good and I'm so familiar with it of course. I think I was wanting to stumble across an early Dazed that strayed away from the studio track yet wasn't similar to the '73 creative versions, yet be of good sound quality. Needle in a hay stack that I couldn't find. 

Thanks again for all of these, cheers,

Brad 

[HollywoodBowl1998]

On 1/6/2022 at 12:38 PM, 1975NQ said:

CB - I think for your project Blueberry Hill is the perfect choice. For the second slot using the BBC version, are you using the one from 69 that has "It's Your Thing?" in it? One of my all-time fav versions. Beyond that, there are some absolutely killer versions of CB from 71. I'd check out Leicester 71 for sure.

Just to follow up, I used the previous BBC concert for my version; June 24, 1969 at Maida Vale. The one you're talking about is from June 27 at the Playhouse Theatre. Interesting, it's transition into It's Your Thing is so close to the 1975 Earls Court transition into D’Yer Mak’er . Both use practically the same funky guitar change up to get into the add-in. With so many CBs in the full BBC CD sessions, I should have been more prescriptive.

[1975NQ]

8 hours ago, HollywoodBowl1998 said:

Thanks for this 1975NQ. With a name like that, I wish I stumbled across you when I was going thru my NQ part of this project, haha. With such a long song, it was no easy task. Finding stand out versions, and then listen to those for over a week straight to further reduce it...that was intense, but totally worth it. I could actually see some common themes to Jones's improvs and then also see his true improvisations as well. To say 'so full of talent' is an understatement. I'll dive into those three '75 versions you've listed above.  I think with all of these great recommendations I've been getting from everyone, I'll be making a playlist from them alone. Then get familiar with them and see if I include them into this massive concert. It wouldn't shock me if in a years time I come up with a Take 3 to this...and then convince myself that this is it...until more forum members come out of the woodwork with yet even more cool tunes, haha.

You bet, happy to help! We're all passionate about Zep, and it's cool to see how invested in this project you are. Discovering new Zep shows for the first time is the best. I've discovered a bunch of new ones myself after taking a very long break from listening. This forum was the main driver for me to join myself after lurking/reading different opinions about different shows I hadn't heard yet.

 

8 hours ago, HollywoodBowl1998 said:

 

 

 

[1975NQ]

8 hours ago, HollywoodBowl1998 said:

 

I'll add this OTHAFA to my Take 3 playlist as well. OTHAFA was another difficult one. Same issues as NQ and WLL in a way, so many good versions; luckily this song, even live, is relatively short so I could boil things down with less of an undertaking. But it wasn't an easy one, with an obvious winner over the others; as it is, I kept 2 versions and a B side for it. This is the second Wonton song recommendation for me to try. Funny, as I think it was only played about 5 times total, haha. I didn't think I nailed it when I chose the date used in Set F. I struggled to figure out which was the best quality version as they were all a little sketchy, imo. I'll have another look into this one for sure!

Thanks for the Dazed recommendations too. I wanted another Dazed on this, but just couldn't find one that differed enough to justify bringing it in over TSRTS version, which is lights out good and I'm so familiar with it of course. I think I was wanting to stumble across an early Dazed that strayed away from the studio track yet wasn't similar to the '73 creative versions, yet be of good sound quality. Needle in a hay stack that I couldn't find. 

Thanks again for all of these, cheers,

Brad 

Yeah, Chicago 1-22 is my fav live version of Wanton Song. It sounds an awful lot like the album version while retaining it's own feel. I think sticking with Dazed from HTWW and SRTS makes sense, but they are a bit similar. If you want one different in style from the SRTS version, I think a 71 version is the way to go, assuming there's room for it. I think most forum members would point you to one of the Japan 71 versions, as they are killer and have great audio. I personally love versions from the UK Fall 71 tour, Ipswitch has the best sound quality, but Leicester isn't far behind(and is one of the best Dazed of the year,, absolutely smokin). 

OTHAFA is tricky in that I think the solos were best in 75, but Robert clearly sounded best in 72 and 73. Vienna seems to have the best of all worlds to my ears, I've always loved that version. And the Vienna Fireworks matrix version has just fantastic sound quality. 

[1975NQ]

14 hours ago, HollywoodBowl1998 said:

Interesting, it's transition into It's Your Thing is so close to the 1975 Earls Court transition into D’Yer Mak’er . Both use practically the same funky guitar change up to get into the add-in. 

Good catch! I never noticed that before. 

[BobDobbs]

20 hours ago, 1975NQ said:

Yeah, Chicago 1-22 is my fav live version of Wanton Song. It sounds an awful lot like the album version while retaining it's own feel. I think sticking with Dazed from HTWW and SRTS makes sense, but they are a bit similar. If you want one different in style from the SRTS version, I think a 71 version is the way to go, assuming there's room for it. I think most forum members would point you to one of the Japan 71 versions, as they are killer and have great audio. I personally love versions from the UK Fall 71 tour, Ipswitch has the best sound quality, but Leicester isn't far behind(and is one of the best Dazed of the year,, absolutely smokin). 

OTHAFA is tricky in that I think the solos were best in 75, but Robert clearly sounded best in 72 and 73. Vienna seems to have the best of all worlds to my ears, I've always loved that version. And the Vienna Fireworks matrix version has just fantastic sound quality. 

BONUS: You should check out the OTHAFA from 6-22-77 as it is simply incredible. However, I believe the 22nd was the only show Millard did not tape so the quality is not as good for the 22nd as for the other LA shows.

[HollywoodBowl1998]

On 1/8/2022 at 9:18 PM, 1975NQ said:

Yeah, Chicago 1-22 is my fav live version of Wanton Song. It sounds an awful lot like the album version while retaining it's own feel. I think sticking with Dazed from HTWW and SRTS makes sense, but they are a bit similar. If you want one different in style from the SRTS version, I think a 71 version is the way to go, assuming there's room for it. I think most forum members would point you to one of the Japan 71 versions, as they are killer and have great audio. I personally love versions from the UK Fall 71 tour, Ipswitch has the best sound quality, but Leicester isn't far behind(and is one of the best Dazed of the year,, absolutely smokin). 

OTHAFA is tricky in that I think the solos were best in 75, but Robert clearly sounded best in 72 and 73. Vienna seems to have the best of all worlds to my ears, I've always loved that version. And the Vienna Fireworks matrix version has just fantastic sound quality. 

Cool, thanks!  I've captured these songs and all of the other recommendations from everyone here. I'm listening to them now. Some serious winners.  I'm not sure yet how, but I know I will be needing to consider a modifications to my concert project. A Take 3 is inevitable at this point, haha.  So much good Zeppelin, never enough time.   It'll take me a long time, so bear with me. 

[John M]

I was just listening to Toronto 1971 again and that version of Celebration Day may very well be the one.  The energy level is off the charts.  Check out Plant's spiel after the song too.  

The quality of this soundboard is amazing.  Strong bass and drums, which for me are essential.  Orlando 71 sound is great but this fragment is better for sound quality.

 

[HollywoodBowl1998]

On 1/9/2022 at 5:29 PM, BobDobbs said:

BONUS: You should check out the OTHAFA from 6-22-77 as it is simply incredible. However, I believe the 22nd was the only show Millard did not tape so the quality is not as good for the 22nd as for the other LA shows.

Not a bad version at all. I swear these LA concerts seem to get better the more and more I listen to them. Sometimes I swear my whole project could just be reduced to them, haha. The overall sound quality isn't as good as some others, but it's not bad either. And this performance is pretty high energy too. Thanks for dropping this recommendation!

Brad