Winterland Party (Wendy WECD-23/24)
Winterland, San Francisco, CA – November 6th, 1969
Disc 1: Good Times Bad Times – Communication Breakdown, I Can’t Quit You, Heartbreaker, Dazed & Confused, White Summer – Black Mountain Side.
Disc 2: What Is And What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, How Many More Times (includes The Hunter, All Down The Line, Truckin’ Little Mama, The Lemon Song), C’mon Everybody, Somethin’ Else
Zeppelin’s fourth tour of the US in the autumn of 1969 is poorly documented and poorly released. The band played three nights in Winterland and only the second and third nights have been taped. The first poor sounding tape was released on Blow Up (Immigrant), Punk (Tarantura), its European clone End of ’69 (Whole Lotta Live), and Room 2/3 on the Image Quality label (paired with the following show on the seventh). A second, very good sounding audience source surfaced as C’mon Everybody on the cdr label House Of Elrond in 1999. That label used the first tape source to fix the gaps in the tape.
Winterland Party by Wendy sounds almost identical to the House Of Elrond release. They attempted to boost the volume and brighten it a bit and there is evidence of their mastering with the crispy “wooshes” in the higher frequencies. It isn’t too distracting but is present and noticeable in louder sections. The newer, great sounding tape source is used for a majority of this release. The older, poor sounding source is used for some song introductions like “Heartbreaker” and “White Summer”, and is used for “What Is And What Should Never Be”. (I guess that taper didn’t like that song).
This a great show and it’s a pity this tour is so under represented. It’s very interesting to hear songs from Led Zeppelin II as brand new songs being introduced for the very first time. They are played very close to the LP versions. “Dazed & Confused” is introduced as something from a while back and contains, about ten minutes in, a unique pastoral groove. Page breaks a string during “The Hunter” in “How Many More Times”. Winterland Party is a good title to own until EV continues their legendary Fillmore series sometime, it is hoped, in the future.
