In A Delirious Daze (Equinox EX-00-013/014/015)
Kingdome, Seattle, WA – July 17th, 1977
Disc 1 (70:20): Introduction, The Song Remains The Same, Sick Again, Nobody’s Fault But Mine, Over The Hills and Far Away, No Quarter
Disc 2 (63:54): Ten Years Gone, The Battle of Evermore, Going to California, Black Country Woman, Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, White Summer/Black Mountain Side, Kashmir
Disc 3 (69:51): Moby Dick, Guitar Solo, Achilles Last Stand, Stairway To Heaven, Whole Lotta Love, Rock And Roll
Led Zeppelin’s show in Seattle in 1977 is one of their most well documented. With a complete videotape, video soundtrack, bonafide soundboard and three audience recordings, there are a lot of sources to watch and listen to. But before the complete professional sources surfaced there was only a soundboard fragment with the final song and the encores and two audience recordings. The earliest recording is a fair but distant audience tape that was pressed on Kingdom Of Zep (Silver Rarities SIRA 131/132/133), a four disc set with the soundboard fragment as bonus tracks. Equinox released In A Delirious Daze in the summer of 2000 and features a better sounding, but incomplete audience tape. This source captures the show at the beginning and runs to 6:42 in “White Summer.”
The Silver Rarities tape picks up from there and runs through “Achilles Last Stand.” The video soundtrack fragment then is used for “Stairway To Heaven” and the encores. The older audience tape is also used to fill holes in “Over The Hills And Far Away” (from 1:14 – 1:17) and “Going To California” (3:47 to 3:49). Although the professional sources would be the preferred tape to listen to, this release provides an interesting perspective of the event. The Kingdome in Seattle was noted for is horrible acoustics and the recording gives the impression of the band playing in a vacuum, struggling to achieve some kind of intimacy with the sold out crowd and despite the negative reviews the show generated, there is a great deal of excitement coming from the audience in response to the music coming off of the stage.
After Equinox released In A Delirious Daze a third incomplete audience surfaced, the complete video soundtrack, the complete video on DVD and a legitimate soundboard recording on Tarantura’s Jupiter And Saturn. With the wealth of sources, it would be easy to overlook this recording. Equinox utilized a “TDOLZ” style cardboard gatefold sleeve with simple graphic and a photo of each member of the band on the panels. There was quite a bit of excitment when these titles hit the market because they offered nice sounding tapes, great package and were normal priced. Collectors hoped Equinox would continue production, but instead disappeared without a trace. All of their releases are worth having and are still floating around.
