Showing posts with label Dancing Days. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dancing Days. Show all posts

Saturday, April 2, 2016

On This Day 02 April

Did those journalists really think Led Zeppelin needed to play France?
1973 02 April On This Day Led Zeppelin, Paris (day 2 of 2)
  • 1969 Led Zeppelin - Cardiff Wales atTop Rank Ballroom
  • 1970 Led Zeppelin - Charleston WV at Charleston Civic Center Coliseum
  • 1973 Led Zeppelin - Paris at Centre Sportif (day 2 of 2)
  • 1986 The Firm- Mean Business album released
1969:
This show was a benefit in for the Biafran Relief Organisation. Led Zeppelin did their part, but in the middle of How Many More Times the revolving stage was engaged and cables suddenly were jerked out of the amps' sockets, some broken off. That was the end of that.

1973:
The band had already cancelled two shows in France because of the audiences. They came back to Paris (actually a suburb to the north of the city) to play the Palais des Sports de Saint Ouen. Roy Hollingworth of Melody Maker reported:  "Zeppelin kicked a great hole in the night..."  But it was too late for France. Led Zeppelin was done with that country.

1973 Led Zeppelin get more gold discs

1973 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin, Paris
1986 Mean Business, by The Firm
1986:
You're probably tired of my whining about The Firm, but tough. It's my blog and I'll whine if I want to. And here I go:

The problem with The Firm is there's too much of Paul Rodgers and not enough Jimmy Page. Hey, I'm not putting down Mr. Rodgers. He's a great singer. But, as I've described elsewhere in this blog probably too many time, Paul Rodgers isn't giving it up to the muse that Jimmy Page answers to. Unfortunate for The Firm, because Jimmy Page is the one channeling the magick.

Cadillac, from The Firm's 1986 Mean Business, is a good example of when Jimmy Page gets to open to that channel and let it flow. Paul Rodgers comes through in this one to deliver lyrics and melody that match the setting Jimmy Page has provided. But then on the same album we get Free To Live, which doesn't come up to those standards. 

Cadillac roils with Jimmy Page's dark twisty tones, gasping pauses, and shocking thrusts of high notes. Free To Live starts out with promise: Slade's thumping and the growly guitar in the intro really work nicely together to hint of... well, we never find out, because Paul Rodgers starts singing and the other members of the band just back off and support him. At 2:00 Jimmy Page comes back in and takes over and we get some good stuff working - and then the song recedes to that old band-supports-the-vocalist format, where the singer is making lyrics the music instead of letting words serve the music. That's traditional but it's also boring. And unfortunately, as good as the quartet was, traditional was too typical of The Firm's work. The band was very good, but it was not innovative. We had already heard it all before. And what a shame. It didn't have to be that way.

So I, for one, don't love The Firm as much as I might. That's why I'm hoping that Jimmy Page will soon put out new music that leaves him free of the anchor of a traditional vocalist and rather lets his guitar do the singing.



♪  Dancing Days (Led Zeppelin, Paris 02 April 1973) YouTube
♪  Cadillac (The Firm, Mean Business 1986) YouTube
♪  Free To Live (The Firm, Mean Business 1986) YouTube
♫  Mean Business MTV promo 1986usiness 1986) YouTube

♪ Mage Music 1 playlist at YouTube
♪ Mage Music 2 playlist at YouTube
♪ Page & Plant playlist at YouTube




NOTICE: April 11 will be the last daily On This Day post
as that will be a full year's worth.  I won't post any more
unless Jimmy Page's website offers some new ones.

Stay tuned for new posts here on the Mage Music blog
about the music and Magick of 
JIMMY PAGE
and previews of new Mage Music projects!

Friday, March 18, 2016

On This Day 18 March



1969 18 March On This Day, Led Zeppelin recorded Supershow


  • 1968 The Yardbirds - BBC Radio Pete Brady Show
  • 1971 Led Zeppelin - Newcastle upon Tyne, England at Mayfair Ballroom
  • 1985 The Firm - Albuquerque, NM at Tingley Coliseum
  • 1995 Page & Plant Unledded Tour - Dallas, TX at Reunion Arena
1969:
I'm definitely dazed and confused. The Supershow was a music documentary film directed by John Crome and produced by Tom Parkinson. It included many of the big names in jazz, rock and blues of the time:  The Modern Jazz Quartet,  Buddy Guy, Buddy Miles, Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Stephen Sills, and of course, Led Zeppelin. It was filmed over two days' time, 25 and 26 March, in an vacant linoleum factor at Staines, England because the project was hush-hush. The cost to film was supposedly over $150 (in 2016 dollars) per minute.  Reportedly Jimi Hendrix would have been included but he missed his flight from the US.

Whatever Led Zeppelin was doing on 18 March 1969, it wasn't being filmed performing Dazed and Confused for Supershow, because there are plenty of witnesses to their doing so the following week.

The film premiered in London at the Lyceum Theatre in November 1969 and in 1986 was released on video. This version of Dazed and Confused was included on the Led Zeppelin DVD in 2003.

1985 Jimmy Page / The Firm, Albuquerque


♪ Dazed and Confused (Led Zeppelin, Supershow 1969) YouTube
♪  The Firm (Albuquerque 1985) YouTube
♪  Page & Plant (Dallas 1995) YouTube



♪ Mage Music 1 playlist at YouTube
♪ Mage Music 2 playlist at YouTube
♪ Page & Plant playlist at YouTube





Friday, January 22, 2016

On This Day 22 January


1973 22 January On This Day Led Zeppelin at Southampton University

  • 1967 The Yardbirds - Sydney, Australia at Sydney Stadium
  • 1973 Led Zeppelin - Southampton,UK at Southampton University
  • 1975 Led Zeppelin - Chicago, IL. at Chicago Stadium (day 3 of 3)
1971:
Note that the source for the one minute intro to Four Sticks (link below), with John Bonham's setting up the timing, may have been from a session at Headley Grange between 1970 December and 1971 January or from the 1971 February sessions at Island Studios in London.  Rumor has it that this and other outtakes were found in trash.


1973 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin at soundcheck, Southampton University

1973 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin at Southampton University

1973 Jimmy Page / Led Zeppelin at Southampton University




♪  Four Sticks / intro only (Led Zeppelin, rehearsal 1971) YouTube
♪  Dancing Days (Led Zeppelin, Southampton 1973) YouTube
♪  Full set (Led Zeppelin, Southampton 1973) YouTube

♪ Mage Music 1 playlist at YouTube
♪ Mage Music 2 playlist at YouTube

Friday, November 20, 2015

On This Day 20 November

Playing in the pool
1971 20 November On This Day Led Zeppelin at Wembley

  • 1966 The Yardbirds - Detroit, MI at Michigan State Fair Coliseum
  • 1971 Led Zeppelin - London, England at Wembley Empire Pool
  • 1998 Page & Plant - Zurich, Switzerland at Hallenstadion 

1971:
The 10,000 tickets for this Led Zeppelin gig sold out in an hour so a second concert was set up for the next night. Dancing Days was premiered at this show - it had not yet been recorded for Houses of the Holy. Stone the Crows, with Maggie Bell, opened for Led Zeppelin. Maggie later signed on with Swan Song Records, and she performed at the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute concert in 2007.

1971 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin Wembley

1971 Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin Wembley
2015:
Jimmy Page was honored at the EMP Founders Award last night in Seattle.  He performed with the guest band, too.  Photos and video here.

The good news is it's finally Friday.
The bad news (for this blog) is that my project deadline got extended so I gotta keep working.
Only a few more days, though...



♪  Full set (Led Zeppelin, Wembley 1971) YouTube
♪  Dancing Days (Led Zeppelin, 1973/2014 remaster) YouTube




Sunday, April 12, 2015

On This Day - April 12 1972

I'm thinking of uploading the On This Day images I've captured from jimmypage.com over the years. We'll see if I have the sticking power to do it, and if I do, if this blog is where I should put it.

Note that I will duplicate the entries on the Tidbits page.
2015 note:  I didn't duplicate all the entries on the Tidbits page.  But I did do every single On  This Day post!

Jimmy Page On This Day 12 April 1972
12 April 1972 - Dancing Days at Olympic Studios