4/25/1977 Louisville, KY (Presence's master>cassette transfer)The Song Remains the Same, Sick Again, Nobody's Fault But Mine, In My Time of Dying, Since I've Been Loving You, No Quarter, Ten Years Gone, The Battle of Evermore, Going to California, Black Country Woman, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, White Summer/Black Mountain Side, Kashmir, Over the Top, Achilles Last Stand, Stairway to Heaven, Rock and Roll
Page's fingers get stuck in the strings during the guitar solos in The Song Remains the Same. Plant repeatedly exclaims "well!" as Sick Again comes to a close, receiving a more enthusiastic response with each iteration. Page blazes through the guitar solo in Nobody's Fault But Mine. As the song ends, Plant asks the rowdy crowd "can you not push so much at the front, cause there's a lot of people gettin' a little bit hurt." The band gets a bit lost toward the end of In My Time of Dying.
There is a brief cut in the tape at the beginning of Jones's piano solo during No Quarter. Page and Bonzo join in for a frantic rendition of Nut Rocker. Jones gets a bit ahead of himself as the piece comes to a close and begins to play the main theme before Page and Bonzo pull him back. Page shreds erratically through a somewhat disjointed guitar solo. Someone in the crowd can be heard shouting "The Ocean!" as Plant is introducing Ten Years Gone, to which he mistakenly responds "we always do the old shit, what are you talkin' about?" adding "that's why we're in rock and roll, man!" Page struggles through an out of tune guitar solo. Plant pushes his voice to the limit during The Battle of Evermore. Black Country Woman is introduced as "a song inspired by a bad night with a woman... or a good one, on the other hand." There is a slight cut in the tape just before the final verse of Bron-Y-Aur Stomp.
Kashmir is incredibly powerful, the intense sonic assault threatens to destroy the taper's equipment. There is a cut in the tape in the middle of Achilles Last Stand. As the song ends, Plant tells the crowd "it's a long story, but if you could listen to the lyrics sometime, you might understand the relevance of it." Stairway to Heaven is dedicated to "peace amidst the brotherhood of Louisville." Page delivers an epic guitar solo. The crowd goes absolutely mad as Rock and Roll crashes into motion.
The tape is noisy and overloaded.
Plant delivers an powerful (perhaps excessively) performance in Battle of Evermore. I have a hunch that he was saddened and angered by the violent death of the young person in the concert from a few days before this one.
ReplyDeleteActually I'd be more inclined to think Plant sings BOE so aggressively because he was pissed off at the rowdy crowd...someone threw a bottle at the stage after "Ten Years Gone" that hit Page's guitar (listen closely on the tape, you can hear Jimmy exclaim, "Fuck off!")
ReplyDeleteLouisville was NOT a good performance, IMO- the band was so distracted by the crazy audience they fucked up nearly every song. People talk about how bad the Tempe show is, Louisville gives Tempe a run for its money as one of Zeppelin's poorer shows.
I was only 15 years old in Louisville back in 1977 and that was by far the best concert that I have ever seen in my 52 years of life! I do recall that Robert Plant asked the crowd to please take a step back several times, due to people passing out from being pressed against the stage. Supposedly, it was an idiot from my home town that hit Jimmy Page with whiskey bottle. Regardless of all that, when they played " Nobody's Fault but Mine" it was perfect in every way! So perfect, that it's been embedded in my memory for 37 years now!
ReplyDeleteI am the guy who provided the cassette tapes of this show (BonhamFan). I have been offline for a while.
ReplyDeleteWhile "vultures" grabbed the raw transfer ans made money from it, I am still happy to have provided it for a copy of other LZ live shows. The music is $ to me!
Was at that show myself,trippin,was completely awed and inspired.Still listen and think of them as the best
ReplyDelete