8/8/1969 San Bernardino, CA Summer of '69 (?)Train Kept a Rollin', I Can't Quit You Baby, I Gotta Move, Dazed and Confused, White Summer/Black Mountain Side, You Shook Me, How Many More Times
The tape starts with a quick stage announcement before the band jumps into Train Kept a Rollin'. It is immediately apparent that this tape is all Page. It sounds like it was recorded from inside his amplifier. If it weren't for the occasional pauses in his playing, I'd wonder if the rest of the band had even shown up.
Page's ferocious soloing during I Can't Quit You Baby is accentuated by the nasty tone of the recording. We finally get to hear Plant, Jones, and Bonzo as they play an uptempo boogie version of I Gotta Move while Page changes a broken string. Dazed and Confused cuts in during the first verse. The majority of White Summer/Black Mountain Side is missing, the tape is cut just as Page finally gets his guitar in tune. There is a cut during the guitar solo in You Shook Me, coming back for the finale. Page single-handedly invents the concept of shredding during How Many More Times. The medley is growing, tonight featuring The Lemon Song and Chuck Berry's School Days.
As mentioned, the tape is 95% Page. Loud and distorted with a strange crackling interference during How Many More Times. An interesting listening experience indeed.
This is proof of the "Zeppelin tape jinx". Page is obviously on fire throughout the whole concert, but very little of the band is heard. For hardcores only!
ReplyDelete1969-08-08, Swing Auditorium, San Bernardino, CA (From Source)
ReplyDeleteThis source is 54:20 in length, and includes The Train Kept A Rollin', I Can't Quit You Baby, I Gotta Move, Dazed and Confused, White Summer, You Shook Me and How Many More Times. The tape starts with the intro - sound is highly distorted and overloaded. At first I thought Plant was just coming in a bit late, but between Page's guitar riffs I hear his scream once. To say Page is out in front in the fix would be an understatement, it's about the only thing you can hear. You can only pick out Plant, Jones and Bonzo when he's not playing, makes for a rather unique listen. Can hear someone yell "Can't hear you singing" before I Gotta Move, which they seem to play while Page is changing a guitar string... he comes in near the end and drowns out everything else. They then jump into Dazed and Confused - with Page back front, center, and over everything else. A short and chopped White Summer follows, shame it wasn't the full song since it would be unaffected by the Page heavy mix, and not sure why it was cut short, it didn't sound like a tape cut unless it was edited a bit to be more smooth. Next comes You Shook Me and How Many More Times. With the distortion and the lack of being able to hear anything but Page, I doubt I'll be listening to this one again.
First concert for me.I was a Junior at Redlands High. We sat in the 4th row from the stage. I lost most of my hearing from that show. Jethro Tull was equally as good, if not better. Great start to many live show. I may be old, but I saw all the great bands!
DeleteIt's unfortunate the recording is buried, as this is rumored to be one of the rare shows Bonham played double bass, but you can barely hear the drums.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.drummermagazin.de/image_story/double_bass.jpg
I think it's been discovered that those double bass photos actually come from the next night in Anaheim, a show of which no recording has surfaced thus far.
ReplyDeleteI was stand about 10ft directly in front of Jimmy's Amp or speaker,my ears were ringing like a bomb I would never allow that abuse today. Yes it was like a dream and
ReplyDelete