This month marks the 55th anniversary of one of the all time great Led Zeppelin live performances – the September 29 concert in Osaka.

To mark the anniversary, here’s the Japan 1971 tour log Mike Tremaglio contributed to TBL issue 31 – and later deployed in the Evening With Led Zeppelin book:  

In the last issue of TBL we left off with the band performing the final two shows of their wildly successful month-long U.S. tour in Honolulu, Hawaii on September 16 & 17, 1971. The band wasted little time in getting back on stage; this time the band decided to conquer new territories and were playing to ecstatic Japan audiences in less than a week.

While the U.S. tour had seen the band playing at a consistently high level, on the Japan tour Zeppelin brought it to a whole new level, playing some of the most exceptional and highly regarded shows of their entire career.

After a week of completely winning over Japanese audiences, the band took a well-deserved six week break. Next came a 16-date winter 1971 UK tour which began on November 11 in Newcastle – just three days after the US release of the fourth studio album and a day before it shipped in the UK. For the tour, the band would play many smaller, intimate and unique venues across their homeland.

But for now, it’s time to head back to the world-famous Budokan in Tokyo…

Thursday September 23, 1971 Budokan, Tokyo, Japan
Setlist (from eight different audience source recordings):
Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Out on the Tiles (Intro)/ Black Dog, Dazed and Confused, Stairway to Heaven, Celebration Day, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, That’s the Way, Going to California, What is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, Whole Lotta Love Medley (incl. Boogie Chillun’, Hello Mary Lou, Mess O’ Blues, ?, Tobacco Road, Good Times Bad Times, For What It’s Worth Instrumental, How Many More Times, You Shook Me, Gee, Baby Ain’t I Good to You, Kindhearted Woman Blues), Communication Breakdown

The band performed their first ever gig in Japan and it’s simply incredible. The intensity and ferocity of the performance is not lost on the wildly enthusiastic Tokyo audience.

The new songs from the upcoming fourth album (Black Dog, Stairway to Heaven, and Going to California) aren’t the only surprises for the Budokan audience; they were also treated to the concert debut performance of Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, albeit in a truncated version as the intro to That’s the Way.

But the real unquestioned highlight of the show is a downright historic version of the Whole Lotta Love Medley – tracking in at a longest-ever 36 minutes. The band held absolutely nothing back during the medley with extended versions of Tobacco Road, Good Time Bad Times, How Many More Times, and You Shook Me being the highlights.

Fortunately for fans, the concert had been documented like no other performance in the band’s history – there are eight different audience source recordings of this show available.

Here is a listing of popular bootlegs of this show by audience source:
Source 1 (143 min.): Front Row (Tarantura & Memphis),
The Storm of Fanatics (Mud Dogs),
Live in Japan 1971 (Last Stand Disc),
The Tokyo Tapes (Empress Valley – discs 1 & 2)
Source 2 (128 min.): Tales of Storms (Silver Shadow & Aphrodite Studio)
The Tokyo Tapes (Empress Valley – discs 3 & 4)
Source 3 (149 min.): Reflection from a Dream (TDOLZ)
Source 4 (30 min.): In Concert LP Source (9 CDs) (TDOLZ – disc 9)
Source 5 (152 min.): First Attack of the Rising of the Sun (EVSD – discs 1-3),
Meet the Led Zeppelin (Wendy),
Timeless Rock (Watch Tower)
Source 6 (31 min.): First Attack of the Rising of the Sun (disc 4 only)
Source 7 (150 min.): Led Zeppelin’s Flying Rock Carnival 1971 Complete
Source 8 (126 min.): The Tokyo Tapes (Empress Valley – discs 5 & 6)

Friday September 24, 1971 Budokan, Tokyo, Japan
Setlist (from five different audience source recordings):

Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker (incl. The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)), Since I’ve Been Loving You, Out on the Tiles (Intro)/ Black Dog, Dazed and Confused, Stairway to Heaven, Celebration Day, That’s the Way, Going to California, Tangerine, What is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, Whole Lotta Love Medley (incl. Sing a Simple Song, Just a Little Bit, Boogie Chillun’, Cocaine Blues, Rave On, Your Time is Gonna Come, ?, I’m a Man, The Hunter, Hello Mary Lou, Oh Pretty Woman, How Many More Times), Organ Solo/ Thank You, Communication Breakdown (incl. It’s Your Thing, ?)

While not nearly as acclaimed as their first Tokyo show, the band delivered another outstanding performance on the same level as the previous evening. For this afternoon matinee the band pulled out a few more surprises, including the debut concert performance of Tangerine and a return of Thank You (with Organ solo) to the encore.

Once again, the highlight of the evening is another stellar and unique Whole Lotta Love Medley (this time ‘only’ clocking in at 28 minutes). The band incorporated some rarely played tracks such as Cocaine Blues, Buddy Holly’s ‘Rave On’, and Albert King’s ‘Oh Pretty Woman’ (the one and only time they ever played the track). But the real surprise of the evening was an impromptu, one minute-plus rendition of Your Time is Gonna Come. Plant started singing the song a cappella while the rest of the band started making up an arrangement for it as they went along. The only other time they ever attempted this track was in San Diego during their 1973 tour (a 25 second snippet was played during No Quarter).

While not quite as extensive as the previous evening, there certainly was no shortage of tapers in the audience. There are five separate audience recordings available of this concert.
Here is a listing of popular bootlegs of this show by audience source:
Source 1 (164 min.): Afternoon Daze (Mud Dogs), Pretty Woman (Tarantura)
Source 2 (56 min.): Light & Shade (TDOLZ – disc 1)
Live in Japan 1971 (Last Stand Disc – disc 1)
Hard Rock Night (Wendy – disc 1)
Your Time is Gonna Come (Scorpio – disc 4)
Source 3 (168 min.): Light & Shade (TDOLZ – discs 2 & 3)
Live in Japan 1971 (Last Stand Disc – discs 2 & 3)
Hard Rock Night (Wendy – discs 2 & 3)
Your Time is Gonna Come (Scorpio – discs 1-3)
Balloon Boys’ Rock Carnival in Tokyo (Empress Valley)
Timeless Rock (Watch Tower – bonus disc)
Source 4 (105 min.): Super Stars! LP Source (TDOLZ 9 CD Box – discs 7 & 8)
Source 5 (17 min.): In Concert LP Source (TDOLZ 9 CD Box – disc 9)

Monday September 27, 1971 Prefectural Gymnasium, Hiroshima, Japan
Setlist (from three different audience source recordings):
Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Out on the Tiles (Intro)/ Black Dog, Dazed and Confused, Stairway to Heaven, Celebration Day, That’s the Way, Going to California, Tangerine, What is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, Whole Lotta Love Medley (incl. Sing a Simple Song, Boogie Chillun’, Nine Times Out of Ten, Be-Bop-a-Lula, ?), Communication Breakdown (incl. ?)

The band performed a charity concert benefit for the victims of the atomic bomb. They presented the mayor of Hiroshima with a check for 7,000,000 yen – their earnings from the show – and in return received a peace medal.

Once again, the band were very well received by the appreciative audience and delivered another typically stellar performance. The Whole Lotta Love medley was the shortest of the tour so far (18 minutes), but the band continued to incorporate rarities into the feature. They performed Cliff Richard and The Shadow’s ‘Nine Times Out of Ten’ (the only known performance of this track) and Gene Vincent’s ‘Be-Bop-a-Lula’ (performed only once before – in Helsinki on February 23, 1970).

There are three separate audience recordings of the Hiroshima concert.
Here is a listing of popular bootlegs of this show by audience source:
Source 1 (126 min.): Live in Japan 1971 (LSD) and Peace (Tarantura)
Source 2 (111 min.): Peace of Mind (Mud Dogs)
Source 3 (44 min.): Love & Peace in Hiroshima (Bumble Bee – first 100 copies included two bonus CDRs sourced from the old vinyl LP Led Zeppelin 71-72 by Digger Records)
Other bootleg titles of this show (Live Peace in Hiroshima 1971 (Wendy), Zingi (Tarantura 2000), Message of Love (Lemon Song), and Love & Peace in Hiroshima (Bumble Bee)) are a combination of sources 1 & 2 to complete the show.

Tuesday September 28, 1971, Koseinenkin Kaikan (Festival Hall), Osaka, Japan
Setlist (from 146 & 15 minute audience recordings):

Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Out on the Tiles (Intro)/ Black Dog, Dazed and Confused (incl. Third Stone from the Sun), Stairway to Heaven, Please Please Me, From Me to You, Celebration Day, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, That’s the Way, Going to California, We Shall Overcome, Tangerine, Down by the Riverside, What is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, Whole Lotta Love Medley (incl. Boogie Chillun’, D in Love, Bachelor Boy, Down the Road a Piece, Maybellene, Hello Mary Lou), C’mon Everybody, Hi-Heel Sneakers, Communication Breakdown (incl. Cat’s Squirrel, ?, Watch Your Step)

The next stop on the Japan tour was in Osaka where the band played two of the most historic concerts of their entire career. They continued to pull out all stops, performing many rarities and expanding their rock medleys into new directions.

The Osaka audience didn’t have to wait until the Whole Lotta Love medley to hear the band perform a variety of rock rarities. During Dazed and Confused, Jimmy played some licks from Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Third Stone from the Sun’. Prior to Celebration Day, they performed a 45 second run-through of The Beatles Please Please Me and From Me to You. During the acoustic set they played the traditional songs We Shall Overcome and Down by the Riverside (the only time they had ever performed either of these tracks in concert).

For the fourth concert in Japan, Zeppelin would once again unveil a variety of rock classics in their Whole Lotta Love medley. As they had done the night before, they reached into the Cliff Richard and The Shadows catalogue and pulled out two songs they would play for the first and last time in concert: D in Love and Bachelor Boy. Next, they would channel their inner Chuck Berry and perform Down the Road a Piece and Maybellene (once again, the one and only time these songs were ever played in concert).

The band returned for encores and jammed to complete versions of C’Mon Everybody by Eddie Cochran and Hi-Heel Sneakers by Tommy Tucker (the only other time the later had been performed was at the Yale Bowl on August 15, 1970 as a 30 second snippet during the Whole Lotta Love medley). For the encores, Plant introduced Atlantic record executive Phil Carson on bass and roadie Clive Coulson on vocals.

In his Zeppelin bio, Stairway to Heaven, tour manager Richard Cole shed some light on the encores. According to Cole, “about four minutes into the song, he (Carson) suddenly realized that his bass was the only instrument he was hearing. He quickly looked around – and he was alone on the stage. As a prank, the band had snuck off in the middle of the song, leaving Phil to fend for himself. He made a valiant attempt at a bass solo, but he gave up once it was clear that the guys weren’t going to rescue him. Phil put down his instrument and ran off the stage, too, as the band rollicked in laughter.” Cole mentioned that while it was hilarious, the incident was also troubling because they “allowed a practical joke to take precedence over the music,” which was very out of character for a band who took their music very seriously.

Communication Breakdown was the finally encore and it included Cream’s ‘Cat’s Squirrel’, as well as a two minute version of Bobby Parker’s ‘Watch Your Step’ (the only other time the song had ever been played was a short snippet during the Whole Lotta Love medley at the Inglewood Forum on August 22, 1971). It was Parker’s ‘Watch Your Step’ that had allegedly influenced Jimmy Page’s guitar riff in Moby Dick.

There are two separate audience recordings of this concert:
Source 1 (146 min. – through Whole Lotta Love)
Source 2 (15 min. – encore after Whole Lotta Love)
Most of the bootlegs are a combination of these two sources to complete the show (except Live in Japan 1971 – Last Stand Disc, which is entirely from source 1, thus excluding the encores).
Here are some of the other bootleg titles featuring this concert:
The Bachelor Boys’ First Stand in Osaka (Empress Valley),
Please Please Me (Tarantura & Wendy), Osaka Woman (Cobla CDR), and
Come On Everbody (Mud Dogs)

Wednesday September 29, 1971, Koseinenkin Kaikan (Festival Hall), Osaka, Japan
Setlist (from 175, 178 & 93 minute recordings):
Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker (incl. The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)), Since I’ve Been Loving You, Out on the Tiles (Intro)/ Black Dog, Dazed and Confused (incl. ?, Pennies from Heaven), Stairway to Heaven, Celebration Day, That’s the Way, Going to California, Tangerine, Friends, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, What is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, Whole Lotta Love Medley (incl. ?, Boogie Chillun’, I Gotta Know, Twist and Shout, Fortune Teller, Good Times Bad Times, You Shook Me), Communication Breakdown (incl. Just a Little Bit), Organ Solo, Thank You, Rock and Roll

The fifth and final show of the Japan tour is renowned as being one of the band’s all-time great shows. The performance is incredible, and the band continued to surprise the audience throughout the evening with rarely, if ever, played gems. Fortunately, the concert had been captured for posterity on an excellent sounding, but imbalanced recording. It is often referred to as a soundboard recording due to its outstanding on-stage feel and stereo separation, but that is still being debated. Regardless, it is a recording that is on the top shelf of every Led Zeppelin aficionado’s CD racks, ready for repeated listening pleasure.

There are quite a few surprises during the performance, but one of the key highlights of the evening has to be the one and only known performance of Friends during the acoustic set. After this rarity, Plant sings a few bars of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes; earlier in the show, Page dropped Pennies from Heaven into Dazed and Confused. Both of these tracks were ‘one and only’ performances, adding to the special atmosphere of the evening.

Once again, the Whole Lotta Love medley, tracking in at 31 minutes, was where the band shined and took the opportunity to play some rock ‘n’ roll classics. Elvis Presley’s ‘I Gotta Know’ segued into The Beatles’ ‘Twist and Shout’, followed by a three minute version of Benny Spellman’s ‘Fortune Teller’ (all three tracks were again ‘one and only’ performances, sans a 40 second snippet of Fortune Teller played in Oakland on September 2, 1970 concert). As they had done during the first show in Tokyo, the band also played both Good Times Bad Times and You Shook Me during the medley.
The last song of the three hour show was Rock and Roll, another preview from their upcoming album and the first time they played the track on the Japan tour.

There are three separate recordings of this legendary concert:
Source 1 (175 min. aka soundboard source): Most bootlegs use this recording as the primary source. Some of the more popular titles from source 1 include: The Complete Geisha Tape (Tarantura & Memphis), Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (Mad Dogs), A Cellarful of Noise (Noise Generator), Live in Japan 1971 (Rock Solid & Last Stand Disc), and Live in Osaka (Night Hawk).
Source 2 (178 min. aud. source): 929 (H-Bomb) & 9291971 (Tarantura 2000 –first three discs).
Source 3 (93 min. aud. source): Nine Two Nine (TDOLZ)
Most of the other bootleg titles are multi-sources mixes of the show with the first source usually being the primary source; they include Fatally Wanderer (Wendy), Live in Japan 1971 (Empress Valley), and You Were There in Spirits (Empress Valley). Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (Scorpio) used the third recording as the primary source, but filled gaps with the second source.

It’s widely rumored that Jimmy Page has complete multi-tracks of this show in his archive. Allegedly, there were plans to follow the How The West Was Won set in 2003 with a similar archive release to be titled How The East Was Won.

The best way to describe Led Zeppelin’s first trek to Japan could be a twist on the Latin phrase attributed to Julius Caesar – “Veni, Vidi, Vici” – they came, they saw, they conquered. For many Led Zeppelin fans, the 1971 Japan Tour remains the apex of their entire concert history. The Zeppelin machine was truly firing on all cylinders, and their ability to continually take risks and incorporate new songs into the shows each night – sometimes on the spot – demonstrated a band with complete and total confidence. Mission accomplished!

Mike Tremaglio

First published in TBL issue 31 – 2011