Collectors Music Reviews

Stand By Me (Wendy WECD – 50/51) 

Festival Hall, Osaka, Japan – October 9th, 1972
Rock and Roll, Black Dog, Over The Hills And Far Away, Misty Mountain Hop, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Dancing Days, The Song Remains The Same, The Rain Song, Dazed & Confused
Disc 2:  Stairway To Heaven, Moby Dick, Whole Lotta Love (includes Everybody Needs Somebody to Love, We Say Yeah, Leave My Woman Alone, All Shook Up, Lawdy Miss Clawdy, Heartbreak Hotel, Naturally, Won’t You Wear My Ring Around Your Neck, Going Down Slow), Stand By Me, Immigrant Song
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Stand By Me is the twentieth release on the “legendary” (their words) Wendy label.  Their first release of a Zeppelin show from their 1972 tour of Japan is the popular second Osaka concert on October 9th.  Wendy utilizes a previously undocumented, very good incomplete third audience source.  All of the previous releases of this show used the two older sources.  This new source is a very good to excellent mono source taped somewhere in the middle of the Festival Hall.  The questionable acoustics of the venue reduce the clarity of the tape.  Wendy uses the second tape source to complete the show, picking up after “Stairway To Heaven” with a very smooth edit.

This concert is simply one of the best from this tour.  The band spent some time in Hong Kong between the Nagoya show and this and Plant sounds very strong and well rested.  Page in particular delivers a very fluent and inventive show.  “Dazed & Confused” contains a reference to Neil Young’s “Down By The River” before the violin bow section as a sort of prelude to the “San Francisco” interlude in future performances.  The “Whole Lotta Love” medley is unique with no boogies, and this is the only recorded reference to “Stand By Me.”  Experienced Zeppelin collectors know the power of this show and is worth having. Stand By Me comes in a double slimline jewel case with an obi. 

Wendy titles stand out for their use of quality thick glossy paper, rare photos, and inventive packaging.  The cover has a parody of the poster for the 1986 Rob Reiner film and the back have several photos from the actual show.  Since most of the other versions of this show are either way out of print (Magical Dreams on Wyvern Legend and Let Me Get Back To 1972 on H-Bomb) or part of rare and expensive box sets (The Campaign and My Brain Hurts on Tarantura and Live In Japan 1972 on Last Stand Disc), this is a good opportunity to own a good edition of this essential Zeppelin show.

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