6/25/1972 Los Angeles, CA Burn Like a CandleImmigrant Song, Heartbreaker, Over the Hills and Far Away, Black Dog, Since I've Been Loving You, Stairway to Heaven, Going to California, That's the Way, Tangerine, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, Dazed and Confused, What is and What Should Never Be, Dancing Days, Moby Dick, Whole Lotta Love, Rock and Roll, The Ocean, Louie Louie, Thank You, Communication Breakdown, Bring it on Home
The first of two shows used to create 2003's How the West Was Won, the tape begins with the familiar droning intro before Immigrant Song comes crashing through the gate like a thunderous stampede. Page shreds through the frenzied guitar solo during Heartbreaker. Plant tells the crowd "we'd like to try a number out off the new album," but warns "we haven't really decided what we're gonna do at the end of it yet, so you'll have to bear with us" before the first complete recording of Over the Hills and Far Away. The choruses find Plant in all his high-pitched glory.
Before Black Dog, Plant assures the crowd that the song is about "a poor dog" and has "nothing to do with a chick in Detroit." Since I've Been Loving You is a bit subdued despite some inspired soloing from Page. Plant's introduction of Stairway to Heaven draws a loud cheer from the crowd. Page blazes through the guitar solo. Plant's voice gets a bit rough during the final rock section. Before the acoustic set, Plant criticizes the security staff for "cartin' people out with little flash cameras," calling them "the gestapo." Going to California is absolutely beautiful. Following an excellent That's the Way, Plant tells the crowd "we got a long, long time to go... we've been known to play for twelve and a half hours." He calls for a spotlight on Bonzo before Bron-Y-Aur Stomp.
Bonzo attacks his drums with incredible ferocity during the initial verses of Dazed and Confused, his snare cracks like gunfire during the frantic lead-in to the bow solo. Page's fingers get a bit sticky as he solos wildly during the guitar solo/workout section. The extended outro is fantastic, Page's soloing is particularly inspired. Plant jokes that the next album will be called "Burn That Candle" before Dancing Days. Bonzo mounts a full-on sonic assault during Moby Dick, his thunderous pounding is like a violent earthquake. Whole Lotta Love is dedicated to LA. The excellent medley includes Boogie Chillen', an excellent rendition of Elvis Presley's Let's Have a Party, a fantastic Hello Mary Lou, Heartbreak Hotel, a riotous Slow Down with a frenzied guitar solo from Page, and an exceptional Goin' Down Slow.
Page shreds through the guitar solo during Rock and Roll. Someone near the taper can be heard shouting "When the Levee Breaks!" as Plant introduces Jones before another raucous rendition of Louie Louie. Jones plays a bit of Everyday People during the organ solo before Thank You. The show closes with a laid-back Bring it on Home. Another epic marathon at the LA Forum. Must hear.
The tape is excellent, very clear and well-balanced.
For a fascinating breakdown and analysis of how How the West Was Won was created, visit Eddie Edwards's The Garden Tapes.
Enjoying now, i must say i actually prefer the superb audience recording to the Official release.
ReplyDeleteOne of the best
could anyone please tell me if htwww contained overdubs been wondering about that for some time , also why didn't jimmy just release this complete show in soundboard instead of picking songs from different shows, even heard that they used more than one source to create individual songs .want to hear a true live show not some studio recreation. if someone could comment on this would really appreciate it thankd
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteHow the West Was Won does contain overdubs, most notably on Stairway, in which Jonesey's organ is replaced by the mellotron track from Jimmy's pro soundboard recorded in Southhampton 1973. The recordings themselves were not perfect (though they were very close!). so Jimmy patched parts of the 25th with the 27th, and vice versa. Also there were some copyright problems, which is why Jimmy cut parts of Bach's Bouree in E minor in the Heartbreaker solo. this is, however, the truest official live representation of Led Zeppelin. Its really sad that the bootleg companies cannot get ahold of the working tapes used before in the releases. Any more questions, post again! Ill answer them
The following link provideds the most detailed breakdown of the Officially Released recordings that could be imagined.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thegardentapes.co.uk/htwww.html
thanks for the info. was stairway the only song that was tampered with on the official? and did in fact they use more than one sorce to create an individual song and how many songs was this done to. by overdubs did you mean that they added instruments in the studio as well as vocals. Really don't trust any official live recordings .thanks
ReplyDeletewhy would they add the mellatron from a show almost a year later to stairway? a concert is meant to be a document as to how a band sounded at that particular place and time. The bootleg Burn like a candle in my opinion blows the official out of the water. Sure a soundboard would be cool but sometimes a good audience recording has much more atmosphere than a soundboard. Spicing recordings together to make one song is the pits. Live rock music isn/t meant to sound perfect note for note with the album cut. also Plant is a great storyteller and is very funny with his banter with the crowd. They cut that out of the official as well
ReplyDeletewere there any other overdubs added to the official HTWWW besides the mellatron , guitar overdubs, drums, vocals ecc, know about all the edits ,thanks again
ReplyDeleteAnonymous(s),
ReplyDeleteStairway was the only song that was actually tampered with. However, only three tapes were used to complete HTWWW (6/25/72, 6/27/72, 1/23/73) But, this album features NO overdubs, so it is the truest representation of Led Zeppelin as a live band. Truer than TSRTS at any rate. In other words, there are no studio added extras on HTWWW. In the eigth American tour in early 1972, Jones was still making use of the organ for such songs as SIBLY, TY, STH, and others. He didn't switch to the mellotron until the fall of 1972, when it became necessary to have an "orchestra" for the middle of Rain Song. The mellotron is captured beautifully on Southampton, and Page felt that the synthesized recorder fit much better on STH in HTWWW. And true, I agree very much that live music shouldn't be perfect. Both the 25th and the 27th were incredible perfromances that should've been released for their remarkable quality and banter and simply impressive representations of Led Zeppelin. HTWWW is certainly a great live album, but I would've far preferred that Page release both complete soundboards, uncut and unedited.