Love & Peace In Hiroshima (Bumble Bee BB-0702007-8)
Municpal Gymnasium, Hiroshima, Japan – September 27th, 1971
Disc 1: Introduction, Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Black Dog, Dazed And Confused, Stairway To Heaven
Disc 2: Celebration Day, That’s The Way, Going To California, Tangerine, What Is And What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, Whole Lotta Love, Communication Breakdown
Bonus cdr 1, Hiroshima – September 27th, 1971: Tangerine, Stairway To Heaven, Celebration Day, What Is & What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, That’s The Way, Going To California. Osaka – October 4th, 1972: Over The Hills & Far Away
Bonus cdr 2: Rock & Roll, Black Dog, Stairway To Heaven, Whole Lotta Love. Tokyo – October 2nd, 1972: Immigrant Song, Communication Breakdown, The Song Remains The Same, The Rain Song
Love & Peace In Hiroshima is one of three debut releases by the new silver label Bumble Bee. Much like other recent releases of this show Live Peace In Hiroshima on Wendy and Zingi on Tarantura, this is an edition of the known audience recordings to present the most complete and comprehensive document of Zeppelin’s charity gig in this city.
The better sounding audience source is used for the bulk of the show with the second and inferior sounding tape that first surfaced on Mud Dogs used to fix the gaps including “Black Dog”, 16:23 to 17:30 in “Dazed And Confused”, and others. What is unique with this release is the nine-minute introduction which is not found on any other release. Collectors in Japan have already questioned its authenticity but it is a strong possibility this is real. The mc spends several minutes getting the audience into frenzy by getting them to clap together.
The better sounding source then cuts in and in general on this release is an improvement over Zingi. Tarantura reduced the hiss making it a bit more clear but the gain is much stronger on Bumble Bee with a greater spectrum of sounds making it sound much more dynamic.
The first one hundred copies of Love & Peace In Hiroshima come with two bonus cdrs in a clear plastic case. This is a copy of the rare vinyl boot 71-72 Digest on Digger records released in the mid eighties. This title is infamous for coming with a poster and rubber stamped panties with each copy. This contains the first incomplete thirty-seven minute audience recording from Hiroshima which has never appeared on compact disc before.
The recording is distant and disturbing and the loud vinyl surface noise makes it even more difficult to listen to. 71-72 Digest also contains selections from the October 2nd, 1972 Tokyo show and October 4th, 1972 Osaka concert. Again the tape sources are very poor sound quality and the vinyl is very noisy. It is interesting having this as a bonus since this Hiroshima tapes has never been released on CD before, but the sound quality makes it for the completist only. The artwork contains several photographs of the band warming up for the gig including Plant playing Page’s Gibson double neck guitar. This is another solid release by Bumble Bee and is worth seeking out.
