A Quick Get Away (The Diagrams Of Led Zeppelin TDOLZ Vol. 068)
Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina – January 29, 1975
Disc 1 (71:18): 1. Rock And Roll (4:12) 2. Sick Again (5:55) 3. Over The Hills And Far Away (7:25) 4. In My Time Of Dying (11:22) 5. The Song Remains The Same (5:39) 6. The Rain Song (9:12) 7. Kashmir (10:41) 8. No Quarter (16:49)
Disc 2 (65:39): 1. Trampled Underfoot (8:21) 2. Moby Dick (19:18) 3. How Many More Times (14:01) 4. Stairway To Heaven (11:19) 5. Whole Lotta Love (1:17) 6. Black Dog (6:32) 7. Communication Breakdown (4:48)
The Greensboro, North Carolina show was released as “Footstomping Graffiti” on a none label issue with a paltry 5 rating for its audience recording.
TDOLZ VOL.068 is a good – very good somewhat distant mono audience recording with fluctuating sound quality. The taper(s) can be heard intermittently in quieter passages. The music sounds saturated on “Rock And Roll”. The first cut is at the end of “Sick Again”. The fidelity improves especially with the softer passages on “Over The Hills And Far Away” with Zeppelin offering a restrained-punkish delivery of this track. Plant addresses the crowd after “In My Time Of Dying” with: “That was a track off the new album, “Physical Graffiti”, which is a double album.”
He states with the introduction of “Kashmir” that: “Here’s another track and it features Mr. Jones and his magical fingers.” After the track Plant mentioned: “That was a new one…John Paul Jones, and now he’s gonna be the magical North Carolina player” leading into a fine rendition of “No Quarter”. Audience cat calls can be heard at the 4:07, 4:38 + 6:00 minute marks with the sound quality improving at the 7:00 minute mark while Page fires away ferociously on his guitar sending this track into orbit and providing layered searing notes at 9:03.
“Trampled Underfoot” sounded flat and reflected a laborious listen. “Moby Dick” had a cut at 7:49 mark in the spirited drum solo with a different sounding splice-in to follow which added more punch in the mix.. I enjoyed the version of “How Many More Times”. “Stairway To Heaven” offered improved fidelity and an excellent performance. “Whole Lotta Love” started with a vengeance and you hear Plant saying: “Feels Good” but unfortunately was cut at 1:17 segueing into “Black Dog” with improved fidelity as well. “Communication Breakdown” was a heavier sounding version which ended suddenly with an enthusiastic crowd evidently satisfied.
TDOLZ VOL.068 requires acceptance of the fluctuating audience mono tape source but flows. Portions of Zeppelin’s performance have been criticized but, overall, I think the crowd responded well and John Paul Jones helped to carry this show with Page on his heels and Bonham, the ever steady master, carrying the beat.
3 Comments
Thanks to Rocker for confirming that I’m not crazy.
I’ve been to many concerts at the Greensboro and I know that Greensboro audiences are wild when one of their “adopted” bands come to town( Zep, Van Halen, ZZ Top, etc..).
You can read what happened after the concert on THE CONCERT FILE by Lewis & Pallet.
I have finally found somebody that was there for the Greensboro 77 concert ( and actually remembers it) and she says that Zep was late to start ( surprise!) but then that they played for “hours and hours” and that at the end of the concert everybody’s mind was “blown”. Far out!
I pretty much came to the same conclusions myself. I enjoyed the performances for the most part and only wish that the recording fidelity measured up to the level of musicianship…
Luis Rey calls this the worst Zeppelin show ever but he is way,WAY off. After your bootleg ears get accostumed to the sound you find yourself with a good show taped sometimes ok, sometimes good but always with great atmosphere. I have talked to people who were at the show and they all have commented that it was a great show and that the audience was wild ( but not problematic).
No Quarter and Over The Hills are good and Stairway and Kashmir especially are outstanding.
Dare I say that this is one of the best early 75 shows and not one of the worst during this treacherous period of this tour.