BONHAM- BULLICK LATEST/LZ NEWS/PHYSICAL GRAFFITI IT WAS 47 YEARS AGO – RETRO REVIEWS AND MORE / KEITH RICHARDS TOP 10 RIFFS/DL DIARY BLOG UPDATE
Here’s the latest news from Deborah Bonham and Pete Bullick…
Tour Dates 2022 – UK, France, Belgium, Holland
Sun 27 Feb WORLDWIDE Live Concert Stream
https://powerhauscamden.com/gigs/band-of-friends/
Sat 14 May HOLLAND Hoogeveen Blues Festival Netherlands https://detamboer.nl/programma/blues-festival-2022
https://www.festival-perouges.org/programmation/hard-rock-day/
https://www.thehall-bewdley.org.uk/music-in-the-hall
‘Bonham-Bullick’ Tour Dates 2023
More Dates to be confirmed…
LZ News:
Here’s the latest round up from LZ News:
Led Zeppelin
- Walmart is now selling exclusive vinyl versions of Led Zeppelin albums. The US retailer began selling new editions of Led Zeppelin’s first album, Led Zeppelin’s fourth album, as well as Presence, on February 24. The albums, which are also available in an exclusive bundle with a foil litho print, all include replica backstage passes. The new editions are due to be made available to customers around March 29.
Robert Plant
- Robert Plant was interviewed by Rick Rubin on the Broken Record podcast. You can listen to it here.
- Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have announced another new European tour date. They will perform at Roskilde Festival in Denmark on June 29.
- The music video for “Searching For My Love” by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss premiered earlier today. It’s available to watch online here. If that link doesn’t work, try this one instead.
John Paul Jones
- Mark Lanegan died on February 22 aged 57. John Paul Jones played the Mellotron on the song “Ballad of a Dying Rover” on Lanegan’s final studio album, 2020’s Straight Songs of Sorrow.
Upcoming events:
2022 – “Robert Plant: A Life In Vision,” a photo book edited by Dave Lewis, will be published.
March – Jimmy Page’s two new fine art photo prints will be released.
March 29 – The Walmart-exclusive editions of three Led Zeppelin albums will be released.
April 8 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Bexhill, England.
April 10 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Folkestone, England.
April 11 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in London, England.
April 14 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Hull, England.
April 15 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Scunthorpe, England.
April 16 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in York, England.
April 19 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Bewdley, England.
April 20 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Rhyl, Wales.
April 22 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Liverpool, England.
April 23 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Middlesbrough, England.
April 26 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Halifax, England.
April 27 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Stockport, England.
April 29 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace in Aberystwyth, Wales.
May 1 – Robert Plant will perform with Saving Grace at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in Cheltenham, England.
May 7 – The Black Country Beats exhibition at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery, which is set to include Robert Plant’s career, will open.
June 1 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in Canandaigua, New York.
June 3 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in Saratoga Springs, New York.
June 4 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in Forest Hills, New York.
June 6 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in Clarkston, Michigan.
June 7 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in Chicago, Illinois.
June 9 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in Indianapolis, Indiana.
June 11 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in Columbia, Maryland.
June 12 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
June 14 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in Cary, North Carolina.
June 16 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in Atlanta, Georgia.
June 17 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform at the Bonnaroo music festival in Manchester, Tennessee.
June 26 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform at BST Hyde Park in London, England.
June 29 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform at Roskilde Festival in Roskilde, Denmark.
July 1 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in Hamar, Norway.
July 2 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in Bergen, Norway.
July 5 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in Rättvik, Sweden.
July 8 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform at Cactusfestival in Bruges, Belgium.
July 10 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform at the Royal Park Live festival in Baarn, Netherlands.
July 14 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform at the Lucca Summer Festival in Lucca, Italy.
July 16 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform at JazzOpen Stuttgart 2022 in Stuttgart, Germany.
July 18 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in Sopot, Poland.
July 20 – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will perform in Berlin, Germany.
September 4 – The Black Country Beats exhibition at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery, which is set to include Robert Plant’s career, will close.
October 5 – The French translation of “Led Zeppelin By Led Zeppelin” will be published.
Early 2023 – “A Whole Lotta Music: Life To My Ears,” the memoirs of Tight But Loose editor Dave Lewis, will be published.
2023 – A remastered and expanded 30th anniversary edition of “Coverdale–Page” will be released.
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Led Zeppelin News Website: Check out the Led Zeppelin news website at
Physical Graffiti – It was 47 years ago…
TBL ’75 Snapshot Retro Review 1:
Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, 1975
ROCK’S BIGGEST bruisers, Led Zeppelin, have got another album. In rock chronology this is an Event, since the defending champions of the world’s biggest rock ‘n’ roll draw have released only six albums in the past seven years. In fact, we’ve spent eighteen excruciating months between products, pacifying ourselves with heavy rock’s second prizes – Deep Purple, Blue Oyster Cult, and BTO. And these heavy metal hitmen couldn’t begin to plug up the leaks Led Zep left when they took on an extended, self-imposed exile to some musicians’ netherworld.
Now, just as cold turkey has begun to lose its chill. Zep are back with a package deal: a double album and an American tour. The announcement provoked unchecked carnage in the under-eighteen age group, primarily directed at long black limousines, uniformed adults, and popcorn sellers. Throngs of potential ticket-buyers foamed with anticipation, their palms growing sweaty, their eyes glassy.
Days passed without the appearance of Physical Graffiti. Then the first shipment arrived late one Thursday. The fans descended on Marty’s Records downstairs from CREEM like dragonflies, clustered around the cash register, furtively clutching the album to their heaving bosoms, slobbering and drooling down the shrinkwrap. Worried parents contemplated a vaccine, but once Physical Graffiti touched the turntables the mysterious malady subsided. The stricken nodules were lulled into a state of tympanic euphoria.
Physical Graffiti can stand on its own historically without the support of Zep’s five other million sellers, but inevitably the cuts on this album will be scrutinized with Nancy Drew-like precision in search of a successor to ‘Stairway’ or an equal to ‘Rock and Roll.’ Graffiti is, in fact, a better album than the other five offerings, the band being more confident, more arrogant in fact, and more consistent. The choice of material is varied, giving the audience a chance to see all sides of the band. Equal time is given to the cosmic and the terrestrial, the subtle and the passionate.
The exotic and musky ‘Kashmir’ is intriguing in its otherworldliness. Jimmy Page’s grinding, staccato guitar work sounds like a cosmic travelog to spiritual regeneration, swelling around the lyrics, which are heavily laden with mystical allusions and Hessean imagery. Although ‘Kashmir’ is certainly the best cut on the album, it could be trimmed without losing any of its mesmeric effect, because at some point the incense grows a little murky, and the slow burning guitar degenerates into opulent cliches, causing the instrumental interludes to echo an Exodus soundtrack.
Not all of the cuts are exercises in advanced audial basketweaving, but trace a musical cycle running from Page’s grandiose productions to basic drunken boogie. ‘Trampled Underfoot’ is seemingly effortless funk that is rescued from mediocrity by the elaborate punctuation of Page’s guitar. His fingers traverse the neck of his instrument with a velocity so violent that only a machine could improve upon it. Each batch of notes he pulls from his guitar is uniquely his own, personal as a thumbprint. Just as unique are Plant’s laments and his sexual heaves and sighs that turn the lyrics of a simplistic rocker like ‘Wanton Song’ into an introspective, personal statement. ‘Custard Pie’ and ‘Boogie With Stu’ are macho masterpieces in the tradition of the strutting, swaggering English flash blues formula pioneered on Zeppelin’s early albums. ‘Night Flight’, ‘Sick Again’ and ‘Ten Years Gone’ smack of pop picaresque, much in the manner of Rod Stewart’s ‘Every Picture Tells a Story’ – vignettes and transient insights, slices of a popstar’s life.
Led Zeppelin moves in strange ways. Sure they’re gutsy, ballsy, and flamboyantly aggressive, always spiked with a lot of eroticism, but they’re also cerebral…by way of the glands. They have this unique ability to wind you up and prime you for a full-throttled tilt. You rocked, you rolled, and oh mama those juices flowed – but you also listened to the words.
Surprisingly, in an era where disposable bands and itinerant musicians constantly play a game of musical chairs, Led Zeppelin is a unit – the same four members for the past seven years. Their longevity is due to a kind of magnetism, magic if you will. That rare chemistry was evident even at their first rehearsal, where they fit together like jigsaw pieces, transcending their common R&B backgrounds to achieve a gut-wrenching new synthesis. Lisa Robinson describes it as a case in which “the Beatles battled the Stones in a parking lot and Led Zeppelin won.” Zeppelin make more noise, has more guitar gimmickry, more sexuality, more flash, and generates more violence than any of their competitors, so that they are more than mere musicians, simple superstars. They have become the longest-lasting model for those culturally bankrupt ‘trendies’ to follow. Underage masses walk, talk, dress and dope like Zep. They have become a necessary trapping for the terminally hip, as well as providing the audial backdrop for any social gathering.
A Led Zeppelin album is like a select invitation to a key club of rock ‘n’ roll, where the kohl eyed gypsy Jimmy Page is finally accessible through his smoky guitar solos. Robert Plant preens and moans, lusts and longs for lost memories…and takes you along. Like a sonic vortex, Zeppelin draws you into their private caprice, spiraling, coaxing your willing psyche into a suprasensory haven where you can taste and savor this dream stuff that superstars thrive on. This is not pop music, but a harder stuff, more heady and potent, like a round of whiskeys and coke. Zeppelin are avatars in a cultural vacuum.
© Jaan Uhelszki, 1975
TBL ’75 Snapshot Retro Review 2:
Led Zeppelin: Physical Graffiti
John Tobler, ZigZag magazine March 1975.
NOW I SHOULD make clear in this context that I’m not by nature a fan of this band in the same way that I like Van Morrison or Love. My position is one of deep respect, mind you, and while I was heard to say some harsh things about Beck copyists, etc, when the first album came out, such notions no longer seem to apply. I feel that I would have to perform a masterpiece of justification if I wanted to put L.Z. down, and in all honesty, there’s no fuel for that particular fire.
I suspect that someone somewhere will go into that old thing about making one great album out of two flawed same, as used with the Beatles’ White Album and so on, but again, I can’t subscribe, and this is where the review really starts. There are fifteen tracks on display here, and three of them, accounting for about a third of the playing time, appeal to me so much that were they on one side of the record, I would find it difficult to play anything else until I knew them from every direction. Specifically, these are ‘In My Time Of Dying’, ‘Houses Of The Holy’, and best of all, in a class shared with only a dozen or so tracks in my entire musical existence, ‘In The Light’.
That’s not to write the rest off in a terse few words but for my part, the record would be breaking down fresh barriers if it was all as good. It’s a question of stand-outs, and if you can imagine putting ‘She Loves You’ on the first Beatles album, you’ll see what I mean. Without my three choice cuts, the album would be of very good quality. Perhaps a little routine, but certainly to be among the critics’ choices at the end of the year. With the tracks included, it gets a distinct lift off, and while it’s just as certain to figure similarly in critical and public polls, we’re all getting a bonus for which we should be grateful. I would say with certainty that prolonged playing will produce several more tracks which will become highly pleasing, but it all comes down to what makes the biggest initial impact. And that’s not to say that the three I’ve mentioned have a singalong chorus.
Beyond saying “Get it if you’re even vaguely into this type of confection,” there’s not much to add. Jimmy Page as producer has to be one of the most tasteful people there is, and he continually rejects the temptation to fall into Black Sabbath traps, He also plays the guitar with consummate brilliance, and perhaps that’s part of the key to Led Zeppelin. They are all musicians of the highest calibre, and the length of time taken to produce this package is a testimony to the fact that second best for them is as bad as nowhere. One for your lists.
© John Tobler via rocksbackpages.com
Facts Behind The Tracks:
To aide your listening enjoyment – as taken from the Led Zeppelin From A Whisper To A Scream book…
Custard Pie Page, Plant
As well as tapping the Bukka White songbook for the ‘shake ‘em on down’ refrain, other sources of inspiration can be traced to Sonny Boy Fuller’s ‘Custard Pie Blues’, Blind Boy Fuller’s ‘I Want Some Of Your Custard Pie’ and Big Joe Williams’ version of the song, ‘Drop Down Mama’. This was the song’s working title.
Jimmy Page’s guitar solo is filtered through a then recently acquired ARP guitar synthesizer.
The Rover Page, Plant
This dates back to 1970, when it ’ was rehearsed as an acoustic blues piece before being recorded at Stargroves with Eddie Kramer for the fifth album. When it didn’t make the final ‘Houses Of The Holy’ selection, Page returned to it in 1974, overdubbing and re-mixing the basic track with Keith Harwood.
The curious “Guitar lost courtesy Nevison… Salvaged by the grace of Harwood” sleeve credit would appear to be a reference to certain mixing difficulties they may have had here – Nevison being engineer Ron Nevison.
In My Time of Dying Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant
This was a traditional song totally reworked. A version can be found on Bob Dylan’s first album,. The lyrics include reference to Blind Willie Johnson’s Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed.
A stunning live delivery of this track drawn from their May 1975 Earl’s Court shows can be seen on the 2003 Led Zeppelin DVD
One the Companion Disc there is a spacey initial rough mix of In My Time Of Dying.
Houses of The Holy Page, Plant
Left off the album of the same name but recalled for the double set. It retired no further re-mixing, having been tied up by Eddie Kramer as far back as the Electric Lady sessions in June 1972. In order to create the layered guitar intro and fade, Jimmy used a Delta T digital delay unit.
The Companion Audio Disc presents the Houses Of The Holy Rough Mix With Overdubs version.
Trampled Underfoot Jones, Page, Plant
This has a lyrical theme that highlight the workings of motor car and its relation with the sexual act, a theme explored by Robert Johnson in his 1936 recording ‘Terraplane Blues’. The working title for Trampled Under Foot was Brandy And Coke .
John Paul Jones’ clavinet contribution was inspired by the use of the instrument on Stevie Wonder’s Superstitious and Billy Preston’s ‘Outta Space’.
A special limited edition single coupling Trampled Underfoot with Black Country Woman was issued as a promotional tool in the UK at the time of their five Earls Court shows in May 1975.
In the US, Trampled Underfoot was released as a single reaching number 38 on the Billboard chart.
An initial rough mix of Trampled Underfoot under the working title of Brandy & Coke can be heard on the Companion Disc.
Kashmir Bonham, Page, Plant
This was initially demoed in instrumentals form with John Bonham in late in 1973.
Robert Plant wrote the lyrics on the road to Tan Tan while holidaying in South Morocco immediately after the 1973 US tour, it was initially titled ‘Driving To Kashmir’
It enjoyed further success in 1998 when Page utilized the basic riff of ‘Kashmir’ for collaboration with rapper Puff Daddy. This new version used on the Godzilla soundtrack reached number 2 in the UK singles chart.
This arrangement has been much deployed as TV and radio background link music notably on the UK X Factor TV show.
Kashmir was the grand finale at the Led Zeppelin reunion staged in tribute to the late Ahmet Ertegun on December 10th, 2007.
Jimmy Page can be seen performing and explaining how the song came together in 2008 on a soundstage in front of Jack White and The Edge for the It Might Get Loud documentary film.
A rough orchestra mix under the working title of Driving Through Kashmir can be hard on the Companion Audio Disc.
In The Light Jones, Page, Plant
Another creation that was honed down from various ideas. Rehearsal versions offer alternate lyrics such as ‘ In The morning’ while another rehearsal take leads with the refrain ‘Take Me Home.’ A work in progress version titled Everybody Makes It Through (In The Light Early Version/In Transit) can be heard on the Companion Audio Disc.
Bron Y Aur Page
A short winsome acoustic solo, was written by Jimmy Page at the cottage in South Snowdonia in 1970 during the preparation for Led Zeppelin III’ It was recorded at Island Stusios. This was used as a background soundtrack in the sequence in The Song Remains The Same movie in a sequence as they traveled in limos to the Madison Square Garden.
It was briefly part of their acoustic set on the sixth American tour in August/September 1970.
Down By The Seaside Page, Plant
Another song written at Bron-Y-Aur in the Spring of 1970. Originally conceived as a Neil Young-influenced acoustic strum – this electric arrangement was recorded at the time of the fourth album sessions.
Robert Plant’s lasting affinity for the song led him to record a new version in 1994 with Tori Amos for inclusion on the official Led Zeppelin tribute album Encomium.
Ten Years Gone Page, Plant
Jimmy page had initially honed the guitar orchestration at his Plumpton home studio ready to record. Robert Plant added the moving narrative about an age old love affair..
It was performed live on stage on their 1977 US tour and at Knebworth in 1979 – the arrangement featured John Paul Jones on a three necked guitar designed by guitar maker Andy Manson.
Night Flight Jones, Page, Plant
This was recorded during sessions at Headley Grange for the fourth album. Lyrically it reflected Plant’s thoughts on the threat of nuclear war.
Never played live during the Zep era, some 23 years after its release Jimmy Page & Robert Plant finally performed it live at their ULU London show on October 30th, 1998 and a few other shows on their European tour of that time.
A version by the late Jeff Buckley can be heard on the expanded edition of his Live At Sin-e album.
The Wanton Song Page, Plant
Original tape boxes have this track listed as being titled Desiree – possibly a namecheck for Desiree Serino, the future spouse of fellow Swan Song act Bad Company drummer Simon Kirke.
Page’s guitar effects include the use of backwards echo during the solo and refrain, and also playing through a Leslie speaker to create the organ effect.
Boogie With Stu Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant, Stewart, Mrs Valens
A loose jam recorded at the same sessions which produced ‘Rock And Roll’ for the fourth album. The Stu was Ian Stewart, the Rolling Stones’ tour manager and resident boogie-woogie keyboard player, playing barrel-house piano. Heavily based on Richie Valens’ Fifties hit ‘Ooh My Head’ (check out the La Bamba movie), hence the credit to his widow. The slapping guitar came from an overdub session with the ARP guitar synth. Robert came up with the working title ‘Sloppy Drunk’. The song was credited to all the band plus Mrs. Valens and Ian Stewart. Allegedly, the credit to Valen’s mother Connie Valenzuela was due to the fact they had heard she had never received a royalty for her son’s hits.
An alternate mix of Boogie With Stu from the Led Zeppelin IV Sunset Sound Studios Mixing sessions can be heard on the Companion Audio Disc.
Black Country Woman Page, Plant
Ever on the look-out for off-the-wall recording locations they took to the garden at Stargroves for this session in the spring of 1972. The resulting take was nearly shelved when a plane cruised overhead, but as the opening dialogue reveals, it was all captured for posterity.
Prior to release ‘Black Country Woman’ was sub-titled ‘Never Ending Doubting Woman Blues’. This was a reference to a final spoken tag left off the finished version which had Robert proclaiming, “What’s the matter with you mama, never-ending, nagging, doubting woman blues.”
Sick Again Page, Plant
A mid tempo-rocker based on Plant’s lyrical observations of the 1973 US tour and the ladies that surrounded them. It’s powered by a series of Page runs and some ferocious Bonham percussion. The live performance of this track , drawn from their Knebworth 1979 shows is stand out moment of the 2003 DVD release.
A short instrumental run through of Sick Again (Early Version) can be heard on the new Companion Audio Disc.
Written and compiled by Dave Lewis
The 10 best riffs from the legendary Human Riff himself, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards…
DL Diary Blog Update:
Friday February 24:
You can never read enough about Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti…
Friday February 24:
The new issue of Classic Rock is in the house featuring Dave Ling’s superb seven page Meat Loaf tribute – Dave has more than done justice to the late great man…
Saturday February 25:
Saturday is platterday…on the player some early morning Eric…the very fine 461 Ocean Boulevard album…
Wednesday March 2:
Box set of the week:
I’ve been searching out some box sets to play amongst the DL collection and on the occasion of Rory Gallagher’s Birthday loading up the excellent 4 CD 2015 box set Taste I’ll Remember – an Oxfam charity shop purchase for a bargain £19.99 a couple of years back…
This one will be a continual inspiration on the player this week…
Update here…
Like us all, I’ve have been deeply saddened and appalled by the Russian invasion of Ukraine – our prayers and thoughts go out to everyone affected by this terrible situation…
Thanks for listening – stay safe and well you very lovely people…
Dave Lewis – March 2, 2022
Until next time, stay safe and stay well…
Website updates written and compiled by Dave Lewis
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