This week of 42 years ago saw Led Zeppelin on a real high – and thankfully these performances in Seattle and Vancouver have been captured on tape across countless bootlegs…

These are amongst my favourite Zep performances and listening to them this week has been an absolute joy. This was the prelude to Earls Court and they were just on firing on all cylinders……

Just to backtrack to a memorable snapshot from the Long Beach gig:

Date: MARCH 12 1975

Venue: CIVIC ARENA LONG BEACH CALIFORNIA

Performance: THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME (false start)/THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME

Bootleg Reference: TRAMPLED UNDER JIMMY’S FOOT (SILVER RARITIES)

Just to illustrate that not all went according to plan every night…. on this cooking performance in Long Beach their sheer enthusiasm got the better of them as they opened The Song Remains The Same….. only to bring it to a close some one minute in.

”Just a minute that’s it ….see you again Long Beach! Yes it happened for the first time in six and a half years…does anybody remember laugher?…. the first time we came here ..er we never seem to  get

things together in Los Angeles.

Ok as I was saying. Nevertheless The Song Remains …..nevertheless, ad infinitum to the power of three re occuring..The Same!’’

They did not get it wrong a second time.

What happened next was simply the business. A speed ride through the opening track of Houses and  as Plant might put it a reoccurring anthem. It sounded great here ,it sounded great in Earls Court and it still sounded great 20 years later when Page and Plant deployed it so effectively on their 95/96 world tour. This is a Zeppelin anthem that gets less acclaim than the Whole Lotta Love, Stairway and Kashmir -but on stage it always burnt and smouldered its way into the set. Pull it out and try it for yourselves on any night…the effect as those Houses ads read is still shattering.

MONDAY MARCH 17 1975

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

SEATTLE CENTER COLISEUM

Set: Rock And Roll/Sick Again/Over The Hills And Far Away/In My Time Of Dying/The Song Remains The Same/The Rain Song/Kashmir/No Quarter/Trampled Underfoot/Moby Dick/Dazed And Confused (inc. Woodstock)/Stairway To Heaven/Whole Lotta Love – The Crunge – Black Dog.

Background details: A  superb performance with the band totally on top of their game.

Hugh Jones, editor of Proximity, recalls: “The start of the show was extremely aggressive, and it was evident almost immediately that they were ‘on’. Nothing sluggish about this performance. Robert’s voice sounded surprisingly low, but he was singing well, and the whole band sounded very tight’’.

Snapshot Listen: How it sounded today.

Another prime 1975 performance – playful, inspiring and unpredictable. No Quarter with John Bonham pushing Jimmy to the limit, riffs of Fleetwood Mac’s Green Manalishi in a marathion Dazed And Confused (38 minutes and counting!) – Robert zipping in James Brown’s Lickin Stick during Whole Lotta Love.

WEDNESDAY MARCH 19 1975

VANCOUVER, CANADA

PACIFIC COLISEUM

Set: Rock And Roll/Sick Again/Over The Hills And Far Away/In My Time Of Dying/The Song Remains The Same/The Rain Song/Kashmir/No Quarter/Trampled Underfoot/Moby Dick/Dazed And Confused (inc. Woodstock)/Stairway To Heaven/Whole Lotta Love – The Crunge – Black Dog.

Background details; “Ladies and gentlemen… the Canadian return of Led Zeppelin” booms from the speakers as the band take to the stage, firing on all cylinders. “And how is Vancouver. Is it full of beans?” asks Plant. ‘In My Time Of Dying’ is excellent tonight and Plant extends the ending with vocal gymnastics.  ‘Kashmir’ is dedicated to… “Richard Cole, our tour manager – a good upright British citizen! This a song from Physical Vancouver – the new LP.   An extended ‘No Quarter’ is once again one of the highlights. Bonham tonight is introduced as “the king of jazz – one of the finest percussionists in Led Zeppelin today.”

Snapshot Listen: How it sounded today: I remember Robert being quoted as saying ”By the end of the tour I felt I could sing anything”.

Listening to this utterly sensational performance of Dazed And Confused there is ample proof of that statement.

The San Francisco excerpt had long been a feature of the early part of the piece, but on this tour they began experimenting even further. Plant introducing another hippie anthem to proceedings -the Joni Mitchell pean to Max Yasgur’s farm and a hit for Crosby Stills, Nash & Young. The Zep arrangement was still built loosely on the melody employed for San Francisco-Plant bending the words to fit the structure. Against Page’s eerie minor chord strumming it became one of the most atmospheric parts of their performance. Plant’s repeated ”Back to the garden” refrain merging into the violin bow episode amongst the dry ice. The Vancouver performance was a blueprint for the equally dramatic versions performed at Earls Court run. During this part of the tour Plant also took to singing The Eagles Take It Easy and during the final LA stint he crooned a 50’s like To Be Loving  before moving into Bob Marley’s I Shot The Sheriff. As he put it -he could sing anything…

THURSDAY MARCH 20 1975

VANCOUVER,CANADA

PACIFIC COLISEUM

Set: Rock And Roll/Sick Again/Over The Hills And Far Away/In My Time Of Dying/The Song Remains The Same/The Rain Song/Kashmir/No Quarter/Trampled Underfoot/Moby Dick/Dazed And Confused (inc. Woodstock)/Stairway To Heaven/Whole Lotta Love – Heartbreaker.

Snapshot Listen: How it sounded today.

Another outstanding performance. The pace was set by an aggresive stomp through ‘Rock And Roll’ and never lets up.

No Quarter is now reaching epic proportions, tonight extended to 26 minutes. Whole Lotta Love is highly improvised tonight and includes brief snatches of James Brown’s ‘Lickin’ Stick’, as well as a Plant war cry from ‘Immigrant Song’ and the riff from ‘Ozone Baby’. After a fierce Theremin battle with Plant, Page then leads straight into ‘Heartbreaker’. ‘Black Dog’ is not performed tonight.

FRIDAY MARCH 21 1975

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

SEATTLE CENTER COLISEUM

Set: Rock and Roll/Sick Again/Over The Hills And Far Away/In My Time Of Dying/The Song Remains The Same/The Rain Song/Kashmir/No Quarter/Since I’ve Been Loving You/Trampled Underfoot/Moby Dick/Dazed And Confused (inc. For What It’s Worth – Woodstock)/Stairway To Heaven/Whole Lotta Love – The Crunge-Black Dog/Communication Breakdown – Heartbreaker.

Background details: It was back to Seattle for another steller show with much improvisation. ‘No Quarter’ is a highlight with Jones and Bonham randomly incorporating a jazzy rhythm during the solo improvisation. ‘Trampled Underfoot’ now includes some lyrics from ‘Gallows Pole’. ‘Dazed And Confused’ includes snatches of Buffalo Springfield’s ‘For What It’s Worth’ as well as ‘Woodstock’, and the longest encore section of the tour is performed tonight.

Hugh Jones of Proximity recalls: “Following ‘No Quarter’, Robert called for a change in the programme, causing a little confusion on stage. ‘There’s one song that we’ve done twice in, in… I suppose since we got ripped off for all that bread in New York, ages ago. And because we really dig playing here, and for no other reason, we’re gonna do it again now. I don’t think anybody else in the band knows about it yet, it’s a little bit of change in the… sorry about that, John! You see, right on the spot! It could be ‘Louie Louie’ but instead it’s a thing from the third album… ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’.

“Following a brutal ‘Trampled Underfoot’ and Bonzo’s marathon ‘Moby Dick’, more confusion appears to be occurring onstage. Robert shouts for an ovation for Bonzo, then asks in a casual tone, ‘Is everybody, uh, enjoying themselves?’ Jimmy is talking urgently with a group of people just off stage, and at one point seems to lift his guitar in the air as if to throw it down, obviously perturbed about something. Unfazed and still in his conversational tone, Robert observes ‘Mr Page is having a fit’. Apparently, we found out later, a local fan made Jimmy a gift of a beautiful Les Paul guitar, which turned out to be stolen from a high school music teacher. During the evening the instrument was confiscated at Sea-Tac airport as it was being shipped back to the UK (or so the story goes), and for some reason Page was interrupted during the show to be informed of this.”

Snapshot listen: How it sounded today:

This Seattle show is simply one of the best gigs of their latter era.

If proof was needed then the opening segment brings it all alive – as it epitomises what a potent three pronged entrance these songs really were. Rock And Roll segueing into the new sheer brutality of Sick Again with Plant teasing ”Do I look the same”, and then the opening speech followed by the ”Beginning of a dream and it starts here (R.Plant -Earls Court May*17) or on this occasion .”What we intend to do is to relive our pent uppedness on stage, and then to relieve it later on after the gig elsewhere. Now the thing is what we intend to do is to give you a cross section of what we’ve been trying to produce and write over the last six and a half years.

As you know the material varies greatly and so you will appreciate that we take it from one extreme to the other….and what better way to start than to gaze out onto the horizon and see what tomorrow may bring”

To quote Hugh Jones ”in those last few sentences Robert Plant may well have encapsulated Led Zeppelin as well as anyone ever has. The physical, the musical, the pretension and the arrogance-all backed up with music as varied and as good as his word for the next four hours”.

So the the regal intro of  Over The Hills And Far Away -the Page solo as always flickering and twisting into previously un investigated territory. Then a swirling finale with Plant crying out ”Samantha Samantha” perhaps a reference to the fun they were about to enjoy offstage as he put it And on this night in Seattle it all just burst forth with that knowing arrogance .

There is also a truly remarkable sequence to be heard during the middle section of ‘Whole Lotta Love’ on the night of March 20, 1975, at a show in Vancouver.

In the space of three minutes just before Jimmy Page’s Theremin solo, Robert Plant initially leads them through a spontaneous version of James Brown’s ‘Licking Stick’, which incorporates their own funk rhythm from the ‘The Crunge’. He follows that with a random war cry from  ‘Immigrant Song’. And then with equal spontaneity the Jones, Bonham & Page rhythm section interlock for a riff sequence that would be recalled some three years later for the track ‘Ozone Baby’ which eventually saw the light of day on the Coda album.

It was this air of unpredictability within their performances, which made Led Zeppelin such an engrossing live act throughout their career.

To use that old Zep’75 maxim it all underlined the fact that it wasn’t just a case of them being the number one band on the planet…the real point in question was just how far whoever was at number two lagged behind.

March 21 Seattle Soundboard on the way:

As mentioned in the Led Zeppelin news section above – there is a complete soundboard recording soon out soon titled Deus Ex Machina  – a mouthwatering extract has been featured on the now Viva La Revolution, the promotional disc released by Japanese bootleg label Empress Valley. See YouTube clip below.

I could not resist purchasing the promo and it’s a great compilation of 1975 US tour performances – full review to follow.

DL

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Uncut magazine with Fairport/Robert Plant track:

I was well aware of all this because I’d purchased a copy of Record Mirror that week. Under the front page headline of ‘Goldrush’ and a wonderful colour photo from the previous December’s awards bash, it revealed the bands current plans. Interestingly enough it reported that a film crew would be on hand to capture the tour.

The story read as follow:

‘’Off to America on Saturday go Led Zeppelin. And with the group will be a film production unit which is making a film of the month long tour. The team has been trailing the group since their appearance at the Albert Hall in January. So far in the can are shots of their European tour, Jimmy Page in the studio, and Robert Plant at home on his farm. Not to mention the presentation of gold discs for million mark sales of their albums. The film, which has already been sold in America , is to tie in with the release of their next LP at the end of the year. Which could easily sell another million. And which is why some people are nicknaming it ‘’Goldrush’’.

Film of their European tour? ,Jimmy in the studio?, Robert on the farm?

A film crew with them in America? There’s no evidence to suggest much of that occurred…but if  it did where’s the footage now!

I digress: On that Saturday March 21st 1970, at the same time Zep were about to wow the audience at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, I was in a capacity crowd of 61,479 (their highest of that season statto fans note) at Stamford Bridge watching Chelsea triumph 2-1 over Manchester United.

It would have been nice of course to be down the Lane where Martin Peters was making his debut for Spurs against Coventry (he scored in a 2-1 defeat). Peters had transferred to Spurs as part of a swap deal that took Jimmy Greaves to West Ham (who also scored two on his debut for West Ham that day at Manchester City). As it was, my friend Dave Corp who at the time lived a few doors down form me in Dents Road was a Chelsea fan and I was more than happy to tag along with his relation to see some prime Division One action. It was incredibly exciting to see the 70s superstars of the day in action – Alan Hudson, Peter Osgood, Ian Hutchinson, Bobby Charlton,  Alex Stepney,  Willie Morgan etc,

It was one of those occasions from an impressionable age that remains ingrained on my brain – not dissimilar to the way Zep memories of Empire Pool and Earls Court etc are lodged in there forever.

I can remember so much about that day in detail: the records played over the PA before the teams came on which included hits of the time Brotherhood Of Man’s United We Stand and Steam’s Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye, the atmosphere in the Chelsea paddock where we stood ( a fantastic view near the pitch) as Ian Hutchinson scored twice in the first half, the pie we had in a café after the game and the hitch hiker we picked up on the A1 going home. 45 years have done nothing to dull the memories of an awesome day for this then 14 year old.

Little did I realize that aside from the match programme, three years later I’d have another remnant of that day. This was in the form of the bootleg LP that captured Zep’s Vancouver show of March 21st. In fact whenever I hear the opening drum roll from Bonzo,Jimmy’s guitar warm up and Robert’s ‘’Everybody feel alright!’’ intro, I always think back to that spring Saturday in March 1970 when I was in amongst the then soccer elite in Stamford Bridge.

I of course kept the copy of Record Mirror from that week, and I have the Trade Mark Of Quality vinyl bootleg of Mudslide. To complete the day’s memories I’ve also kept the the original Cheslea v Man Utd programme. Quite a day and all of 47 years ago…

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