How The West Was Won Vs The Song Remains The Same OST

[Bonzo_fan]

4 minutes ago, strombringer101 said:

For some reason I like it because it gets right to the meat of that Killer jam between Jimmy and Bonzo. Love it! Just the power, yeah the full version on the DVD is killer and other earlier versions but for me that little riff kicked my ass.

Fair enough.  I think it's always going to be 8/21/71 LA for me--the performance, the recording (Bonham's bass drum sounds like a cannon!), Plant still being able to sing it high.

[strombringer101]

19 minutes ago, Bonzo_fan said:

Fair enough.  I think it's always going to be 8/21/71 LA for me--the performance, the recording (Bonham's bass drum sounds like a cannon!), Plant still being able to sing it high.

Put your bootleg ears on ( kinda harsh) but Jimmy is on fire. 

[John M]

3 hours ago, Bonzo_fan said:

Whole Lotta Love is a tough call.  HTWWW has one of the best beginnings of it ever with how violently Jimmy launches into the riff.  TSRTS has one of the best coda sections/finales, again because of the violence of it.  As far as everything in between, I would lean towards HTWWW, because for some reason, Boogie Chillen has always been my least favourite part of the medley, so I'm not a fan of how they reduced the medley to only that for the most part for North America '73.  Not sure why I've never loved it...love John Lee Hooker's original, usually find their covers to be an improvement, but I always find myself kind of impatiently "getting through it" to get to the rest of the medley.  One notable exception is 9/29/71 Osaka, with that amazing little riff they play before launching into it!

Great point about the opening of WLL.  The parts of WLL that I usually focus on live are the middle sections.  The original TSRTS soundtrack has such an amazing funk section (sadly butchered in the 2007 and 2018 releases)  leading into a great groove in the theramin section.  Just fantastic.  And for me, the long "Boogie Mama" jam from about 8:00 - 12:00 in the movie soundtrack is pure Zeppelin magic.  It flows organically and has more of a groove feel than the medleys of oldies.  I love the medleys, but I love this looser jam more.  I hear you about the first part about "I heard my mama and papa talking, that little boy reached the age of 24", etc.  That became a bit of a cliche over time, but the jam that follows it is just off the charts.  What Page, Jones and Bonham are doing is pure joy and pure genius.

[Bonzo_fan]

8 hours ago, strombringer101 said:

Put your bootleg ears on ( kinda harsh) but Jimmy is on fire. 

Oh, I'm no stranger to that show--one of my favourites!!  Can't wait to listen on its anniversary next week!

[Paulus]

I too like the shortened version of Black Dog in TSRTS.  Also I believe it's Jimmy's best ever hair presentation at the end of the song in the movie.  Not to puffy or curly or short.

[strombringer101]

17 hours ago, John M said:

Great point about the opening of WLL.  The parts of WLL that I usually focus on live are the middle sections.  The original TSRTS soundtrack has such an amazing funk section (sadly butchered in the 2007 and 2018 releases)  leading into a great groove in the theramin section.  Just fantastic.  And for me, the long "Boogie Mama" jam from about 8:00 - 12:00 in the movie soundtrack is pure Zeppelin magic.  It flows organically and has more of a groove feel than the medleys of oldies.  I love the medleys, but I love this looser jam more.  I hear you about the first part about "I heard my mama and papa talking, that little boy reached the age of 24", etc.  That became a bit of a cliche over time, but the jam that follows it is just off the charts.  What Page, Jones and Bonham are doing is pure joy and pure genius.

Funny you mention that part of WLL ( I heard ...) when I first heard it I thought it was kinda cool like some personal story of Roberts parents having worried about his career  ambitions. As I grew older and bought HTWWW I thought “wow Zeppelin never really changed it from their  previous tour?” Because Zeppelin during their 71, 70 tours WLL always played melodies from other bands like Buffalo Springfield, Other 60s bands I cannot recall, of course the African American deep Mississippi blues  melodies no body did it better then Zeppelin. Jimmy Page shines the brightest when jamming those old blues tunes, Bonzo Jones combo keeping the rhythm was unstoppable. That’s why the WLL and Black dog on TSRTS are 1 of the best. Blueberry Hill version of WLL is amazing as is the Version of  Communication breakdown Melody. I personally think 1971 is Zeppelin at it’s best and rawest.

[The Only Way To Fly]

I think that's what first drew me into live zeppelin. The medleys in 1970 and 1971 during WLL and HMMT. For one, they seem to really enjoy playing them and the spontaneity by either Page or Plant brought us some real treasures. I've often wondered, if this is what they did on stage, I can only imagine what they did at soundcheck or rehearsal. The soundcheck tape from 1973 or 1975 gives a great peak in the box. 

 

[John M]

What if HTWWW was released in fall 1972 the way most live albums used to be done? How would that change the way we think about it, and about TSRTS? 
It had unreleased songs on it - Over the Hills, The Ocean, and Dancing Days.  They may not have been included in a fall 1972 release?

On the other hand, isn't it odd that TSRTS came out in 1976 and we kids did not even think about or care that there were no PG or Presence songs?  We were so overwhelmed with with a double album with about 100 minutes of music!  And I do not recall anyone at the time saying that Plant had lost his voice or that songs had slowed down.  We were just blown away by the overpowering sound of live Zeppelin with the extended versions of songs.  We did wonder a bit why Celebration Day was not in the movie and why Black Dog and SIBLYwere not on the album.   But just a bit.  We just cranked the soundtrack album and loved it, then we would go to the movie multiple times and we loved it.  Of course I should mention that no one I knew at the time (who I hung out with) had seen Zep or had any old bootlegs.  There were "older kids" (like 3 - 6 years older) who had seen Zep but we did not hang out with them, or if we did we did not ask about Zep.

Edited April 29 by John M

[John M]

On 4/25/2019 at 5:33 PM, John M said:

The original TSRTS soundtrack has such an amazing funk section (sadly butchered in the 2007 and 2018 releases)  leading into a great groove in the theramin section.  Just fantastic.  And for me, the long "Boogie Mama" jam from about 8:00 - 12:00 in the movie soundtrack is pure Zeppelin magic.  It flows organically and has more of a groove feel than the medleys of oldies.  I love the medleys, but I love this looser jam more.

I went back and found out my memory of the HTWWW WLL was faulty - it does have a 2 minute "Boogie Mama" section similar to TSRTS (which is about 4 min), but the following medley is so long that I wasn't thinking about it.  In any case the version on TSRTS just seems to be a better groove, more relaxed and it flows better than the shorter version on HTWWW.  But maybe I like it better because I heard it so many many times from 1976 until HTWWW was released.  Or maybe it had developed over the years and reached its peak by July 1973. 

I can say for sure that when TSRTS came out me and my friends were most amazed/surprised by the whole middle section of WLL more than anything on the album. Probably because we had never heard any other live Zep at that point.  Dazed was so sprawling and overwhelming it took longer to really sink in, and to us the superb No Quarter did not have the immediacy of WLL, but of course over a bit of time we  gained a full appreciation of it.  Those first few weeks what blew us away was WLL.  It is interesting to me to think back to that time of hearing live Zep for the first time.

[rm2551]

19 hours ago, John M said:

It is interesting to me to think back to that time of hearing live Zep for the first time.

Yes!!! I have traded a good/strong memory for my indulgences (mostly booze) over the far too many years, but hearing WLL from TSRTS for the first time is still with me. The sheer amazement and joy at something so incredible. I'll never forget it. Same goes for IMTOD and D&C (TSRTS) - but WLL grabbed me the most at that time.