Fly Over Nuremberg (The Diagrams Of Led Zeppelin TDOLZ Vol. 071)
Messezentrum Halle, Nuremberg, Germany June 27, 1980
CD: (70:59) The Train Kept A Rollin’ (first 50 seconds missing), Nobody’s Fault But Mine, Black Dog,
Cobo Arena, Detroit, Michigan July 13, 1973
Moby Dick, Heartbreaker, Whole Lotta Love, Dancing Days (first 1:30 only)
This single CD offering from The Diagrams Of Led Zeppelin label combines two soundboard fragments into a single release.
The first fragment is from the Messezentrum Halle, Nuremberg on June 27, 1980 and the second is from the Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan on July 13, 1973.
The Nuremberg recording cuts in after the first 50 seconds of “Train Kept A Rollin'” and finishes after “Black Dog” when John Bonham was too ill to continue. The sound quality of this soundboard is very good however it should be noted that the high frequencies seem to have been emphasized. This may or may not appeal depending on your specific tastes.
Page addresses the audience with “Good Evening. Two of us are not feeling at all well”. Later on he mentions stomach problems and adds that the next number “reflects kind of the way I feel, and possibly the other members….Black Dog”.
Plant addresses the crowd and introduces “In The Evening” however it’s not going to happen tonight. After a pause, he returns to say “If you can bear with us for a minute we just have a slight technical problem”. Then suddenly after another short pause, the recording ends. No mention is ever made on tape of Bonzo’s illness.
Led Zeppelin were probably the only group on the planet that still had the power to produce something memorable from a 16 minute show! For me this was the guitar solo during “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” which I thought was outstanding.
Taken from near the end of the show, the Detroit soundboard fragment is excellent. This is the second night in Detroit and while the performance is not quite on par with the first night there certainly are some highlights here. “Heartbreaker” has a bit of a boogie feel to it and Plant finishes off “Whole Lotta Love” with his trademark Viking shouts from “Immigrant Song”. The encore tonight is the only known performance of “Dancing Days” during the 1973 North American tour. Unfortunately the tune is cut on this recording.
TDOLZ packages this release in a simple single cardboard sleeve with a nice 1980 picture on the front and the setlist on the back.
While I am not usually a big fan of multiple dates brought together to form a single release, this one works for me. Firstly because both fragments are very good soundboard recordings and my motto is never ignore a soundboard! But possibly even more interesting is that the release gives us a bit more insight into exactly what happened at Nuremberg that night. I would not call this an essential release to own, however if like me these little curiosities interest you then this affordable offering from TDOLZ is well worth adding to your collection.
1 Comment
This is another of TDOLZ’s ‘bonus’ releases. They take several disparate fragments that have nothing to do with each other that are not suitable for their own release and throw them together. Both of these soundboards are interesting and nice to have as curiosities. The Nuremberg is the complete fifteen minute performance.
The Detroit fragment is fascinting and makes one hope more would surface. Several years after TDOLZ released this Electric Magic issued Song Of Detroit which claimed to have”Dazed & Confused” and “Stairway To Heaven” from this show, but it turned out to be from the Salt Lake City soundboard instead.