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Luis Rey...


ZepFanatic

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Hey all, just wondering what the general opinion of Luis Rey is on this board? I have his Zeppelin bootleg books and on the whole find them very informative and helpful, although there are some SUPER irritating things (at least to me) about the reviews and how he writes and sometimes what he thinks.

Just wondering what other people think?

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Oh, yes I have each edition of Luis Rey's book and enjoy them all very much to this day. The first edition can be quite expensive nowadays. I'd always hoped he would publish a fourth edition but it seems the advent of the internet and all of the websites devoted to

audience recordings of Led Zeppelin supplanted these guides as a source of information.

I was seated beside him in the balcony at Shepherds Bush Empire for a JPJ solo gig in

Oct '99. I found him to be very kind and his enthusiasm for Led Zeppelin was evident.

Luis Rey Bibliography

1991 LED ZEPPELIN LIVE An Illustrated Exploration of Underground Tapes

Hot Wacks Press Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada First edition

1994 LED ZEPPELIN LIVE An Illustrated Exploration of Underground Tapes

Hot Wacks Press Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada Updated edition

1997 LED ZEPPELIN LIVE An Illustrated Exploration of Underground Tapes

Hot Wacks Press Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada Final edition

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Cool that he's a nice guy. I also wish sometimes there would be a new version of his book, even though the last one is called the "Final Edition"...it helped me out greatly years back and would still be handy to have, especially with all of the new shows and sources coming out!

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I want it but cant find it new (see it used for $85) , so I had to settle with The Concert File, which is great but does not have opinions.

They are nearly impossible to find...I got mine new in 1997 right when it came out (The Final Edition)...

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I personally really like the Final Edition...it's the most up to date one (obviously)...

Yeah but I need to make a decision, cheapest I can find final edition is like $120, is the Final edition worth 4-10 times as much money as the 2nd edition?

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allright I found a decent deal on the 2nd edition ($40-$80), but the final edition is $400+. Is there enough difference between the 2nd edition and final?

The continuous release of newly discovered audience recordings drove each new edition into print. Essentially, the final edition contains more reviews than all previous editions.

Just out of curiousity I may contact Robert Walker of Hot Wacks Press to inquire if any

possible update of the final edition is being considered. If not, I have another idea.

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I have the first edition of Luis Rey's book. For the bootleg stuff I like to consult both that one and The Concert File. As already noted, they just have different strengths. Both are really useful I find - the latter as a reliable source of factual information, the former in that it has interesting opinions by somebody who knows the material extremely well. Of course they have been superseded to some extent by new releases that still keep surfacing, but they do cover a lot of ground.

And there's always the internet for further information. I definitely prefer books though as a main source. The efforts of the people writing these books are appreciated - it must have been a LOT of work to compile them.

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There is much to agree and disagree with Luis. It's a great book that I read now and again, but the reality also depends on the listener. I find that I disagree with his opinions from time to time on the same recordings that I have. It's useful in many other ways.

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There is much to agree and disagree with Luis. It's a great book that I read now and again, but the reality also depends on the listener. I find that I disagree with his opinions from time to time on the same recordings that I have. It's useful in many other ways.

Agreed, a lot of his opinions I don't agree with, and there are certain ways in his writing style that irritate the hell out of me. Overall, though, it's been very helpful the last dozen years or so!

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There is much to agree and disagree with Luis. It's a great book that I read now and again, but the reality also depends on the listener. I find that I disagree with his opinions from time to time on the same recordings that I have. It's useful in many other ways.

I have his books, used them a lot (didn't know it was fetching 400 bucks! HMM) but like you say I occasionally disagree with his reviews, so I started jotting down my own. Anybody else do this?

I'm finding some interesting comments in my old notebook that I haven't read in awhile. For example, Chicago 1-20-75 :"I don't know what Luis is talking about (something wrong with the crowd) they are in fact warm" Or Copenhagen :'79 "So far shaping up to be a much better show than Luis said", etc..

"Page wants to stay in the background and play rhythm guitar all night" (Dallas 3-4-75)

or: "Bonzo's kick drum sounds like a swat cop trying to kick your door down" (not sure, aud rec)

Let me hear some of yours if ya got 'em

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I have his books, used them a lot (didn't know it was fetching 400 bucks! HMM) but like you say I occasionally disagree with his reviews, so I started jotting down my own. Anybody else do this?

I'm finding some interesting comments in my old notebook that I haven't read in awhile. For example, Chicago 1-20-75 :"I don't know what Luis is talking about (something wrong with the crowd) they are in fact warm" Or Copenhagen :'79 "So far shaping up to be a much better show than Luis said", etc..

"Page wants to stay in the background and play rhythm guitar all night" (Dallas 3-4-75)

or: "Bonzo's kick drum sounds like a swat cop trying to kick your door down" (not sure, aud rec)

Let me hear some of yours if ya got 'em

Yeah I've done this...he fucking HATES most of the post-1973 shows, and his constant digs at American audiences (especially in the 1975 and 1977 tours) is annoying.

He always also seems to find Spanish pieces of music played during Dazed and Confused and No Quarter...I have no doubt Page and Jones may well have thrown snippets of Spanish pieces in, but I have a hard time believing they'd do it for 3-6 DIFFERENT ones the way Luis claims in his book!

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He has his book printed and we don't have ours printed

True...and he knows his stuff inside and out. Overall I really dig the book...I even recently dug it out a few weeks ago..it's great to flip through in the bathroom! (too much info, I know!)

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I've got all three editions of his Zeppelin books and I've found them invaluable.They have been really handy to have regarding the verification of the dates of certain shows and while his opinions are his own,he's entitled to give them.I'd say to anyone that if you do see his books out there,get them.

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I have both Luis Rey's second and Final Edition bootleg guides and found them informative, but far from flawless. The Final Edition is THE one to have. It's twice as thick, has 222 more pages, better photos, and the latest updated reviews of approximately 240-250 recordings. Like other readers, however, I find some of Luis' observations tiresome.

A lot of commentary lacks any authoritative punch and I'll tell you why.

One particularly wearying trait is Rey tries to come across like a musician when he clearly is not one. It looks to me like he repeats things musicians have said to him, or he misquotes them. He makes dozens of technical errors writing things like 'Bonham's bass pedals' or 'bass drum rhythms' betraying his lack of musical credentials (pluralizing pedal and rhythm). Not even a guitar player would talk like that! Since Bonham played a single bass he could only play a single rhythm on a single pedal with one foot.

I have a suspicion there's one thing the author probably never admits to people---even when asked directly. I doubt very much Luis Rey ever personally saw Led Zeppelin live. He has no sense of proportion between how the band sounded in an auditorium as opposed to a piece of tape, despite the quality of the recording on said tape. And not once does he say: "This is a show I was at and the recording doesn't tell the truth about the energy in the room." If he came to Zeppelin late in life, fine, better late than never, but he obscures the size of his role of being in the thick of things. I just don't believe Rey ever attended a Led Zeppelin concert with John Bonham drumming. I have soundboards of three Zeppelin concerts I saw in the seventies and the tapes don't compare; not once does Rey ever make a comparison like that. Had Luis ever seen a live show he couldn't help but to draw that selfsame conclusion and report it. Ask anyone who's ever seen the band and has listened to a bootleg recording.

The one thing a true Zepileptic can count on is Rey is usually right about the quality of the sound source: good, boomy, soundboard, etc. To be fair I don't think you have to have ever seen Zeppelin live or be a musician to write good concert reviews, but if you publish a specialty book like his it certainly would've lent more weight to what he had to say.

I have a brand new copy of Final Edition, I bought two but have only read/consulted one of them. If it's worth $400 to anybody---PM me. The Second Edition is for sale too, also in mint condition.

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^^^100% well said...I agree with you. A lot of his florid language is typical of the times...a lot of fancy verbiage with no meaning behind it (sort of sounds like our current president giving speeches...hmmmm.....)...

He really dislikes post-1973 Zep live which colors all of the reviews...when he does review the good shows from the latter days it's almost as if he's telling us he found a diamond in a turd-pile...

And I agree his lack of being a musician (and especially since I am one, it makes it even more obvious) is on display with some of his terminology ("trashed guitar"? huh?)

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