The late edition of Led Zeppelin (day three)

All right, well sorry folks for the late post. It's been a long day (took the ACT today) but here I am, ready to entertain you with more videos and more useless trivia haha. Todays (or rather tonight's) videos will feature excerpts of a concert filmed a few days before the LA Forum concerts... and then two songs from Zeppelin's music library that aren't quite on the level of 'Stairway to Heaven' in terms of popularity... but I assure you, the songs are very good.





The first video features excerpts of a Led Zeppelin 1972 concert in California. The audio isn't the best but it's somewhat of a rare video and I just happened to stumble across it last weekend. I must say, Jimmy's dragon outfit is cool, but I like when all of them are just in jeans and stuff better.

'White Summer': this is from the Royal Albert Hall in 1970 and features basically Jimmy alone except for brief portions when Bonzo joins him. Page is on fire in this version he's spot on. It's basically eleven minutes of improvisation but Jimmy briefly cuts into 'Black Mountain Side' from Led Zeppelin.

'The Wanton Song' is from Physical Graffiti and is on the second album. One of Page's most aggressive riffs, it also features some studio trickery as the solo sounds like an organ, but is actually a guitar. To accomplish this, Jimmy used a Leslie speaker cabinet (mainly used for organs) to create the effect (think of the 'Good Times Bad Times' solo, he did basically the same thing there). George Harrison used one on several recordings for the Beatles as well.

Tomorrow will hopefully be the special with more videos than usual and also my take of what the set list should be for Monday's reunion concert.

Led Zeppelin, day two

Alrighty, now that I've discussed Pearl Harbor I can move on to posting a few more Zeppelin videos.



First video I'm posting today is 'Rock & Roll', taken from a concert in Sydney, Australia in early 1972. This is the same concert that the footage in the 'Immigrant Song' video I posted yesterday is from, only this is black and white. I'm guessing what you hear at the beginning of this video is the very end of 'Whole Lotta Love' and then the band kicked into 'Rock & Roll'. This isn't necessarily one of Jimmy's best performances but it's still a video worth seeing.

Second video is 'In My Time of Dying' at Earl's Court in 1975. This is Led Zeppelin's take of an old blues number and it's a rare treat to see Jimmy Page playing slide guitar. His playing is incredible; in fact, I like this live version better than the studio version on Physical Graffiti. A bit of Zeppelin trivia here: The band played five concerts at Earl's Court and many people rank those five concerts as possibly the best concerts Zeppelin ever performed.

And the last video for today is 'Nobody's Fault But Mine' at Knebworth in 1979. This song was probably the most popular song off Presence with the exception of 'Achilles Last Stand'. The riff and a good portion of the lyrics were taken from an American blues singer named Blind Willie Johnson, who recorded it almost fifty years before Led Zeppelin did. This song is also one of the last songs to feature Plant's fine harmonica playing.

All three of these songs can be found on the Led Zeppelin DVD.

Sixty-six years ago today

The US was attacked by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. In that one surprise attack alone, Japan nearly succeeded in crippling the US Navy in the Pacific. If we had lost our carriers there we wouldn't have been able to launch our own surprise attack on Tokyo or fight at Coral Sea or Midway. This would've given the Japanese more time to push themselves farther east and become more firmly entrenched.

This may seem strange to say, but we should be thankful the Japanese attacked when they did. It's what this country needed..... a kick in the rear. To be challenged, to be slapped in the face. Especially when you consider the state of our economy since the stock market crash twelve years prior.

Not only that, but if we hadn't officially become involved in WWII when we did there is the very real possibility that we would've entered far too late to stop Germany and Japan. And that means we might have very well been defeated. Granted, I'm speculating here but it's something to think about.

I have a book called the Reader's Digest Illustrated Story of World War II (it's a great but sometimes gruesome read by the way), and I'd like to quote some statistics about what the US economy produced after entering the war. The numbers are mind boggling. Historian Louis L. Snyder wrote:

Within a year after Pearl Harbor the United States was equaling the entire Axis war production, though the enemy had a head start of ten years. By the end of the war the United States had produced 300,000 planes, 87,000 tanks, 2,400,000 trucks, 17,900,000 firearms, 61,000 pieces of heavy artillery and many millions of tons of shells, bombs and other explosives. From tens of thousands of factories came finished tools of war, more war material than produced by the rest of the world combined. It was an awesome example of audacious planning, mass activity, prodigious energy.

After mentioning various ships that took place in the Battle of the Philippine Sea the following is stated:

None of these warships existed in December 1941. All told, after most of the Pacific Fleet was left twisted and shattered at Pearl Harbor, American shipyards produced 17 fleet carriers, 9 light carriers, 5 battleships, and enough cruisers, destroyers, escort carriers, submarines, and other combat vessels to bring the entire total to 1265 brand-new men-of-war

.

Amazing isn't it? We owe all that to the Japanese being stupid enough to attack us when they did. By the way, with all those figures in mind, consider this: the Japanese only produced two fleet carriers after 1941.



So today, as we think about what happened sixty-six years ago in 1941, we should remember the brave men who died at Pearl Harbor. But also, I think we should thank God for that day as it was a blessing in disguise; it made us face reality and get our act together before it was too late.

And the countdown......

is four days. Four days. Four days. Four days until the Led Zeppelin reunion concert in London....... provided Mr. Page doesn't break another finger in the meantime. I hope they know what they are doing by having this concert. Many, many things can go wrong. For starters, Robert Plant does not have the voice he once did. True, after '73 things haven't been the same with his voice anyway, but he still had a great voice for their later songs. But he's almost sixty now, I'd imagine his range isn't even close to where it was in the late 70's. In fact, I read an article confirming my guess... the band decided to transpose the songs to a lower key to "avoid any embarrassing vocal wobbles with the world watching."

The article also mentions that the waters haven't been completely smooth for Jimmy either...... "he is a bit rusty" is what's being reported. Great..... I guess John Paul Jones and Jason Bonham haven't had any problems or at least the article didn't mention any.

However, that said, I am excited about this concert. If they get their "troubles" straightened out and perform an outstanding concert, I think they should have a world tour next year for all their fans. I would try to get a ticket myself if they went to Chicago or someplace like that (and provided it wasn't $500 a ticket.. which it probably would be). If the concert is a bust though, I don't think they should tour unless they do something to improve themselves beforehand.

Every day from now until Sunday (by the time I'd get around to posting Monday they'll have already had the concert) I'm going to put up a few live Zeppelin videos and also a couple rare "bootleg" videos that I've come across... some of which are pretty good in quality. On Sunday I hope to provide everyone with what I think their set list should be.

The first video I'm going to post is 'Immigrant Song'. This was recorded at the LA Forum in 1972 and is the concert Eddie Van Halen attended/got the idea of "tapping" on a guitar. You can hear this song on Zeppelin's live album How the West Was Won or on the Led Zeppelin DVD (which features video footage from the one of the band's Australian concerts).

Second video is 'Black Dog' from what is I'm guessing the Madison Square Garden concerts in 1973. I'm not completely sure if this was on The Song Remains the Same DVD or the Led Zeppelin DVD. Both DVD's have this song from Madison Square Garden so your guess is as good as mine which DVD it's on.

The last video I'm going to post is 'Since I've Been Loving You' at Madison Square Garden in 1973. As with 'Black Dog', this song is on TSRTS and Led Zeppelin DVD's. So I can't tell you which DVD to find this song on either. Oh well, no matter, just enjoy the songs!

Oh look...... I'm back.... again

If you haven't noticed by now I guess my blog isn't something I do as much as some. I spend more time on Myspace and Facebook than I do Blogger. But after some complaints from my grandparents about the lack of activity on my blog, I've decided to post something to please them. So here you go, Grandpa and Grandma, a new post for you. I, like my dad, have added a music playlist (actually I have two) so everybody that doesn't have dial-up enjoy the music......... for whoever views this blog besides my grandparents.

When I rented Guitar Hero (the Rock the 80's edition) a couple months ago I discovered a really cool song sung by Quiet Riot. It's probably their most famous song along with 'Cum On Feel the Noize'. Here it is:
QUIET RIOT

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