Led Zeppelin 2018 The Overture: The 1972 Japanese tour
FLAC
Here's the links for each show
Led Zeppelin
October 2, 1972
Budokan Hall
Tokyo
01. Introduction
02. Rock and Roll
03. Over the Hills and Far Away
04. Black Dog
05. Misty Mountain Hop
06. Since I've Been Loving You
07. Dancing Days
08. Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp
09. The Song Remains the Same
10. The Rain Song
11. Dazed and Confused
12. Stairway to Heaven
13. Whole Lotta Love
14. Crowd Anticipation
15. Heartbreaker
16. Crowd Anticipation
17. Immigrant Song
18. Communication Breakdown
19. Outroduction
The first night of the tour finds Led Zeppelin playing to a capacity
audience at the world famous Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. There are eight
known audience recordings in varying degrees of quality and
completeness, Empress Valley uses the best recording as a basis for this
concert. The recording has been released many times previous, early
vinyl titles like Live At Budokan 72 (New OG 1149-50A-B), Live In Tokyo
10/2/72 (Toasted 1901 A-D), and Live In Tokyo Oct 2-3 1972 Budokan Big
Hall (LLX 1233-4-5-6). On compact disc we have titles like No Use Greco
(Tarantura GRECO 1), Dancing Days (Aphrodite Studio AS 91LZ002-3),
Eastern Front (Great Dane 9226A/B), The Campaign (Tarantura
1972-5-1-12), Live In Japan 1972 (Last Stand Disc LSD 65/78),
Presentation 1972 (Patriot 002-1/2), The Overture (Sanctuary TMOS-97201
A/B), Led Zeppelin Is My Brother (Empress Valley EVSD 319/320), and
Budokan 1972 1st Night (No Label).
The recording is a near perfect, excellent audience recording, the taper
was close to the stage and captured a clear, detailed and very
enjoyable capture. The concert is virtually complete, there are a few
cuts in the tape but none during the music, those few gaps are filled
with other sources making as complete overview of the concert as
possible. I pulled out my old go to version of the concert, EV’s Led
Zeppelin Is My Brother, this new version is just a bit clearer and
brighter. It does not sound like manipulation rather a better transfer,
the very slight amount of tape hiss is still present as well. The second
disc is also longer as the label has patched the missing parts of
audience cheering, the transitions are very smooth and well handled.
The concert itself is merely a “nice starter”, the set list has had a
near complete makeover, Rock and Roll is a natural opener and is played
stand alone style yet hard to replace the Immigrant Song >
Heartbreaker salvo from the previous year. This song would be the opener
for the next couple years, not until the American tour in 1973 and the
Rock And Roll> Celebration Day> Black Dog sequence would it be
most effective. Starting their concerts with a killer one two punch has
been a tradition since their earliest performances.
After being played very sporadically, Misty Mountain Hop finally gets a
full time slot in the set, linked with Since I’ve Been Loving You,
albeit with a pregnant pause, this would soon develop into a moment of
high drama with Page playing a show stopping flurry of leads, here it is
just good. The band have added even more previews from the fifth
record, The Song Remains The Same and Rain Song get their inaugural
performances, fully realized and very effective, Robert refers to it as
Zepp on this night. This concert also marks the first time the Mellotron
was used by John Paul Jones, the tape replay machine was used to allow
Jones the ability to mimic the string arraignments during The Rain Song,
the first version of the song is superb, the heavy section is very
dynamic and quite impressive.
The Whole Lotta Love medley is a typical concert high point, Elvis
numbers are always fun for the audience (and myself also, big Elvis
fan), they play a great version of My Baby Left Me, Page rips some of
his most tasty leads of the night during the song. Like the 1971 tour,
the band digs out some very old numbers as well, Plant forces a bit of
Killing Floor, aka the Lemon Song and after the group gets it together
they manage an impressive version. The crowd awakens for the encores,
Heartbreaker is well received and after a long period of clambering for
more, the group returns with Immigrant Song and Communication Breakdown
to end the concert proper, Jimmy hits the Wah pedal during Communication
Breakdown and elicits a loud cheer from the audience, and me!
Led Zeppelin
October 3, 1972
Budokan Hall
Tokyo
01. Introduction
02. Rock and Roll
03. Black Dog
04. Over the Hills and Far Away
05. Misty Mountain Hop
06. Since I've Been Loving You
07. Dancing Days
08. Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp
09. The Song Remains the Same
10. The Rain Song
11. Dazed and Confused
12. Stairway to Heaven
13. Whole Lotta Love
14. Crowd Anticipation
15. Immigrant Song
16. Crowd Anticipation
17. The Ocean
18. Outroduction
THIS IS NOT PART OF THE OVERTURE BOXSET! In every post of this collection that i have found, this boot is not available. Ive been to multiple posts and websites and the links are always dead for this show. I am terribly sorry. So i have put this boot in its place. I hope you enjoy!
The second night at Budokan is another somewhat tentative concert by the
band and follows a similar pattern to the previous evening, that of the
performance building and by the time of the encores, the old building
has been really heated up. A staggering nine separate recordings exist
from this concert, again in varying degrees of completeness and quality.
For this version EV uses “source 3” as its foundation, this recording
has been released on a few compact disc titles, 2nd Night In A Judo
Arena 1972 (Tarantura T2CD-6-1,2), The Campaign (Tarantura 1972-5-1-12),
Live In Japan 1972 (Last Stand Disc LSD 65/78), and Tokyo 1972 2nd
Night (No Label), the label uses source 4 to fill gaps due to it being
sonically similar and a bit of two other sources as well. The recordings
are very good, again clear and detailed with the main source being a
bit bass heavy that gives low end rumble but it has a very powerful
sound because of it, it seems to accent Bonzo’s drumming, The Hammer of
the Gods. The upper frequencies offer some crisp detail and all
instruments and vocals are cleanly defined, both recordings are a bit
more distant so the overall feeling is much more ambient than the
previous evening, the audience sounds more animated.
For those who are familiar with the older Tarantura and LSD titles will
find the sound much improved, the older circulating copies sounded like
they had some sonic manipulation done to them, this version sound like a
more direct, non tampered with version of the tape. I was somewhat
surprised with this as EV had released the concert as part of their
“Rock Explosion” series using the near excellent source 6, after several
listens of both sources I find both compliment each other nicely and
surprisingly I prefer this version of the concert, by the time the band
are playing Since I’ve Been Loving You I was hooked by the sounds,
sometimes the best sound is not always the best listening experience.
For the second night in Tokyo, the band moves Black Dog to second spot
after Rock And Roll, yet both are not connected but makes for a stronger
opening. Black Dog would retain second spot for the remainder of the
tour. Other than some brief tuning, the band waste little time with
chatter and seem content to just hammer the set out. Page is harassed by
his acoustic guitar prior to Bron-YR-Aur Stomp, he can’t seem to get it
in tune and Plant fills in the gap by asking “just one moment Gentlemen
and Honorable Ladies, and Geisha’s”. Gone are the long acoustic sets of
previous tours, the singular acoustic number is a perfect excuse for a
hoedown, the audience clap along and enjoy the looseness of the song.
The Song Remains The Same is called The Overture at this concert, this
version reminds me of the studio version, Plant’s vocals have the soft
high sound to them, like a warm summer day. The Mellotron is clearly
heard in this version, it sounds like Jones has to cohere then a bit at
the beginning, once they get going it adds the needed orchestral vibe.
Dazed and Confused is missing from source 3 so we get a nice chance to
hear and enjoy source 4 for Dazed And Confused. It sounds like the taper
was in a similar position to source 3 but this version does not have
much bottom end and favors upper frequencies but is very clear and
detailed. There is just a bit of audience noise making for a nice
ambient recording, Plant’s vocals are in the forefront so we get to hear
all his scat vocalizations. You can hear a couple source changes
sporadically, just a few seconds, the splices are perfectly done and if
not for the timbre change, you would not know it. The playing in Dazed
finds the band shaking off a bit more of the cobwebs, Jimmy plays some
great leads during the fast section after the bow solo and the rhythm
section of Jones and Bonham are their typically perfect for this era.
Whole Lotta Love continues to change and evolve, Plant teases Elvis’
Blue Suede Shoes just before they launch into it eliciting cheers and
laughs from the audience. Everybody Needs Somebody To Love now has
lyrics and continues to evolve, by the next year it will become a
powerful force during the European tour. The band continues the Elvis
tribute with Let’s Have A Party and get into a killer bit of You Shook
Me, as with the previous night, Page uses these songs to just soar by
playing almost lyrical and quite fluent lead guitar. The encore cheer is
interesting, someone close to the taper has what sounds like a cowbell
they consistently beat on until the band returns and someone else has a
clown horn that alternates with the bell, sounds like a crazy circus
cheer. Immigrant Song is an encore mainstay, the song was very popular
in Japan although it sounds a bit out of place when not coupled with
Heartbreaker, old habits die hard I guess. The Ocean makes its one and
only appearance in Japan as the final encore, amazingly you can clearly
hear John Bonham counting in “One…two…three” yet sadly no “We’ve done
four already” bit, again the temperature is raised by Whole Lotta Love
and the encores!
Led Zeppelin
October 4, 1972
Festival Hall
Osaka
01. Introduction
02. Rock and Roll
03. Black Dog
04. Over the Hills and Far Away
05. Misty Mountain Hop
06. Since I've Been Loving You
07. Dancing Days
08. Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp
09. The Song Remains the Same
10. The Rain Song
11. Dazed and Confused
12. Stairway to Heaven
13. Whole Lotta Love
14. Crowd Anticipation
15. Heartbreaker
16. Immigrant Song
17. Outroduction
The first night in Osaka and the band seems to be more relaxed, perhaps
the jet lag was behind them and they have adapted to their surroundings
so to say. There are three known recordings from this date, all falling
into the good to very good range. EV uses a mix of all three recordings
using the second and best source as a basis, it is clear and detailed
and supposedly been taped in the 5th row. Previous editions of this
material can be found on such compact disc titles as Osaka Tapes: Raw
Tapes (Amsterdam AMS 9610-2-1/2), Connextion (Amsterdam AMS 9612-2-1/2),
The Second Daze (Mud Dogs 011/012), The Campaign (Tarantura
1972-5-1-12), Live In Japan 1972 (Last Stand Disc LSD 65/78), Moral
Reader (Wendy WECD 94/95), and most recently Osaka 1972 1st Night (No
Label). I have the recent No Label that uses source 3 as its foundation
and this version is easily its equal.
The band hit the stage and get to it, very little chatting from Robert,
in fact he introduces Over The Hills And Far Away while Jimmy is playing
the beginning, after getting into some tasty leads during Black Dog,
Page seems to have hit a bit of a stumbling block during Over The Hills,
always on the edge…but effective! The transition from Misty Mountain
Hop to Since I’ve Been Loving You is spot on, Jimmy was ready and nails
it, in fact this is one of the best versions of the song from this tour,
Page is in no hurry and he plays some nice quiet notes, not pushing at
all, only adding to the drama. Plant does not seem to be pushing his
voice, he sounds good just keeping it simple and not going to the high
sustained notes, not having to battle the loud instrumental machinery
(Nice Luis Rey Reference) he sounds joyous on Bron-YR-Aur Stomp.
Dazed and Confused is superb on this night. Page plays an embryonic
passage that will soon evolve into San Francisco, even in this early
stage it has an eerie sound with Plant’s moaning scat in the background.
The post bow solo has Page seemingly improvising several themes trying
to connect them all without loosing coherence, easy for him to do with
the steady rhythm section of Jones and Bonham laying the foundation.
Very enjoyable version of Dazed, made even more enjoyable by the great
recording.
Other than the orchestra needed for The Rain Song, the Mellotron is also
used for the flute like beginning of Stairway To Heaven, giving the
piece a pastoral feel. Again Whole Lotta Love steals the show, Bonham
kills it during the jam right before Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
unleashing a thunderous barrage letting the band know he means business.
The medley feature some more Elvis standards, it is documented that the
band caught one of The King’s concerts at Madison Square Gardens prior
to the stop in Buffalo in June and must have been an inspiring
experience. Heartbreaker makes its second, and last, appearance in the
first encore spot followed by the now obligatory Immigrant Song ending a
superb, and vastly underrated concert.
Led Zeppelin
October 5, 1972
Kokaido
Nagoya
01. Introduction
02. Rock and Roll
03. Black Dog
04. Misty Mountain Hop
05. Since I've Been Loving You
06. Dancing Days
07. Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp
08. The Song Remains the Same
09. The Rain Song
10. Dazed and Confused
11. Stairway to Heaven
12. Whole Lotta Love
13. Crowd Anticipation
14. Mellotron Solo
15. Thank You
16. Outroduction
Fourth concert of the tour has the Zeppelin boys playing their only live
concert in the city of Nagoya, while the rust has been shaken off the
band seem in a hurry, after this concert they have a three day mini
vacation. There are two known recordings from this concert, both
incomplete but when edited right we can hear the full concert. This
title uses source 2 as its foundation with source 1 filling a few gaps
in the main set and for the encore. The Campaign (Tarantura
1972-5-1-12), Live In Japan 1972 (Last Stand Disc LSD 65/78), Live In
Nagoya (Smile TOE 001), The Geisha Boys (Akashic AKA-9), Rock N’ Roll
Springtime (Image Quality IQ-053/054), Dragon (Flagge), Sakura Looking
Up! Great Discovery (Jelly Roll 10/11), High Noon (Wendy WECD 56/57),
and Rock Explosion ’72 Live at Nogoya Kokaido (Empress Valley
EVSD691/692) are all compact disc titles featuring this material.
Source 2 is a good to very good recording, it is a clear and fairly
detailed document, the lower frequencies are a bit muddy but it captures
the atmosphere perfectly. Source 1 is merely a fair more distant
recording. For this version EV uses a similar mix as their Rock
Explosion title with significantly upgraded sound. The hiss is greatly
reduced, the volume is a bit louder and the sound is significantly
clearer, it is not the mastering but a far better generation tape used,
we can now enjoy this concert in best quality to this point, in fact
this is the one recording that really surprised me, happily I might add.
The audience sound excited to see the band. As soon as they start Rock
And Roll, they quiet right down. The sound quality improves and by the
time the band plow into Black Dog it is clear and enjoyable. Page gives
the solo a great workout and the audience duly rewards him with a nice
ovation at its conclusion. The is the only concert on the tour not to
feature Over The Hills And Far Away that usually follows Black Dog, yet
Roberts opening remarks he states “Very nice for English boys to be in
Nagoya…here is song off fourth LP…it’s called Misty Mountain Hop”.
Page’s guitar seems to drown out Jones’ organ a bit giving the song a
heavier sound that is really great, again he plays a great transition
solo into Since I’ve Been Loving You that instantly changes the mood, he
seems to toy a bit with the audience before playing the main guitar
lead and the whole effect is like hearing the band in some subterranean
small and smoky blues club.
Page has to do a bit of tuning prior to Dancing Days, they sound as if
they are playing to an empty hall, the Japanese audience is extremely
quiet as they listen to the song for the first time. “Too many Geisha’s
spoil the broth…Here is song with John Bonham singing” is Robert’s
chatter prior to Bron-YR-Aur Stomp. The recording is so clean you can
almost make out the onstage chatter as they set up chairs at the front
of the stage. It immediately gets the crowd involved as they clap
perfectly in time with the song making for a very enjoyable version of
the song. The Song Remains The Same is called The Overture on this night
and sounds a bit tentative.
Dazed and Confused is again a show stopper, an audience member laughs
with joy upon hearing the beginning bass line, Page is in no hurry to
get things going and again seems to toy with the audience and sounds
like he even throws Robert a bit out of time. The real journey begins
once they begin section 3 and the instrumental wizardry weaves its magic
on us. The song features an instrumental version of The Crunge and at
19:20 Page begins to play a bit of As Long As I Have You, pure nostalgia
for sure. Stairway is very well received and they get a nice ovation as
Robert begins singing, Jones’ Mellotron drowns out the guitar during
the first few minutes.
The place gets hopping with another brilliant Whole Lotta Love and the
audience begins to get loose. The Theramin section gives way to a great
Everybody Needs Somebody To Love and the medley of oldies is great.
Robert works the crowd up before Let That Boy Boogie and has a blues
“conversation” with them, the bass seems to overpower everything but the
vocals, Page lets it rip for his solo that is extremely fluent. As
usual the band gets into a bit of Elvis with Let’s Have A Party and
another ‘69 flashback with You Shook Me to round out the medley section
in superb fashion. The encore is unique, the only version of Thank You
from the Japanese 72 tour, Jones does his organ solo as a prelude and
includes the traditional folk song Sakura Sakura (Cherry Blossom Cherry
Blossom) that is very well received by the audience, a fantastic ending
to a well played, very laid back concert by the band.
Led Zeppelin
October 9, 1972
Festival Hall
Osaka
01. Introduction
02. Rock and Roll
03. Black Dog
04. Over the Hills and Far Away
05. Misty Mountain Hop
06. Since I've Been Loving You
07. Dancing Days
08. The Song Remains the Same
09. The Rain Song
10. Dazed and Confused
11. Stairway to Heaven
12. Moby Dick
13. Whole Lotta Love
14. Crowd Anticipation
15. Stand By Me
16. Immigrant Song
17. Outroduction
After three days of rest, the band is back in the familiar city of Osaka
for the best concert of the tour. The playing is sharp and inspired, so
much that John Bonham even revives his Moby Dick solo…the vibes are
real! There are four know recordings from this concert in varying
degrees of completeness and for the most part they all have passable
sound. For this set EV uses Source 2 commonly referred to as the H-Bomb
source along with filler from sources 1 and 3. The taper was positioned
in the fifth row and was able to get a great recording, albeit slightly
unbalanced, he must have been in front of Jimmy’s amp as the guitar is
slightly in the forefront, the rest of the band can be clearly heard and
is really a nice document. There have been several recordings using
this source dating back to vinyl on titles like Live (No label /
matrix#), My Brain Hurts (Idle Mind IMP 1115A-B) and its reissues by
Jester and renamed as Dedicated To John Henry Bonham. The concert has
seen steady distribution on compact disc as Let Me Get Back To 1972
(H-Bomb HBM95R01/2/3), Tapes From The Darkside (H-Bomb HBM9301-3), Live
In Japan 1972 (Last Stand Disc LSD 65/78), most releases of this concert
use mixes of several sources as does this new version, The Campaign
(Tarantura 1972-5-1-12), My Brain Hurts (Tarantura TCD-16-1/2), Moby
Dick (Bolkskine House BHRCD-10), and Stand By Me (Wendy WECD 50/51).
Digging deep was needed to access this version, I needed to dig up an
old version of the H-Bomb title Let Me Get Back To 1972 (many thanks to
WGPSEC). This new version is a significant upgrade and is sourced from a
very low generation of the tape. The old H-Bomb source was rather dull
and had some noticeable tape hiss and had speed problems, the section
around Everybody Needs Somebody To Love was very evident on the H-Bomb
source, this new version does not have this or any speed issues. The
sound is louder, cleaner, greatly reduced hiss and one can instantly
notice is not heavy handed mastering but a much better version of the
tape. I’ve been listening at a loud volume and it delivers a strong
enjoyable sound. It seems the band really enjoyed playing in Osaka, the
previous year provided two of the best concerts of all 1971 and while
the playing thus far has been solid, the second night in Osaka is really
special, the band delivers on all fronts.
The concert hits the note from the first song, although it seems there
is some equipment adjustments needed as after Rock And Roll Robert talks
of a problem and judging by the vocal levels, guessing a PA issue,
Black Dog is the answer, then the best version of Over The Hills And Far
Away follows, Plant’s voice has warmed up and the instrumental
machinery is warmed and running like a precision machine, Page flies
during his solo. Plant manages to get an introduction in for Misty
Mountain Hop due to some tuning by Page, he talks of getting busted,
something that can’t be talked about in England or America. Dancing Days
is consistent with the other shows on this tour, the song has been a
solid part of the set throughout. Bron-YR-Aur Stomp has been, sadly,
dropped from the set, perhaps they knew Bonzo wanted to do a drum solo.
Robert talks of being in Hong Kong over the previous days and then
introduces The Song Remains The Same as “The Campaign”. Like the other
tunes from the forthcoming fifth record, both The Campaign and The Rain
Song have been very strong, although Page’s guitar is a bit out of tune
prior to the solo that renders this version a bit flat, The Rain Song is
superb though.
Dazed And Confused is excellent, the best version of the song from this
tour. The beginning has that mysterious quality to it, Bonham is
amazing, he does a couple short fast fills, pauses then hits the gong to
great effect. The quiet section before the bow solo has Page working
with San Francisco, this bit of improvisation inspires Robert who starts
singing lines from Neil Young’s Down By The River, the audience gives
them a nice round of applause for their efforts. During the slapping
with the bow, Page seems to be in some unspoken dialog with the
audience, the short section has a very intimate feeling. The audience
seems to hang on every note and sound emanating from Page’s guitar, the
Grand Sorcerer of the Magic Guitar in complete command. The fast section
is good as well, as with the other shows from this tour Page plays a
bit of The Crunge and seems to be working out new places to go making
for an interesting, and well received version clocking in at close to 30
minutes.
Plant does a bit of hoedown improvisation prior to Stairway To Heaven,
the intimate setting of the 2,700 seat Festival Hall sounds like a
gathering of friends for those short few seconds. I love the Stairway’s
from 72, they play it with confidence and it’s not yet a burden, Plant
hits the highs as well, his voice has recovered sufficiently. Robert
introduces “Ladies and Gentlemen, tonight we have an added pleasure John
Samurai Bonham” in a moment of sheer hilarity, until you hear the drum
solo. He plays with precision and the 16 minute solo is fast and intense
and by far one of the more enjoyable Mody Dick’s I’ve heard. Whole
Lotta Love is again a show highlight, it’s nice to hear it without the
speed issues. Page gets into some cool riffs, he plays a couple notes of
The Stones’ Satisfaction, Etta James’ Somethings Got A Hold On Me,
Robert conjures up his Elvis roots again with Milk Cow Blues, Heartbreak
Hotel, and Wear Your Ring Around My Neck and the medley ends with a
superb Goin’ Down Slow, Page going from slow to incredibley fast and
detailed leads that tease the audience to their delight, the last few
seconds are sadly cut. The encores are interesting, first the band play a
stand alone version of Ben E King’s hit Stand By Me that has Robert
introducing Bonzo who does add backing vocals here and there, such are
the happy feelings shared by group and audience. The song meanders along
for 6 minutes and while an interesting oddity, never really hit me like
Blueberry Hill. With just a minute to catch ones breath they plow into
Immigrant Song full force and it’s a spectacular ending to a really
great concert.
Led Zeppelin
October 10, 1972
Kyoto Kaikan
Kyoto
01. Introduction
02. Rock and Roll
03. Black Dog
04. Misty Mountain Hop
05. Since I've Been Loving You
06. The Song Remains the Same
07. The Rain Song
08. Dazed and Confused
09. Stairway to Heaven
10. Over the Hills and Far Away
11. Whole Lotta Love
12. Crowd Anticipation
13. Immigrant Song
14. Outroduction
The final concert in Japan is a quick one, the band further cut the set
down, Dancing Days is the latest casualty. While being the shortest of
the six concerts the playing is really good and quite inspired, the band
hammers the gig out in record time like they have a train to catch.
There are three known sources for the Kyoto gig, the first is rather
poor sounding and used on very early titles like The Campaign (Tarantura
1972-5-1-12), the second main source and third filler source are much
better and have been used on the following titles, Live In Japan 1972
(Last Stand Disc LSD 65/78), The Last Night In Japan (The Diagrams of
Led Zeppelin TDOLZ 078), Mirage (Flagge), Live In Kyoto (Empress Valley
EVSD 693/694), The Old Capital (Wendy WECD 66/67), and Evil Spirits in
Kyoto (Tarantura TCD 170-172).
The sound quality of the main source 2 is overall very good and noisy,
the vocals and guitar are in the forefront, the bass and drums are
audible just not as clear and they are just a bit thin and raw sounding.
Compared to Live In Kyoto its hiss is louder but it’s clearer, brighter
and sounds more natural, you can hear the noise reduction on the older
EV title and for me, not a huge upgrade but a more natural sounding one
although not as significant as the Nagoya and second Osaka shows. “Nice
to be in honorable Kyoto” is Roberts intro, albeit a bit prematurely as
even Bonzo starts his drum intro to Rock And Roll then stops till the
others are ready.
Misty Mountain Hop is introduced as being about “Japanese grass”, again
the smaller venue has an intimate sound and feel to the concert, this is
highlighted during a killer Since I’ve Been Loving You. Jones’ organ is
clear in the mix, an essential element as it helps lay the blues
foundation and Page lays down a passionate solo coupled with Robert’s
moaning is perfection. The Campaign is played quite fast and the version
of The Rain Song is just wonderful. When I look back at each of the six
concerts, The Rain Song has been a highlight each of the times it was
played. Dazed and Confused clocks in at just over 18 minutes, a compact
version but still retains its intensity, perhaps a bit more. No “San
Francisco” or Crunge workouts but the bow solo was great and the fast
section was, well fast. In a bit of hilarity, after the song ends Plant
says “If the man who’s sleeping in the front row will you please stand
up”…who could sleep after that?
Another curiosity of the set is that Over The Hills And Far Away is
played after Stairway To Heaven, Robert introduces it as “honorable
track of fifth LP” while pointing out someone taking pictures. Whole
Lotta Love has many a highlights, Freddie King’s Hideaway, Elvis’ That’s
All Right Mama, and a rare version Brenda Lee’s Lets Jump The
Broomstick along with the usual boogies. The sole encore is Immigrant
Song, and like the previous night in Osaka, contains a bit of the old
Yardbirds nostalgia You’re A Better Man Than I.
Final thoughts, Empress Valley have nailed this set. They present each
concert using the best tapes for each and filling gaps with the next
best one making for a very pleasurable listening experience. What I like
about this set is that there is no unnecessary filler found on previous
box sets, I do not need poor sources mixed with better sources done in
redundancy and they gave us the best of the best. Speaking of sound
quality, the label has done a great job by using low generation tapes
and not tweaking the hell out of them, we get nice, natural sounding
recordings. There are several upgrades in this set, Nagoya, and the
second night in Osaka have been significantly upgraded, the other four
are easily on par, and if anything a bit better than what has been
released before. The mastering of the sources and edits are smooth and
well done. The packaging is simple yet effective, while some expect more
from a premium label like Empress Valley, we do get some cool extras
and by keeping it simple it can be offered at an attractive price. Great
box set and well worth seeking out.
