That is soo ... frickin' ... cool. I've a couple of boots from a US tour they did, and they're awful. Hideous sound, so-so performances. I don't think Anglo "blues" gets better than that album. I'll take it over Bluesbreakers just because of Rod's voice and Hopkins on piano. The second album is good. Different-good. But "Truth" is a monster. The swing on "Rock My Plimsoul" is a revelation.
What's frickin cool to me is that someone my son's age appreciates what we were listening to 35-40 years ago. My son likes Cream, Doors, Hendrix, and the really big bands from back then, but would not recognize Beck and would probably think Peter Green is an STD.
After reading reviews of the concert on Expecting Rain, Clapton came on and played with Jimmie Vaughn. No mention of him playing with Dylan
you are correct, sir... i was informed it was during jimmie's set... i still want to catch the minor league tour this summer... maybe more guests will appear...
Clapton was apparently in Ohio with his wife, visiting her relatives. He sat in with Jimmie for the last two songs of his set. Clapton did not sit in with Dylan.
Random question for any of the old time Zep fans, but why did Jimmy's playing regress so badly during the later albums (live performances)? I know he's always had some sloppiness to his playing and been high as hell...but some of those performances just make me scratch my head. Did the drugs just **** him up that bad? I just have a hard time believing Bonham/smack habit could cause one to regress so much. I'm finding more crappy performances than good ones, which is has been an eye opener since listening to Page is what got me into playing in the first place. Like this for example: Starts at 6:40 , cringeworthy bad at 8:40 bends totally out of whack wrong notes, Clapton even shoots him a wtf look later. Just looks really sad all around. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mhf4hEGMr1w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Starts at 4:10 here <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RPg92yi8IFU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> 6:10 <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CBk-iRihSUg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> And then in his earlier performances plays like a completely different person. Spoiler <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cYcl0LidhuU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> the famous MSG one: <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UqqKKa9AJK4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Drugs and exhaustion. My wife and I were in the front row center for the 1977 Fort Worth show, Page looked like death warmed over. What an odd coincidence this old thread showed up. Last night was my 63rd birthday and we watched Robert Plant's Sensational Space Shifters show on Youtube. They played Zep's Thank You, which is sort of 'our song' and she easily located the picture she took looking right up at Plant. I mean we were right under him and I spent the whole concert looking at the 'sock' in his pants. I'm pretty sure we were tripping, though I don't remember exactly, but it was 1977 so probably.
Yeah, he was pretty strung out. No kid should make it out of junior high without being passed 'Hammer of the Gods' to devour over a weekend. Zeppelin more or less created arena rock, but that doesn't mean everything was perfect. Kids tossing firecrackers, crap monitors, basically using amps as the PA -- it was better than the Beatles at Shea, but nothing like you'd see even in the 1980s with Van Halen or Queen, much less today. In that environment, toss in the heroin, you tend to get sloppy.
Wow! Interesting to see this old thread pop up. I would agree with KellyDwyer though. He summed it up well. I would add though that Jimmy Page did his real magic in the studio where he could do 100's of takes and weave his heavy spell. Still, there was a clear fall off even in the studio on the last couple of Zep albums. I saw the same 77 tour that Dubious saw except in Houston and at the Summit. Page was definitely off his game but not quite the mess I've heard he was in other cities on that tour. BTW, Jeff Beck is still as bad ass as ever.
And drinking Jack in legendary amounts. That 77 tour was cursed, I still see folks rocking those tour shirts they likely got from Target and SMH, no way I'm wearing that!!
I also went to the '77 Led Zep show in the Summit. At the time I thought the show was a disappointment. I was only seventeen, so maybe I couldn't fully appreciate their song choices. I wanted to hear the hits, but we got a lot of songs I wasn't familiar with. I will admit that I don't remember much of the show at this point. I do remember some fancy laser or light effects. I'm sure I was totally baked.:grin:
Whoever wrote that comment is sorely lacking in knowledge of music history because Derek and the Dominos Layla and Assorted Love Songs is one of the top 3 greatest guitar albums of all time- partly bc of Duane Allman, but also largely due to EC. Don't forget about Blind Faith, either.
Thanks for the insight guys, and I agree with the death warmed over comment. In one of those videos he's literally standing there drooling all over himself while emaciated. When I got into Zep over a decade ago, Page was the finished product...the person who could do no wrong....the guitar god. Learning about his relationship with Lori Maadox who was 14 at the time, the blatant rip-offs on a lot of their albums, the ****ty cringeworthy live performances...its weird seeing him the same way now. I still have an enormous amount of respect for Plant though. That man can ****ing sing, and I really liked his response when asked about touring. He basically said Zep did what they set out to do and they would just be repeating what they've already done in a different time..as different people. Watching Eddie Van Halen and the corpse of David Lee Roth shows me how important it is for a band to bow out gracefully. Can't help but wonder what it would have been like going to one of their shows in the 70s though.
I remember seeing the pic below in Circus magazine in the early 80s around the time Jimmy did the Death Wish 2 soundtrack and just thinking "Wow..." He had began to look like walking death for a while then a few years later was back to form with the Honeydrippers and The Firm. Co-signed on the Hammer of the Gods comment, I remember reading it in high school and loved it, the red snapper/shark story was great.
It had to have been the drugs and alcohol. Did anyone see that documentary It Might Get Loud? The man clearly still had it and I think he was in his mid 60s when that was made.
Curt Cobain, BB King, Tommy Tedesco, Glen Campbell and PJ Harvey all are better than Clapton or Page.
