The Led Zeppelin Channel

[DrumBob]

Led Zeppelin and Woody Herman on the same bill?!

Yes, Woody Herman and his big band. I also saw Buddy Rich opening for Steppenwolf at the Fillmore. Woody's band was very hip at the time. They were playing modern arrangements, not swing classics. I met Buddy that night at the Fillmore. He was awesome.

Yes, Bill Graham presented diverse acts all the time in pairings you would have thought unworkable, but usually, they worked just fine. Also, audiences were much more receptive to acts they didn't know, more accepting, and willing to listen respectfully. That started to change around 1970, when audiences started booing opening acts on occasion. Bill saw it happening. It's one of the reasons, he closed the Fillmores down.

 

[DrumBob]

That Bill Graham was a big believer in diversity, and a great little kidder, too.

BJ WIlson was Page's first choice for a drummer for "the Zep", but having just scored a hit with "Whiter Shade of Pale", Wilson decided to stick with what looked like a sure thing. Not that he wouldn't have done quite well for 'em, thank you, young Mr. Trower's presence being an added plus:

I always liked BJ's playing. He is criminally underrated among the pantheon of '60s rock drummers. I would have loved to have heard him in LZ.

 

[adorshki]

I always liked BJ's playing. He is criminally underrated among the pantheon of '60s rock drummers. I would have loved to have heard him in LZ.

Yep. Always loved that drum solo ever since I first heard it as a freshman in high school:"Ah, so this is what they mean by syncopation"

And introduced me to Trower. Still my favorite work by him, the album Broken Barricades. Actually took me 20 years to finally get the vinyl, and only 3 or 4 years ago it started getting a lot of recognition. Finally. The live sets from the era are magnificent.

 

[mavuser]

Does anyone here know of Jimmy Page playing a telecaster, during 1998-2001 range? around the time he was with the black crowes? possibly the B-Bender? got a picture from that time period with a tele? thanks!

 

[Guildedagain]

Page in the Black Crowes?

 

[mavuser]

Page in the Black Crowes?

enjoy

 

[FNG]

That's a good album!

 

[Midnight Toker]

Does anyone here know of Jimmy Page playing a telecaster, during 1998-2001 range? around the time he was with the black crowes? possibly the B-Bender? got a picture from that time period with a tele? thanks!

He may have pulled out the tele once or twice on the 98 Page/Plant tour, but I’ve never seen a pic. They were mainly sticking w/ Zep I through Houses of the Holy on that tour so the bender wasn’t used in 98. In 2000 on the Crowes tour, Page stuck w/ his #1 and a gold top transperformance Les Paul. Rich Robinson was mostly playing a tele. (On subsequent solo tours, Rich even got a bender tele and was doing tunes like Ten Years Gone!)

That whole Page/Crowes tour really helped put the Crowes back on the map. They were at a low point barely filling 1500 seaters….add Jimmy Page and Zep tunes, and they were instantly back in 15-20k seaters. I saw three shows on that tour. (And 6 in 98)

 

[Guildedagain]

enjoy

Wow, it's Chris Robinson with Zeppelin ;[]

 

[Midnight Toker]

Wow, it's Chris Robinson with Zeppelin ;[]

Not Zep. Just Page w/ the Crowes doing 90% Zep tunes, a few standards, and 1-2 Crowes tunes. And Steve Gorman was probably the best Zep feel drummer Page played w/ after Zep, and that includes John’s son, Jason Bonham!

 

[mavuser]

He may have pulled out the tele once or twice on the 98 Page/Plant tour, but I’ve never seen a pic. They were mainly sticking w/ Zep I through Houses of the Holy on that tour so the bender wasn’t used in 98. In 2000 on the Crowes tour, Page stuck w/ his #1 and a gold top transperformance Les Paul. Rich Robinson was mostly playing a tele. (On subsequent solo tours, Rich even got a bender tele and was doing tunes like Ten Years Gone!)

That whole Page/Crowes tour really helped put the Crowes back on the map. They were at a low point barely filling 1500 seaters….add Jimmy Page and Zep tunes, and they were instantly back in 15-20k seaters. I saw three shows on that tour. (And 6 in 98)

thanks for the info on the tele. kind of a long story why I'm asking. I've seen the Crowes more times than i've counted. At least 20 or 30 shows. 2 with Page, one at Roseland in 99 and one at Jones Beach in 2000 (they had different bass players at those 2 shows).

 

[Midnight Toker]

thanks for the info on the tele. kind of a long story why I'm asking. I've seen the Crowes more times than i've counted. At least 20 or 30 shows. 2 with Page, one at Roseland in 99 and one at Jones Beach in 2000 (they had different bass players at those 2 shows).

The Jones Beach show was professionally filmed and recorded. Fantastic show. Sadly, the only official release thus far is a 3 song EP. The full pro shot concert vid is on YouTube.

I really liked that tour, as it was a first for Page to really get to explore a lot of Zep tunes that really need 2-3 guitars to faithfully play live. He was in fine form and he had a killer tone using those Fender Tonemasters.

 

[Midnight Toker]

Last night John Paul Jones rose out of the pit playing a 90 yr old organ at the Big Ears Festival. (He's doing 3 shows today as well (likely as I type.)



And some more fun on his 8 string lap steel bass. ( custom made by Manson Guitars)

 

[DrumBob]

Page was really enjoying playing with The Black Crowes, until Rich Robinson blew him off after Jimmy told him he'd like to write some songs with him. Can you imagine blowing Jimmy Page off like that? Jimmy packed up and quit the tour. I can't blame him. That was the stupidest thing Robinson probably ever did.

 

[Midnight Toker]

Page was really enjoying playing with The Black Crowes, until Rich Robinson blew him off after Jimmy told him he'd like to write some songs with him. Can you imagine blowing Jimmy Page off like that? Jimmy packed up and quit the tour. I can't blame him. That was the stupidest thing Robinson probably ever did.

That was only according to Steve Gorman's tell all book called The Life and Death of the Black Crowes. It was one of several things in the book that was disputed by all other Crowes members and their mgt. Rich is a massive Page fan who was still doing some Zep tunes on his solo tours for 15+ years after the Page/Crowes tour. Page has always insisted he hurt his back and couldn't continue. https://www.iheart.com/content/2021...ike-back-at-ex-drummer-over-jimmy-page-story/

To be honest, the part of that claim I find most odd is that of Page offering songwriting help for the Crowes. He had a massive spike of creativity from about 67 to around 76….and has dipped into that well of leftover riffs ever since. Getting truly new material out of him in the last 35 yrs has been like pulling teeth. He seems most content riding the Zep wave into the sunset. Even Plant walked away from Page in 98 when Plant’s one demand in the collaboration was hinged upon not being a straight up Zep juke box, writing new material and approaching all Zep tunes from a different angle. They did just that in 96 (w/1 poorly produced mediocre album)…then by 98 it all morphed into a full on 4 piece Zep set by Page’s doing and Plant had a moment of reflection after a show in Paris and simply walked. Page has also talked about releasing more solo material “next year”…. for the last 20 years, with nothing to show for it. If you ask me, his well dried out long ago.

 

[Midnight Toker]

I can't wait till Sunday. A massive new video of Zep will drop. From an excellent show in Montreal in 1975. It's the longest 8mm fan shot Zep footage known thus far. Total run time just under an hour! (Which is astounding for 8mm fan shot footage. He must have had to constantly swop out film carts. **And the footage has been expertly synced to a recording of the show from it's highest quality source. The guy who shot it has recently (and I think posthumously)become a notorious concert videographer (yes he snuck in cameras, but he never released/sold them in the black market....and are only recently being digitized/freely released. Check out the channel for loads of very well shot vids of many great acts of the day. (Speedy Films)



Truly amazing how these Zep nuggets keep falling from the sky going on 50 years later! It's what's kept me into it all these years...nonstop.... since the band was still active. (1980) Crazy!

 

[Guildedagain]

OMG, I can't wait to hear MT going off about this.

I made it to the 10 minute mark and stopped.




The very 1st pic she shows of Bonzo he's already old, terrible, terrible documentary that's full of baloney.

The only interesting thing I got out it was that "Clapton, Beck and Page lived a mile and a half from each other" if that's actually true.

 

[Midnight Toker]

OMG, I can't wait to hear MT going off about this.

I made it to the 10 minute mark and stopped.




The very 1st pic she shows of Bonzo he's already old, terrible, terrible documentary that's full of baloney.

The only interesting thing I got out it was that "Clapton, Beck and Page lived a mile and a half from each other" if that's actually true.

Well let's just start w/ her saying "I just read Bob Spitz's excellent biography of Led Zeppelin"....and then stop it right there! No need to go any further. That book has about an error per page and is loaded with all sorts of dubious calls. It's like as if the author never liked Zep's music or the band itself, and spent most of his time harking on drug use and negative press. He lambasts specific concerts as having been atrocious when he wasn't there and there are recordings all over the net to prove otherwise. He doesn't even interview any band members and mainly cites Barney Hoskyns, an author from a previous Zep biography that actually spent time with the band during their heyday. Spitz likely just learned about Zep a month prior to starting this book from 5 other error filled Zep biographies that all tell the same old tales w/ his injected negative supposition in an attempt to make something new an interesting out of what any überfan already knows backwards and forwards. The one and only thing I found interesting in Spitz's book was his own theory about the infamous Drake Hotel robbery in July 73. Other than that, it's absolutely riddled w/ error. His Beatles biography on the other hand is very good. Mainly because he's actually a Beatles fan and has an emotional stake in it. I certainly don't want Zep bios written by über fans w/ a "can do no wrong" attitude going in, but I also don't want one from someone who doesn't even like the band at all, isn't willing to do their own research, and is just looking to cash in on their name.

I'll see how far I can make it into this video....but if it's largely based on what she got out of Spitz's drivel, it won't be very far at all.

 

[walrus]

Once I see Spitz's name, I'm out. I would respectfully disagree his Beatles bio is very good. Riddled with errors like you are saying about this LZ book. He apparently has never put much time into proofreading or checking his sources. And I know Yoko Ono is not everyone's cup of tea, but his clear dislike of her comes through in the book, and becomes more of an opinon essay at times rather than a biography. Sorry, Bob, John fell in love with her, deal with it!

I struggled to get through it, and regretted buying it. I'm not giving him my money for this LZ bio.

 

[Midnight Toker]

Once I see Spitz's name, I'm out. I would respectfully disagree his Beatles bio is very good. Riddled with errors like you are saying about this LZ book. He apparently has never put much time into proofreading or checking his sources. And I know Yoko Ono is not everyone's cup of tea, but his clear dislike of her comes through in the book, and becomes more of an opinon essay at times rather than a biography. Sorry, Bob, John fell in love with her, deal with it!

I struggled to get through it, and regretted buying it. I'm not giving him my money for this LZ bio.

Thanks for the heads up. As much as I love the Beatles, I'm admittedly no where near as schooled as I am w/ Zep. And I tend to be mostly interested in recording the Beatles. I do know a few absolute Beatles nuts w/ massive collections. About 20 some years ago I was at one of their houses and we were playing his Trivial Pursuit- Beatles Edition (yes, it does exist) I'll never forget getting the question. "In 1980 Paul McCartney was arrested at the Tokyo airport for possession of marijuana. What was the name of the dog that sniffed him out?" That's when I knew I was way over my head on Beatles knowledge.