Day 75: 8/23/1971 Fort Worth, TX

8/23/1971 Fort Worth, TX  Hot August Night

Dazed and Confused, Stairway to Heaven, Celebration Day, That's the Way, What is and What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, Whole Lotta Love, Communication Breakdown

The tape begins during the bow solo in Dazed and Confused. Someone in the crowd shouts "Do it! Do it!" before Stairway to Heaven. Page's fingers are a bit sticky at times during the solo. Plant complains about his weakening voice before Celebration Day, saying "by the end of the gig, I won't be able to say a word." Jones's mandolin playing is beautiful during That's the Way. Plant dedicates What is and What Should Never Be to "the donkey."

Moby Dick cuts off around fifteen minutes in. The medley during Whole Lotta Love includes John Lee Hooker's Bottle Up and Go, Elvis Presley's A Mess of Blues, and You Shook Me. But the real standout is Page's excellent guitar work, some of the best blues soloing we've heard in awhile. After a cut in the tape, there are a few moments of the taper walking backstage before another cut leaves us at the beginning of Communication Breakdown. Unfortunately, the tapes ends about forty seconds into the song.

The tape is an excellent audience recording taken from very close to the stage. Read the taper's account of the show here.

There are about six minutes of silent 16mm color footage from the show in Houston, TX on 8/26/1971 available on Hercules's Film Noir Vol. 1.  The footage is quite enjoyable to watch, but since there is no audio from this show (the audio on Film Noir Vol. 1 being from another show), I didn't think it necessary to make a separate post.