1969.04.26 The Winterland Ballroom, Smokestack Lightning

1969.04.26
The Winterland Ballroom,
Smokestack Lightning

Here is the link
https://mega.nz/#!AlwUDKpI!ljIXfgW_EeArfNEGqtRxDynNTlznswIdzlfJo03Y-zQ

A quick and nasty Communication Breakdown starts the show. The band is full of energy. Plant's screams are unwieldy during I Can't Quit You Baby. Dazed and Confused is a sonic attack and features the first appearance of Page's theramin. Plant's squeals are echoed by the audience during the outro of You Shook Me. The first set ends with an epic How Many More Times, which includes a funky Roll Over Beethoven during the bow solo. An excellent performance of White Summer/Black Mountain Side starts off the second set. Plant includes a quick reference to That's All Right during Killing Floor. Babe I'm Gonna Leave You is followed by a thunderous Pat's Delight, which is unfortunately cut in the middle. As Long as I Have You is a wild cacophony, one of the best ever. The tape ends with the first appearance of Whole Lotta Love, although there are no lyrics during the chorus yet. The middle section includes a guitar workout rather than the familiar theramin freakout. Definitely a must hear.

This is Led Zeppelin as acid/psychedelic hard rock, pioneering a new, original sound in the process. The concert itself is a pure magic. Everything that made Led Zeppelin an amazing live act is here and these two sets were so revolutionary in their time that even now, I am dumbstruck by the power and performance. "I think last night we said that it was nice to be back. Well, there seems to be a lot more people here, so I hope the message is carrying on" said Plant after I Can't Quit You Baby. Jimmy plays like a man possessed, hitting everything with such fluency and accuracy and with such emotion. Bonham is thunderous, Jonesy is all over the place, inventing lead lines to counter Jimmy's, and Robert's voice is incredible, higher than any notes Jimmy can get on his guitar! The power and performance are staggering. Also, the first appearance of the Theremin (Dazed And Confused) and the first ever time Whole Lotta Love was played live! Hearing this first recorded version, it’s amazing how much the song had already been worked out. Plant’s lyrics are mostly the same as what would appear on the album, with the exception being that he doesn’t once sing the chorus "Wanna whole lotta love". That aside, the song remains pretty much the same as the one we all know and love. During the middle section, Page doesn't use the theremin. The spot where it would be featured in the song instead features Bonham doing the same steady high-hat and clicking accompaniment that he would do on the album, but with Page doing a slide solo, sounding pretty much like the one he had just done a few songs earlier in Killing Floor. After Bonham and Jones join in with a rushing beat and the song comes to a slow down, Page then plays some of the solo portions he had just played in As Long As I Have You. As Page keeps soloing, Jones jumps in with parts of the backing bass line from "You Shook Me", and then the band get into the formal return solo that would lead back to the main riff in the song. For Plant's last solo line, he hadn’t yet gone so far as to change the original Dixon lyric into "Woman, you need IT", so instead sings the original "You need love". As the band crash in and the song heads towards the ending, Plant then repeats the line "Baby you need love" over and over. And the song fades out.