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It’s been too long since I pimped Led Zeppelin. You might have heard most of these, but I imagine there are one or two that are new to you. Personally, I am not enthralled until it gets to the Presence and In Through The Out Door era. I have heard the Zep IV stuff for 25 years.  My favorite on this video is the very last song. It’s a Bonzo drum track from 1978, that isn’t found on either In Through The Out Door or Coda. I would like to hear what Bonzo was playing to, in his headphones. On CD recording, you can hear some keyboards bleed through, in the quiet spaces. In any case, even if a good 1/3 of the 20 songs are just either demos, or (worse) alt mixes, music from Led Zeppelin is always the Coolest Thing Ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqH75f6JyzI

Thirty one years, Youdopia. On August 11, 1979 Led Zeppelin played their last concert in England. Well, they reunited with Jason Bonham in 2007, but you know what I mean. This show, which is available in its entirety below, is the second Knebworth gig. The first was one week earlier on 8/4/79.  The first night was much better. Jimmy Page is in rough shape tonight. I don’t believe anything from this show was used in the official Led Zeppelin DVD. I think everything came from the first gig.

That said, there are precious few complete Led Zeppelin concerts you can watch in their entirety (this show is from a Russian tube site) so beggars can’t be choosers. There are some good things in this show, such as a very cool version of No Quarter. We also get to see Jimmy play a Gibson Explorer after he breaks a string on Over the Hills And Far Away (that’s what happens. You’ll know it when you hear it).

200,000 people watched this show, and 200,000 watched the one on 8/4. It was supposed to be Led Zep’s triumphant return, after taking two years off for the death of Robert Plant’s son. Unfortunately, it was their Swan Song (I know).

If you want to hear a killer show from just a couple weeks before this one, download the Copenhagen show I posted last week. If you want to see this show, but in awesome quality, with a much tighter Jimmy Page, watch the second half of Disc 2 of the Zep DVD.

Led Zeppelin – Knebworth Festival Stevenage,1979(1)
This is the second half of the concert.

Led Zeppelin – Knebworth Festival Stevenage,1979(2)

Lip Syncing But Still Cool

Early Zeppelin

Guess what I woke up to, Youdopia? A brand new Led Zeppelin video. It’s not new, really, it’s newly discovered. In 1969 Led Zeppelin lip synced Babe I’m Gonna Leave You, and You Shook Me for the German tv show, The Beat Club.  Babe was discovered a year or so ago. You Shook Me seems to be a digital broadcast from Music Air Network (Japan). The quality is amazing. You probably won’t want to watch all six and a half minutes of it, since it’s just a pantomimed performance, but the discovery was posted on LedZeppelin.com by BillyMacQ, and is quickly making the rounds. Thanks, Billy. Great music is always welcome, and I think it’s the Coolest Shit Ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VAjvGhpZGY

I Love The Acoustic Set

Trouble… Trouble’s On My Mind

I Just Can’t Keep From Cryin’

It’s been awhile since I’ve done an obscure Led Zeppelin number. This one is a beaut. It’s from the final night of the legendary run at the LA Forum in 1977. I do not like the ’77 tour, but I like the acoustic set from this tour, and I love this little blues ditty they run through, before starting Black Country Woman.

Youdopia, I always try to give you something interesting, and I hope you like this. Coolest Shit Ever? Yes, I think so.  This show was taped by Mike “The Mic” Millard, a taper who would go to shows in a tricked out wheelchair (handicapped peeps got rolled up to the front row) with nakamichi under the seat and fantastic mics.  His recordings are among the best audience recordings ever.

Another reason why I love this song, is that Jimmy Page plays it in the new movie It Might Get Loud, which is the documentary he made with Jack White, and the Edge. He doesn’t perform the song, but this song is among the songs he plays in his home, to demonstrate the songs that influence him. Cool beans, that movie, but a topic for another day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26F3igFnbTE

My friends, I give you another Led Zeppelin live nugget, from Osaka 10/2/72. The boys perform the Ben E King classic, Stand By Me. They pull it off pretty well, making it the Coolest Shit Ever. Enjoy the music.

This is just up here, Youdopia, because it’s newly found/released/unhoarded so it’s actually of value to the Led Zeppelin fanboys. It’s a straight up lip sync of the studio track, so feel no obligation to watch unless it makes you go boing.  Jimmy Page is still in the leather jacket Yardbirds telecaster days. The Les Paul appears later in the year.

Led Zeppelin 1969 Beat Club

This is a post from the old blog. I liked it and I moved it to its new home.

Led Zeppelin. They’re back… and they’re a real band. I’m listening to the reunion show, w/ headphones, and… I just got lost in the groove… like w/ Zep. Jason Bonham is doing a remarkable job of honoring his dad, not being a mere mimic, and jamming with the boys. There is no grading on the curve. The band I’m listening to is not in their 60′s. Nor are they merely performing. They’re grooving. That indefinable synergy is there. Holy shit. They’re not free form jamming like the old days, but… the little fills, responses… the telepathy is there. And the tone! Jimmy’s tone is rich. I don’t mean digital preset rich, I mean like think and heavy and pregnant with meaning… like Hendrix, or … Jimmy Page. They’re playing a whole step lower, to accommodate a 60 year old Robert Plant. But.. even then, they had guitars made, reworked, customized to play lower while still maintaining that tone. Holy shit. The tightness and effortlessness of this music is insane. They’ve been rehearsing since June, and… it shows. I’m listening to In My Time Of Dying… a song that needs that tightness, that dynamism.. or else it’s just Aerosmith. It’s scary how good it is. It’s like driving with the top down at 120 mph, with a drink in your hand, and a smirk of complete relaxation.
This…

This…
is the that vitality that is missing in today’s culture. It’s alive… you know what I mean, you hear it in your music. Jason Bonham is in on it. He grew up like me, listening to every bootleg and absorbing it like a native language. It’s in his blood. Rudolf Steiner would understand.
I can’t believe this is only two days old. It’s so… amazingly proper. It is 100% current, and modern. This is definitely 2007, but it is also 100% Led Zeppelin. It’s like a parallel world opened up and we get a glimpse of the Zeppelin that would have kept going hadBonzo not died.
It’s insanely good.
Jimmy is so good. Better than… anytime since like 1973. He’s as flawless as Dave Gilmour, but he’s Jimmy Page. Wow. He’s 63. He broke his hand two weeks ago. It’s criminal that he hasn’t toured in seven years, or released new music in nine. Damn him This is incredible. I had to live through the Firm.
You know how Dave Gilmour is old now, but he’s still vital and relevant and fresh? He still sounds and plays great? That’s what I’m hearing now. It’s insane. They’re a band again. For real. Jonesy is insanely good. He’s 62 and he’s playing Good Times Bad Times. Think about that. Opening number. Ballsy. Successful.
Now they’re playing For Your Life. From Presence. Never Done Live before. ever. Wow.
Led Zeppelin in the present tense. It’s like the return of Christ. You always kind of hoped, but… wow it’s real. Yes, I know I compared the Second Coming to the Zep reunion. You think I’m the only one? I’m not even the first. Buckle Up.

“he Times of London commented, “With a synergy like this going on, it would be an act of cosmic perversity to stop now.” Yup.
(PS- No Quarter kicked ass.)