Zeppelin Soars to New Heights

[Cat]

Zeppelin Soars to New Heights

Oakland Tribune Oakland, CA July 25, 1977

By GEORGE ESTRADA

"It feels great to be back." A self-assured Robert Plant addressed the Saturday Day on the Green sellout crowd at the Oakland Coliseum. "I must personally apologize for the two-year delay."

The lead singer and resident sex symbol of Led Zeppelin was alluding to a 1975 automobile accident he suffered which prevented the British hard rock combo from fulfilling extensive tour obligations

that year.

Their long absence from the Bay Area prompted a sellout within five hours after tickets went on sale earlier this month-a feat not uncommon to any affair involving Led Zeppelin. The four man congregation, which many critics fancy as the embodiment of heavy metal rock, had just finished

bludgeoning the packed house of 54,000 with the thunderous power-chording of "Sick Again," a relatively subdued piece from the 1975 double album "Physical Graffiti." Plant looked anything but

sick again. Strutting cockily onstage, resplendent in skintight, baby-blue satin pants, his coiffured mane flying wildly about in flowing blond curls, Plant was the vision of supremely detached punk arrogance. A rock legend come to life. The crowd ate it up. Plant's voice, a source of irritation to music purists because of its semicontrolled meanderings in the upper registers, is a Zeppelin strongbold— the group's signature, as it were, and an instrument by which Zeppelin elevates its

brand of brain-damage sludge into the realm of high drama.

One could almost perceive Jimmy Page's guitar work as secondary to Plant's vocal pyrotechnics, if one didn't know better. Page, 32, is the musical soul of Led Zeppelin, as well as its founding member and the epicenter of the group's attack. A survivor of the '60s British rock explosion, Page was a journeyman session guitarist playing for acts such as Donovan, Lord Sutch, Joe Cocker and Jackie DeShannon before joining the pioneering Yardbirds. When that group disbanded in 1968, Page founded The New Yardbirds, which later emerged as Led Zeppelin. The group recorded its first

album in only 30 hours. It went gold. Ten years and eight albums later, the group continues to draw unprecedented attendance figures. Such is the stuff of rock dreams.

And those in attendance at the Bill Graham-promoted Days on the Green last weekend were treated to vintage Led Zeppelin. Providing a musical counterpoint to Plant's shrieking and teasingly androgynous posturing, Page's sledge hammer guitar style led Zeppelin through many of their classics, including "Nobody's Fault But Mine." "Since I've Been Loving You." "Ten Years Gone."

"Battle of Evermore" and "Trampled Under Foot." But the musical highlight for many of the sun-drenched crowd that paid $11.50 per came during the extended jams. All the Zeppelin touches

were there—Page coaxing eerie sounds out of his ax using an array of electronic distortion devices, and at one point, using a violin bow on his strings; John Bonham rifling popgun drum rolls; bassist

John Paul Jones looking unperturbed and confident behind the overt sexuality of Plant's pelvic thrusts. The crowd ate it up.

Page's guitar work, seeming at times redundant and mindless, is in fact, unique in rock and roll. Though highly riffbased, Page's experiments with distortion gadgetry and exotic musical scales are not common to the world of pure boogie. Incorporating esoterica such as East Indian raga. blues and

English folk music into the Zeppelin approach, Page threatens virtuosity despite his dubbing as the master of the mondo distorto fuzz attack. A marriage of these eclectic influences creates the Led

Zeppelin wall of sound. Unlike Ted Nugent and other rock entrepreneurs of the same ilk, Page uses these devices as means of coloration—subtle hints of his keen sense of melody and testaments to his refined sense of theater. "Black Dog" and "Kashmir" were supreme examples of this when performed Saturday— Page's insistent nffing on an unorthodox musical theme serving as backdrop for Plant's soaring vocals. Page picked up his doubleneck Gibson for the final song of the three-hour-plus set. The introduction to "Stairway to Heaven" cued the tumultuous roar of recognition from the

crowd. The 1972 hit is geared for audience response, building in tempo gradually and leading fans into a wild segue in which Page cuts loose one of the best known guitar breaks in rock history. Page, elegantly decked out in his gold and black velvet dragon suit, seemed a little off in that lead break, missing several important notes. Plant also missed his cue to come in with the vocal after the break,

subtracting somewhat from That didn't discourage the crowd from urging Zeppelin back for two encores in which the group performed abbreviated versions of "Whole Lotta Love" and "Rock and Roll".

Led Zeppelin had more to live up to besides the legend. Preceding Zeppelin, secondbilled band Derringer excited the crowd with its brew of lively, uncomplicated up-tempo pop-rock numbers.

Rick Derringer, another veteran of the rock and roll wars, led his group with gutsy singing and tough guitar bursts on Derringer standbys like "Let Me In" and "Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo."

But on the jam, "Children of the Universe" the Derringer band displayed why they are such a crowd pleaser. The diminutive Derringer, looking for all the world like a combination of Steve Marriott and

Kiki Dee, dazzled the crowd with acrobatics and meticulous choreography with fellow band members Danny Johnson (guitar), Ken Aaronson (bass), and Vinnie Appice (drums) to create several moments of genuine rock frenzy. Judas Priest, an English, band, opened the day's festivities with a solid 30 minute six- song set that foreshadowed the hard rock that was to come. The Coliseum crowd, some

of which camped in line for three days in anticipation of The Event, was not disappointed. The sound system was excellent, the transitions were professionally handled, the talent was high—all told, an ex-

ample of the logistical genius of the Graham organization. For the fanatical Led Zeppelin fans of the Bay Area, it appears the song remains the same.

[bolowyn]

Zeppelin Soars to New Heights

Oakland Tribune Oakland, CA July 25, 1977

By GEORGE ESTRADA

"It feels great to be back." A self-assured Robert Plant addressed the Saturday Day on the Green sellout crowd at the Oakland Coliseum. "I must personally apologize for the two-year delay."

The lead singer and resident sex symbol of Led Zeppelin was alluding to a 1975 automobile accident he suffered which prevented the British hard rock combo from fulfilling extensive tour obligations

that year.

Their long absence from the Bay Area prompted a sellout within five hours after tickets went on sale earlier this month-a feat not uncommon to any affair involving Led Zeppelin. The four man congregation, which many critics fancy as the embodiment of heavy metal rock, had just finished

bludgeoning the packed house of 54,000 with the thunderous power-chording of "Sick Again," a relatively subdued piece from the 1975 double album "Physical Graffiti." Plant looked anything but

sick again. Strutting cockily onstage, resplendent in skintight, baby-blue satin pants, his coiffured mane flying wildly about in flowing blond curls, Plant was the vision of supremely detached punk arrogance. A rock legend come to life. The crowd ate it up. Plant's voice, a source of irritation to music purists because of its semicontrolled meanderings in the upper registers, is a Zeppelin strongbold— the group's signature, as it were, and an instrument by which Zeppelin elevates its

brand of brain-damage sludge into the realm of high drama.

One could almost perceive Jimmy Page's guitar work as secondary to Plant's vocal pyrotechnics, if one didn't know better. Page, 32, is the musical soul of Led Zeppelin, as well as its founding member and the epicenter of the group's attack. A survivor of the '60s British rock explosion, Page was a journeyman session guitarist playing for acts such as Donovan, Lord Sutch, Joe Cocker and Jackie DeShannon before joining the pioneering Yardbirds. When that group disbanded in 1968, Page founded The New Yardbirds, which later emerged as Led Zeppelin. The group recorded its first

album in only 30 hours. It went gold. Ten years and eight albums later, the group continues to draw unprecedented attendance figures. Such is the stuff of rock dreams.

And those in attendance at the Bill Graham-promoted Days on the Green last weekend were treated to vintage Led Zeppelin. Providing a musical counterpoint to Plant's shrieking and teasingly androgynous posturing, Page's sledge hammer guitar style led Zeppelin through many of their classics, including "Nobody's Fault But Mine." "Since I've Been Loving You." "Ten Years Gone."

"Battle of Evermore" and "Trampled Under Foot." But the musical highlight for many of the sun-drenched crowd that paid $11.50 per came during the extended jams. All the Zeppelin touches

were there—Page coaxing eerie sounds out of his ax using an array of electronic distortion devices, and at one point, using a violin bow on his strings; John Bonham rifling popgun drum rolls; bassist

John Paul Jones looking unperturbed and confident behind the overt sexuality of Plant's pelvic thrusts. The crowd ate it up.

Page's guitar work, seeming at times redundant and mindless, is in fact, unique in rock and roll. Though highly riffbased, Page's experiments with distortion gadgetry and exotic musical scales are not common to the world of pure boogie. Incorporating esoterica such as East Indian raga. blues and

English folk music into the Zeppelin approach, Page threatens virtuosity despite his dubbing as the master of the mondo distorto fuzz attack. A marriage of these eclectic influences creates the Led

Zeppelin wall of sound. Unlike Ted Nugent and other rock entrepreneurs of the same ilk, Page uses these devices as means of coloration—subtle hints of his keen sense of melody and testaments to his refined sense of theater. "Black Dog" and "Kashmir" were supreme examples of this when performed Saturday— Page's insistent nffing on an unorthodox musical theme serving as backdrop for Plant's soaring vocals. Page picked up his doubleneck Gibson for the final song of the three-hour-plus set. The introduction to "Stairway to Heaven" cued the tumultuous roar of recognition from the

crowd. The 1972 hit is geared for audience response, building in tempo gradually and leading fans into a wild segue in which Page cuts loose one of the best known guitar breaks in rock history. Page, elegantly decked out in his gold and black velvet dragon suit, seemed a little off in that lead break, missing several important notes. Plant also missed his cue to come in with the vocal after the break,

subtracting somewhat from That didn't discourage the crowd from urging Zeppelin back for two encores in which the group performed abbreviated versions of "Whole Lotta Love" and "Rock and Roll".

Led Zeppelin had more to live up to besides the legend. Preceding Zeppelin, secondbilled band Derringer excited the crowd with its brew of lively, uncomplicated up-tempo pop-rock numbers.

Rick Derringer, another veteran of the rock and roll wars, led his group with gutsy singing and tough guitar bursts on Derringer standbys like "Let Me In" and "Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo."

But on the jam, "Children of the Universe" the Derringer band displayed why they are such a crowd pleaser. The diminutive Derringer, looking for all the world like a combination of Steve Marriott and

Kiki Dee, dazzled the crowd with acrobatics and meticulous choreography with fellow band members Danny Johnson (guitar), Ken Aaronson (bass), and Vinnie Appice (drums) to create several moments of genuine rock frenzy. Judas Priest, an English, band, opened the day's festivities with a solid 30 minute six- song set that foreshadowed the hard rock that was to come. The Coliseum crowd, some

of which camped in line for three days in anticipation of The Event, was not disappointed. The sound system was excellent, the transitions were professionally handled, the talent was high—all told, an ex-

ample of the logistical genius of the Graham organization. For the fanatical Led Zeppelin fans of the Bay Area, it appears the song remains the same.

A propos Page missing a few notes... A FEW? He pretty much missed a lot of them. Hello!! I have this bootleg and it ain't pretty. Lends credance to the allegations that Page never layed the studio version of STH in the first place and spent his career trying to.

[SteveAJones]

A propos Page missing a few notes... A FEW? He pretty much missed a lot of them. Hello!! I have this bootleg and it ain't pretty. Lends credance to the allegations that Page never layed the studio version of STH in the first place and spent his career trying to.

...that $25,000 in cash paid to a dealer on Friday evening may account for it...

[chef free]

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Niner!!! Who says that Page did not play the Stairway riff?!? And if not then who? Clapton?!? Beck?!? Ted Nugent? The ghost of Jimi? Maybe someone else did the whole song (and put all that satanic backmasking in there!)?

[Steve Z(oso)]

Thanks for that, boy does that bring back some great memories of that show! I'm sure I had read that review back in the day, it seemed very familiar. Sure, definitely not Jimmy's best live gig by a long shot, but man, was it exciting to be there! Roasting in the sun all day, waiting for them to take the stage, those first notes of 'Song Remains the Same' were fantastic!

As for Stairway, no, he never tried to play the studio solo live, he purposefully improvised it differently every show.

[SteveAJones]

Thanks for that, boy does that bring back some great memories of that show! I'm sure I had read that review back in the day, it seemed very familiar. Sure, definitely not Jimmy's best live gig by a long shot, but man, was it exciting to be there! Roasting in the sun all day, waiting for them to take the stage, those first notes of 'Song Remains the Same' were fantastic!

Hi Steve,

Do you recall when the "space age" Zeppelin was catapulted over the Stonehenge stage? I believe it was as they came on but it could have been later. I've always wondered.