San Diego 1973 (Watch Tower WT 2001045/46)
San Diego Sports Arena, San Diego, CA – May 28th, 1973
Disc 1: Rock and Roll, Celebration Day, Black Dog, Over The Hills and Far Away, Misty Mountain Hop, Since I’ve Been Loving You, No Quarter (first verse cut), The Song Remains The Same, The Rain Song
Disc 2: Moby Dick, Stairway To Heaven, Whole Lotta Love (incl. The Crunge, Honey Bee, Boogie Chillun’, Going Down), The Ocean
Recently release soundboard from the San Diego Sports Arena from May 28, 1973. The soundboard is excellent stereo being let down at the beginning by volume and balance fluctuations between the guitar and vocals. By Celebration Day, it settles down to being very well balanced and enjoyable, except for the opening of Moby Dick, where either the guitar cuts out altogether or is just so low in the mix to be inaudible (we hear Jones’ bass the melody).
The only other let downs on this release is the absence of Dazed & Confused, a cut in No Quarter, several little cuts in Moby Dick, and lots of little cuts in The Rain Song which make it a complete mess. The performance is outstanding.
Moby Dick is played out of sequence for whatever reason with a hilarious introduction from Plant: “Something people in China will never see. Something people in Russia and Korea will never see. A man who joined us two weeks after we started, and takes twice our money.” This show also contains the longest Whole Lotta Love on the tour. Jones and Bonham get into The Crunge during the theramin solo.
Plant gets into Honey Bee before Boogie Chillun’, and they all get into a great version of Going Down. The show closes with The Ocean. This title comes in a gatefold sleeve in a hinged box. The title on the actual disc says Three Nights Before, which is the Empress Valley title for the same show which will be released.
