Led Zeppelin – Long Drive To Seattle (TCOLZ 004/005/006/007)

Long Drive To Seattle (TCOLZ 004/005/006/007)

Seattle Center Coliseum, Seattle, WA – March 21st, 1975

Disc 1:  Rock And Roll, Sick Again, Over the Hills And Far Away,  In My Time Of Dying, The Song Remains The Same, The Rain Song

Disc 2:  Kashmir, No Quarter, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Trampled Underfoot, Moby Dick

Disc 3:  Dazed And Confused incl. For What It’s Worth, Stairway To Heaven

Disc 4:  Whole Lotta Love incl. The Crunge & Licking Stick, Out On The Tiles Intro/Black Dog, Communication Breakdown, Heartbreaker　

Long Drive To Seattle is the second release on the new The Chronicles Of Led Zeppelin silver label.  The March 21st, 1975 Seattle concert is one of the greatest and most famous concert in collecting circles and exists in two audience recordings.  The more common tape, used for the old vinyl and every silver release, is an excellent and clear but also flat recording that begins with the announcements and runs through “Dazed And Confused.”  The second audience recording is normally used for “Stairway To Heaven” and the encores to complete the show. 

TCOLZ is the first silver release of the whole second audience recording.  It is a good to very good audience recording that has a boomy bass and has some distortion.  There is a massive cut in “Over The Hills And Far Away” (leaving only the first two minutes), in “The Rain Song” at 5:18, in “Kashmir” at 8:31, in “No Quarter” at 2:14, in “Trampled Underfoot” at 1:47 and 3:16, and a massive cut leaving only five minutes of “Moby Dick,” the beginning and the end.  There are some bizarre cut in “Dazed And Confused” at 30:06, 30:30, and 31:40 which repeats significant sections of the improvisation making it very unpleasant and confusing to listen to. 

The taper captures the opening announcement of “The American return of Led Zeppelin” before another furious “Rock And Roll”.  “In My Time Of Dying” really stands out on the first disc.  It is preceded by Plant’s long speech about forming Swan Song Records over Page playing the opening to “White Summer”.  “No Quarter” introduced as a song with “more somber implications” and is longer than the first night’s version and much more tight.  Jones gets into some catchy jazz motifs before the improvisations begin.  Robert Plant greets Mr. David Bowie while introducing the next song, the second of three versions of “Since I’ve Been Loving You” played on this tour. 

However “Dazed & Confused” is the most talked about song from this tape.  It is the longest on record clocking in at about forty-five minutes and contains snippets of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” and Bob Marley’s “I Shot The Sheriff” to create a “difference and balance between law and order” theme.  There are several improvisational passages that are unique to this piece and can be considered a masterpiece.  “Stairway To Heaven” is dedicated to Jimi Hendrix and they play one of the longest encores sections of the year (second perhaps to the final night at  Earl’s Court) with Page taking the band by surprise and leading them into “Heartbreaker” in the middle of “Communication Breakdown”.  This is packaged in a fatboy jewel case with the brown paper bag motif as the artwork.  This tape source offers a different view of this famous show and if it weren’t for the faults found in “Dazed And Confused” would be an excellent alternative to all the other titles featuring this show.