Led Zeppelin- Stockholm Syndrome (Empress Valley EVSD-326/327/328)

Stockholm Syndrome (Empress Valley EVSD-326/327/328)

Tennishallen, Stockholm, Sweden – March 6th, 1973

Disc 1 (59:39):  Rock And Roll, Over The Hills And Far Away, Black Dog, Misty Mountain Hop, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Dancing Days, Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp, I Can’t Get No Satisfaction, The Song Remains The Same, The Rain Song

Disc 2 (41:28):  Dazed & Confused, Stairway To Heaven

Disc 3 (39:04):  Whole Lotta Love (includes Everybody Needs Somebody To Love, Boogie Chillun’, Baby I Don’t Care, Let’s Have A Party, I Can’t Quit You), Heartbreaker, The Ocean

One of the rules for Zeppelin collecting is to get anything from their strong tours.  This tour of Europe in the spring of 1973 is one such tour.  They really began it the previous October in Japan, continued through the UK for several months then spent a solid month through northern Europe which would be their last for seven years.  

And finally end with two tours of the US with a slightly revised set list.  Zeppelin was breaking in a new set list with many numbers from Houses Of The Holy.  This show, their first of two in Sweden, is their final appearance in a country which saw some dynamic early radio and television appearances. 

Zeppelin attained a sound during this month which wasn’t replicated.  Page’s guitar sounds much more raw and nasty, Bonham’s drums sound much more powerful and Jones’ bass much more heavy than any other tour.  Every tape I’ve heard from this tour has that characteristic and I wonder how they did it and why the American tours lacked that power. 

This tape has the same characteristics and has circulated for many years. The popular Diagrams Of Led Zeppelin label many years ago as (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, so named because Page doodles the riff right before “The Song Remains The Same”.  The tape is merely fair to good, being very loud and distorted albeit very listenable and enjoyable once your ears adjust to it.

This new release by Empress Valley uses the same tape source and boosted the volume.  Most of the time this would work.  Tarantura used it to good effect on The Diploma, making it easier to hear the comments before songs and the individual instruments.  Unfortunately it doesn’t work with Stockholm Syndrome.  Increasing the volume only made it sound more distorted and unpleasant than it otherwise is.  This is a great show and listenable tape, but this isn’t an improvement over the TDOLZ release and that remains the recommended version.