1/26/1969 Boston, MA Tight But Loose
Train Kept a Rollin', I Can't Quit You Baby, Killing Floor, Dazed and Confused, You Shook Me, Communication Breakdown, White Summer/Black Mountain Side, Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, Pat's Delight, How Many More Times
There is an amazing wah-wah intro before Train Kept a Rollin'. The entire song is an explosion of energy. Page's guitar sounds like razor blades during I Can't Quit You Baby. Killing Floor starts with a great fast-paced Hendrix-inspired intro. Page throws a siren lick into the middle of an extended, dynamic guitar solo. "I got my needle in ya baby!.." follows lyrics from The Lemon Song. The whole thing moves at a frenzied pace to the final beat. Jones and Bonzo turn the intro of Dazed and Confused into a funky rhythm exercise. Plant hints at Shapes of Things during the extended bow solo. The return to the main riff after the guitar solo is devastating.
The introduction of You Shook Me is met with a loud cheer from the crowd. Plant's harmonica solo is gritty and soulful, followed by a surprise organ solo by Jones. Possibly the best version of You Shook Me ever. Communication Breakdown starts off with an excellent bluesy jam. Bonzo attacks his cymbals throughout the song. Page's fingerwork in White Summer/Black Mountain Side is astounding. Babe I'm Gonna Leave You is a haunting assault. Plant interrupts a wild intro to Pat's Delight to introduce Bonzo. The solo is a blitzkrieg of drums and the crowd loves it. Unfortunately, the tape cuts off near the end of an amazing performance of How Many More Times, which includes a bowed rendition of For Your Love following Plant's "when I was a young man, I couldn't resist..." interlude. Luis Rey was not far off when he called this their "best-ever concert." Four hours or forty minutes, this is a turning point for Led Zeppelin. This is the foundation on which everything to come will be built. Definitely a must hear!
The tape is very clear with Page in front and Bonzo and Plant in the back. The drums sound a bit thin at times, but overall, a great recording of an amazing performance.
3 comments:
1969-01-26 Boston Tea Party, Boston, MA, "Killing Floor" (Cobra)
A bit of a noisy recording, but no problem with VOLUME - loud. Plant's vocals are completely lost, but you can sure hear Page's guitar playing. At times I was wondering if I was listening to a show where Plant was too sick to show up, but then I'd hear him sing a few lines. Even with this fact, this is a great show to listen to. The solo in Killing Floor songs a bit off, but it seems like Page is able to adjust midway thru and things sound a bit better, perhaps it's an issue with the pitch on the tape going out. Page is solo'n up a storm, my fingers are sore just listening to it (: Overall, I enjoyed this one.
If this is indeed the legendary Tea party show its apparent why the audience went insane!
According to John Paul Jones they were head banging the stage!
Words cant do justice to this performance
1/26/69 Boston, Mass.
No Label
Sound - Good to very good audience recording. Drawbacks - 'How Many More Times' is cut just when it was getting good.
Performance - Great. This release was my entry back into collecting silvers after a 20+ year hiatus.
I kept seeing new releases in my Facebook pages all the time.
I sheepishly asked where do you buy bootlegs nowadays.
Someone in a trading group told me about the now-defunct store discjapan.
I went to the site and started browsing; I thought at first there was no way these things were priced this reasonably.
Then I saw this title, and you couldn't beat the price, so I ordered it.
Postage adds $15-$20 on top of the price, an annoyance that still rings true today.
A week later, a yellow padded envelope showed up at my door. I thought I had gone back in time; things had changed since I last went shopping.
The CD was wrapped in so much bubble wrap that it was almost comical. After I waded through the bubble wrap, I saw that the CD was inside a thin clear sleeve, which came apart when I opened it.
I then opened the case, and a numbered sticker fell out.
I threw the numbered sticker away; I had no idea that I was supposed to affix it to the case.
Now I make sure that there's one with every order.
I flashed back to my 2nd gen tape of this show; I put the CD on. The performance was just as good as I remembered it.
Unless a complete tape of this show ever emerges, this is as good a version as you're going to get, so seek it out!
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