Friday, January 18, 2008

Day 18: 5/30/1969 New York, NY

5/30/1969 New York, NY  Early Days/Latter Days
Train Kept a Rollin', I Can't Quit You Baby, Dazed and Confused, You Shook Me, White Summer/Black Mountain Side, How Many More Times, Communication Breakdown

Plant's long wails during the intro to I Can't Quit You Baby make the crowd go wild. Page's ferocious soloing is too much for the taper's equipment to handle. Plant's introduction of Dazed and Confused draws another roar of excitement from the crowd. Page's bow solo begins with the string slapping workout that will become familiar in the years to come. Plant misses one of his echo cues from Page, causing the crowd to laugh and applaud. Bonzo is attacking his drums during the extended guitar solo. A ferocious rendition, and the crowd goes wild.

A heavy, plodding version of You Shook Me follows. Page's fingers dance across the fretboard during White Summer/Black Mountain Side. How Many More Times is played at breakneck speed. Bonzo's drums sound like cannons, relentlessly assaulting the crowd during the Bolero section. Page's frenzied guitar licks once again become too much for the taper's equipment. Plant's squeals reach higher and higher as Page starts the bow solo, which is more a frenzied full band improvisation than a traditional bow solo. The tape ends with a fast, raucous version of Communication Breakdown. And excellent intense performance by the band, the crowd is left begging for more.

The tape is overloaded and distorted at times, but the great performance makes it highly enjoyable. It seems to run a bit slow during Train Kept a Rollin', but improves soon after.

1 comment:

  1. 1969-05-30, Fillmore East, New York City, NY (From Source)
    Starts off with Train Kept A Rollin', tape is pretty rough. Listening to this while working, so mostly in the background. Guitar/Drums/Bass sorta just make a steady noise, and Plant's vocals are mostly obscured by that noise. My source has been speed corrected, but not sure if things are 100% good, things sound a bit sharp at time. Plant lets out an impressive scream at the start of I Can't Quit You Baby, and you can hear someone say 'Again!', heh. Dazed and Confused is extremely bass heavy, but the sound is a bit better during the bow solo. The show ends with the band ripping through an encore of Communication Breakdown. If anyone doubts that Led Zeppelin was the first Heavy Metal band, all they need to do is listen to Communication Breakdown, especially live. The band and crowd seems fairly lively, but the tape continues to have issues with overloaded sound and uneven speed, otherwise this sounds like a very energetic show, and found myself enjoying it despite the recording quality.

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