Led Zeppelin, fans soar out of sight...together

[Cat]

Led Zeppelin, fans soar out of sight...together

Charleston (WV), Gazette Saturday, 4/4/1970

by Ray Brack

Led Zeppelin brought the frustrated Charleston rock community sweet release at the Civic Center Thursday night in a brilliant, bombastic contemporary blues recital.

Everything came together. The five thousand freaks were hungry. The capricious sound system—bolstered by imported British components—bore up nobly. And Led Zeppelin took full advantage of

an extended program to fully elaborate on their varied, blues-based repertoire.

* * *

ZEPPELIN'S blues are guyed to Jimmy Page, fragile, virtuoso lead guitarist. Page doesn't deal in phony frills and cheap thrills. He is one of the world's leading guitarists, regardless of field. Sitting alone on the Civic Center stage, he played blues, the classics, jazz and then jacked up the voltage and played his own pet product, progressive blues, the Page solo was the high point of an

extraordinary performance.

Drummer John Bonham also triumphed in a solo, demonstrating a tenacious capacity to muster and sustain high-density sound at high volume. He drummed for 20 minutes, paying respects along the way to jazz deans old and new.

Zeppelin is not thin on material. They dip liberally into their two million seller albums and have been previewing — on this their fifth U.S. tour — a sure hit from "Led Zeppelin III," a blues called "Since I've Been Loving You." Their third album will be released in June, after which the group will return

to the U.S. for appearances at several of the summer rock festivals. It is apparent that Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant deserves his growing reputation as the most sexually exciting personality in rock. But he deserves more. Plant is more musician than he is pretty goldilocks rock and roll star. He

has the guts to get into a blues like "Bring It on Home" and the range and musical sense to do something with it.

Additionally, there is the Robert Plant howl. It starts in the airless womb of an electron tube, lodges itself in the main columns of the building, is conducted to bedrock and is now entombed in eternal

torment in the honeycombed interior of the Appalachain range.

[TelecasterShaggy]

I live 30 minutes from Charleston WV, but I was born 18 years after this concert, but as the article said, I can still hear Robert's voice ringing through the Appalachain range.