Led Zeppelin – Second Night At The Forum (Scorpio LZ-08023)

Second Night At The Forum (Scorpio LZ-08023)

The Forum, Los Angeles, CA – June 22nd, 1977

Disc 1 (79:18):  Introduction, The Song Remains The Same, Sick Again, Nobody’s Fault But Mine, In My Time Of Dying, Since I’ve Been Loving You, No Quarter

Disc 2 (55:01):  Ten Years Gone, The Battle Of Evermore, Going To California, Black Country Woman, Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp, White Summer/Black Mountain Side, Kashmir

Disc 3 (74:12):  Moby Dick, Over The Hills And Far Away, guitar solo, Achillies Last Stand, Stairway To Heaven, Whole Lotta Love, Rock And Roll

With Second Night At The Forum, Scorpio makes an astute judgement to press a relatively obscure Led Zeppelin show to silver disc.  Because the sound quality of the tapes are not up to the same standards as most of the other LA shows, it is mostly found only in large and expensive boxsets priced out of reach of most collectors.  In 1994 it was included in the famous Tarantura box set A Week For Badgeholders (T19CD) and released independently on Over The Hills And Far Away (Tarantura T19CD, 4~6).  The first disc of this release is actually the June 14th New York show.  The Diagrams Of Led Zeppelin released this show several years afterwards in the Power And Glory box set and independently as Time Traveler (TDOLZ Vol. 51), but they use tape from the previous night’s show to fill the hole in “Ten Years Gone.” 

One Day After Eddie (Immigrant IM-054~56) use tape from the June 25th show for “Ten Years Gone” and is missing about five minutes of “No Quarter.”  The latest release can be found on Thirty Years Gone(Empress Valley from EVSD-468/469/470) from Empress Valley’s disastrous For Badgeholders Only boxset.  They mix the tape sources frome the end of “Since I’ve Been Loving You” to several minutes into “No Quarter” and for “Ten Years Gone.”  EV also significantly amplified the tape making it difficult to really enjoy and since it was only available in an expensive boxset with inferior versions of common shows is one of the more cynical marketing schemes in recent Led Zeppelin bootlegs.  Scorpio on the other hand have produced a really nice edition of this show.  The mastering isn’t as loud and although these aren’t the best sounding tape it is an enjoyable listen.  The first tape soruce is used for the bulk of the show but the second is used for “No Quarter” and “Ten Years Gone” in seamless edits.

June 22nd is considered to be the sloppiest of the six Los Angeles shows.  The opening song “The Song Remains The Same” is a bit rough and both “Achillies Last Stand” and “Stairway To Heaven” contains many mistakes.  But otherwise it is a solid show and very fun show to listen to.  Plant himself sets the tone early on by saying “well we don’t intend to mess about” and “For the concerts in the next few days, you’ll see that the state of mind of the four of us is very lighthearted cause we really are, without any spiel, we’re just having a good time. It’s nice to be back on the road.”  It is interesting to note that “Over The Hills And Far Away,” which was normally played early in the set, is played after “Moby Dick.”  Scorpio use a standard fatboy jewel case with many photos from the LA gigs on the artwork.