I listened to Led Zep at the LA Forum June 1977 … I gotta say, I love Led Zep, but late period Zeppelin can be painful. Bob’s voice packed up & left around '72 and never really came back. That makes it especially tough for me, cuz early Zep vocals are the main draw for me. Plus he kinda lost his improv edge by this point. He keeps going “wooooyeah” whenever there’s no actual lyrics to sing … and between songs, he continuously banters on and on trying to be casually cool and funny, but it’s really not funny. Or cool. I love ya Bob, but … '77’s not doin it for me.
Jimmy’s inherent sloppiness isn’t helped by his increasingly destructive lifestyle by 1977. The dude takes THREE solos, like 15 -20 minutes each (one to introduce Achilles’ Last Stand, one during Heartbreaker, and he does White Summer/Black Mountainside), and they all sound … well they sound like Jimmy Page playing a very loud Gibson on stage in the late 70s, while trying to stand up at the same time.
All that said, given their relative limitations at that stage in their career, it’s a great setlist, played with plenty of energy & enthusiasm.
Perhaps it’s obvious that I’m not a huge fan of later Zeppelin! I’m trying though. Physical Graffiti is growing on me, and that’s a start.
At home on the record player, it's [i]Dark Side of the Moon[/i]. I don't really remember what compelled me to put that album on, but I've spun it several times. I typically ignore that album - it's just too famous to appreciate properly. I gravitate toward those next three albums usually.
But not today.
Someone (here at OKP maybe; not sure) was recently talking about some old dude who listens to that album all the time, and it reminded me that really, it's wall to wall sweet rock 'n roll goodness through n' through. So I cleaned up my vinyl as best I could and spun that puppy.
This morning, Great Gig In The Sky literally brought me to tears. Not because Wright died or nothin', which, well, ... that's ... fine? ... but it was all about that woman! That is such an incredible performance.
The song peaks in the middle, and there's like a solid minute or so of just pure emotional expression, tempered with elegant singing skill and clever vocal trills, ... all with no lyrics at all. I just couldn't believe how [i]free[/i] it was, listening to that this morning. In that moment I identified so much with the desperation in that cry, the excellence of the musicianship ... I mean, that performance is the stuff dreams are made of. I hope someday to achieve something that musically perfect.
