Dazed crowd bows to Zep's blasting, crashing revelry

[Cat]

Dazed crowd bows to Zep's blasting, crashing revelry

6/29/1972

be MERL REAGLE

Citizen Rock Music Critic

Tucson AZ Daily Citizen

Amazing. In three days the Community Center Arena has been the site of two of the

most outstanding rock concerts ever to hit this town.

First Jethro Tull, now led Zeppelin. Zeppelin has its own Seven Blocks of Granite sitting at

the foot of the stage for protection. The crowd crushes that far and no further. This, is

because, among other things, the group is a whole hour late in starting.

But finally on they come. Jimmy Page and his rock-em guitar, Robert Plant and his

shrill telephone wire voice. John "Bonzo" Bonham and his bludgeoning drums and

John; Paul Jones, bass man with a dash of electric piano.

All in Levi bells, nothing especially flashy. But oh you kid, who hid the lid?

For openers: "Immigrant Song," "Heartbreaker," "Black Dog" (and one of

- rock's more cryptic beats), "Since You Been Lovin' Me," "Stairway to Heaven'.' — is

there no end? — "Bron-YAur Stomp," a newly arranged "Dazed and Confused" complete

with Page playing guitar break with, a violin bow, "What Is and What-Should

Never Be," "Moby Dick" featuring a pretty mediocre drum break,, "Whole Lotta Love"

and an olio of rock n' rollers, including Elvis "Stuck on You" and (unreal) Rick Nelson's

"Mary Lou."

So much for statistics. These guys are the No, 1 proponents of simple, landmine;

hard-as-knuckles rock, and the loudest. Impossible-to hear without plugged ears, in

parts. And, as usual, the only real wrench ijn the works is the long guitar soloing, one in

almost every, song. Page is brilliant, granted, but after a while, migrainous.

Plant, who jumps around and flings back his head like a groupie that doesn't quite know

what's happening, at one point-sits with Page and Jones and they do a hoedown-ish number.

Page, in "Whole Lotta Love," Inserts a piece of 'I'm Not talkin', a song from his old band, the

Yardbirds. In "Heartbreaker," he slips in "Bourre," which Tull did Monday night, only Page

has a bigger audience: 9,000.

'Now a friend of mine meets me after the show and sums it up: ""Yeah, I liked it, but I

shouldn't." Why? "Because it goes against everything I like about music. I shouldn't have

dug that stuff at all, but I did."

[Communication Breakdown]

Since you've been lovin' me?? . Pretty good article apart from that haha

[SteveAJones]

Very cool!

An obscure companion piece to the favorable review which appeared in the Arizona Daily Star the same day: "Led Zeppelin is Concert Sound Experience" by Joe Gold.