Led Zeppelin – Nassau 1975 (The Diagrams Of Led Zeppelin TDOLZ Vol. 65)

Nassau 1975 (The Diagrams Of Led Zeppelin TDOLZ Vol. 65)

Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY – February 14th, 1975

Disc 1 (57:57):  Rock And Roll, Sick Again, Over The Hills And Far Away, In My Time Of Dying, Since I’ve Been Loving You, The Song Remains The Same, The Rain Song

Disc 2 (53:53):  Kashmir, No Quarter, Trampled Under Foot, Moby Dick

Disc 3 (73:00):  Dazed And Confused, Tangerine, Stairway To Heaven, Whole Lotta Love, Black Dog, Heartbreaker

Led Zeppelin’s St. Valentine’s Day show in the Nassau Coliseum was the penultimate show of the first leg of the troubled 1975 tour.  The tape is fair to good and at times is very good.  But nasty distortion at some points, most noticeable during “Since I’ve Been Loving You,” “No Quarter” and “Stairway To Heaven” are a big distraction.  TDOLZ use the same tape that was used for prior releases such as St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (Off Beat Records LZCD 1) with eight tracks from this show, and St. Tangerine’s Day (Image Quality IQ-040/41/42) released right about the same time as the TDOLZ. 

There are several cuts on the tape including at 7:45 in “In My Time Of Dying,” 2:50 in “Kashmir,” two small cuts after “No Quarter” which eliminates some dialogue, a cut at 1:28 in “Moby Dick” cutting out about ten minutes of the drum solo, at 9:23 in “Dazed And Confused” eliminating the transition to the violin bow episode, 6:24 in “Stairway To Heaven,”  and cuts in “Heartbreaker” at 2:52 and 3:01. 

It is a pity the tape is so difficult because this is one of the all time classic Zeppelin concerts.  Perhaps being in New York for the better part of two weeks inspired the band to be extremely loose.  Plant rambles on in the song introduction and carries on conversations with chatty fans in the front. 

After the opening duo of “Rock And Roll” and the still unreleased “Sick Again,” Plant speaks about the “last of the pagan traditions that’s carried on into the twentieth century. It’s a day for sowing the wild seeds, in fact, now they call it St. Valentine’s day. So Happy St. Valentine’s day. In fact, I think we should dedicate this whole show to St. Valentine. He’s done us a lot of good, even when he hasn’t got a day. Well, we’re gonna do some things for the benefit of Mr. Kite.”  He compares the set list to “glorious ice cream” as they begin “Over The Hills And Far Away.” 

“We came here in a state of ah, Jimmy managed to get to sleep at three o’clock this afternoon, and he was up again at four thirty. So we didn’t really know whether we had the strength to walk on the stage, but we have, and it’s feeling good. We were, we spent a few hours with St. Valentine last night, you see?”  “In My Time Of Dying” is a “traditional thing traditional thing that you might have heard from, I think Bob Dylan did it about ten years ago, before that ah, Billy Cotton.” 

When they decided on the setlist for the tour, they dropped “Since I’ve Been Loving You” since it was played at every show in the past five years.  It is however their favorite song to play and in keeping with the looseness they play it for the first time since the last tour. 

It is a bit ragged but one gets the feeling they could play it in their sleep if they wanted to.  Plant says they intend to shake the building “despite our depleted physical forms” before “The Song Remains The Same.”  Page makes a small mistake, playing the riff which introduces the third verse in the introduction.

As Plant is introducing “No Quarter” Page plays opening notes to “Train Kept A-Rollin’.”  “We’re going through our whole live history here, just flashing on different numbers” Plant quips.  The Houses Of The Holy track is more than twenty minutes long and Jones plays on the organ only.  When they come back for the second half he will be switching to grand piano for the solo.  Page plays an effective, chilling solo in the middle improvisation. 

“Dazed And Confused” is referred to as “one of those things that we got together and played, and went, gosh, oooo. We’d like to dedicate it to all the people who’ve been good to us in New York. All you people, we done six gigs here. It’s a lot of gigs, and we’ve seen a lot of people, and we’ve had a lot of good receptions.” 

The song reaches extremes in violence and tenderness and includes the syncopated funk section before the call and response section, a part of the song they normally didn’t play on this tour.

The people in the front row keep badgering Plant with requests and beg them for “Tangerine.”  “Who’s doing this show, you or us?  Both of us, right” before singing a couple lines of the song.  “I’ve forgotten the words.” 

The final encore “Heartbreaker” is proceeded by a violent sounding, funky tune with lyrics that is hard to discern since the tape is so distorted.  In the solo Page leads the band into an impromptu version of Elvis’ “Mess O’ Blues,” a tune they regularly played in the “Whole Lotta Love” medley in 1971. 

Although the tape is good, it really makes on wish that a better sounding recording existed to better enjoy the show.  Nassau 1975 is packaged in a cardboard gatefold sleeve with simple graphics and use of two Earls Court photos.