Crashing Revelry (Empress Valley Supreme Disc EVSD-249/250/251)
Community Center, Tucson, AZ – June 28th, 1972
Disc 1: The drone, Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker, Black Dog, Over The Hills And Far Away, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Stairway To Heaven, Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp
Disc 2: Dazed & Confused, What Is And What Should Never Be, Dancing Days, Moby Dick
Disc 3: Whole Lotta Love (incl. Boogie Chillun’, Let’s Have A Party, Stuck On You, Hello May Lou, Going Down Slow, The Shape I’m In), Rock & Roll
Crashing Revelry is the brand new audience recording for the final night of Zeppelin’s legendary 1972 North American tour. It is a good to very good and enjoyable recording that is somewhat distorted in the upper frequencies. Some cuts also appear on the tape due to tape flips but nothing significant is lost. The taper has courted a fair amount of controversy with his claims about the encores. He writes: “Since word is out there of extra encores for the 6/28/72 Tucson show, I thought you would like to know about them direct from the taper, me. There were extra encores. After ‘Rock And Roll’ the house lights came on for a few minutes so I started walking out, but before I got to the door the house lights went back off and John Paul Jones came out alone. He from there sat down on the organ and play a solo of about 3-4 minutes and then he played the opening of ‘Your Time Is Gonna Come’ and then the band joined him and they played the song complete.
“From there they went into ‘Thank You’ without an organ solo. Then they left the stage again and the house lights came on very dimly and went off again after 30 seconds. From there they came back on stage for a medley of ‘The Ocean/ Communication Breakdown/ Bring It On Home’. ‘Bring It On Home’ doesn’t have any harmonica. The way the encores were played in order is as follows (with times):
“Organ Solo/ Your Time Is Gonna Come (7:24)
Thank You (3:52)
Then they left the stage for 1:48
Then the medley of:
The Ocean/ Communication Breakdown/ Bring It On Home
“It seemed like when JPJ started going into ‘Your Time Is Gonna Come’ Page, Plant, and Bonham looked at each other like ‘What?’ but they played it anyway and played it very well. It was all good. I never released these encores. They are not out there at all. Only in the bank vault.” This would be quite a find if there were any shred of truth to it. This taper has a history of extravagant claims, none of which have been proven and this is an example of the type of pompus nonsense that circulates with Led Zeppelin lowgen tape collectors. His claims about the extra encores have been almost unanimously rejected. The tape as it is presented on Crashing Revelry is the complete show as it occurred that night with nothing more to be added.
After the opening drone “Immigrant Song” and “Heartbreaker” is used as the opening salvo for the final time, two years to the day when it was introduced at the Bath Festival. Plant dedicates “Black Dog” to an audience member named Terry Hanson before giving the standard story about the black lab at Hedley Grange. Before playing “Over The Hills And Far Away” Plant tells the story about their last visit to Tucson: “I collapsed. Everybody went home and left me in Phoenix. I can’t get used to the hot weather. It must have something to do with the mountains”. They play a truncated acoustic set with “That’s The Way”, “Going To California” and “Tangerine” omitted leaving only the up-beat “Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp”. The band would continue playing the one song acoustic set through to the European tour in 1973 until it would be dropped altogether for several years.
“Dazed & Confused” is twenty-eight wired minutes as typical from this tour with the Houses Of The Holy track“The Crunge” making an appearance during the lengthy improvisation. “What Is And What Should Never Be”, which was introduced into the set list in the summer of 1969, is played live for the final time. The “Whole Lotta Love” medley includes the rarely played Elvis hit “Stuck On You” with John Paul Jones playing accompaniment on the piano. There are several instances where Jones played keyboard during Page’s theremin exercises but this is perhaps the only time he played piano during a medley number. Previously the only documentation of this concert has been fragments of dark and grainy 8mm film so a complete audience recording is welcome. This is a great tape of a laid back and fun show. Anything from this tour that is halfway listenable is a plus and Crashing Revelry is a very good release and is recommended.
