Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Led Zeppelin - Burn Like A Candle (Genuine Masters) - Live at the LA Forum June 25, 1972



Led Zeppelin
June 25th, 1972
LA Forum
Burn Like A Candle [GM-LZ-25.02.1972-DVD-A-02]
Excellent Audience Recording
DVDR > DVD Decrypter > DVD Audio Extractor > WAV [44000khz] > FLAC
Audio only.

1 LA Drone
2 Immigrant Song
3 Heartbreaker
4 Over The Hills And Far Away
5 Black Dog
6 Since I've Been Loving You
7 Stairway To Heaven
8 Going To California
9 That's The Way
10 Tangerine
11 Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp
12 Dazed & Confused (includes Walter's Walk, The Crunge)
13 What Is And What Should Never Be
14 Dancing Days
15 Moby Dick
16 Whole Lotta Love
17 Rock And Roll
18 The Ocean
19 Louie Louie/Every Day People/Organ Solo
20 Thank You
21 Communication Breakdown
22 Bring It On Home

My Comments:
Out of Led Zeppelin's entire 11 year live career, this show in 1972 was chosen to be the one to represent the tour de force that is live led zeppelin in the band's first official live album, How The West Was Won. Although parts of HTWWW was also drawn from a Long Beach show two nights later on the 27th, it is still based on the LA show of the 25th. The bootleg is a nice compliment to the live album and its a shame that the whole complete 3 hour show wasn't included on the official release, perhaps it is due to the difficulty of fitting three hours on the release or maybe just the copyright nightmare created by all the medleys and covers performed. Going back to the bootleg, it is named Burn Like A Candle, after a comment made by Robert Plant during the show regarding the upcoming album name. The recording is a very good stereo recording that is quite clear, the instruments are balanced, nicely separated, and it has a nice ambiance to it. And although the recorder gets overloaded at times which results in some loss in clarity, it is nonetheless a highly enjoyable recording, in fact the best audience recording of the whole US 1972 tour. Well the show kicks off with the eerie LA Drone (first implemented a few days earlier in NY) which the tape picks up quite well, and it is quite great at creating suspense and anticipation as the calm before the storm. The calm comes to an abrupt end as the band hammers into the opening salvos of Immigrant Song, featuring still powerful vocals from plant and a excellent solo from jimmy. Which is surprising given that the number was dropped soon after the end of the tour due to it placing great strain on plant's deteriorating voice. After seguing into a great heartbreaker the show encounters its first surprise of the evening, Over the Hills and Far Away is now added to main set list after being premiered in Seattle on the 19th as an encore, and it is played quite faithfully to the album version. This hold true especially for the vocals, which over the coming months will be sung at lower registers due to plant's vocal deterioration. Following this is a heavy Black Dog and a intense Since I've Been Loving You, Black Dog still keeping true to the hard-rocking original (compared to the slower groove of 1973+ versions). Tonight's version of Stairway To Heaven is an excellent one, particularly page's solo which is a awesome balance between intensity of earlier versions and the technical proficiency of future versions (i.e 1973). Also worth noting is that this is the last tour in which the keyboard part of stairway is played using an organ, because starting in October's japanese tour Jonesy will switch to a Mellotron for the keyboards, however in official release (HTWWW) one can clearly hear a Mellotron, it is one of those interesting tidbits that one hears when comparing official to unofficial releases. Anyways, back to the show, following stairway comes the acoustic set, which over the previous tours has grown to four numbers, Going to California, That's The Way, Tangerine, and Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp. Due to this expanded acoustic portion, that drove many shows to exhausting 3 hour lengths, the band decided to cut most of the set after this tour, only retaining Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp till mid 1973. Afterwards comes a superb Dazed and Confused, including Walter's Walk and The Crunge, and although not as technical or improvisational as the famed 1973 versions it nonetheless makes up with its sheer intensity and power. What Is and What Should Never Be and Dancing Days follow next, WIAWSNB was on its way out of the setlist and the Dancing Days just recently added, asit is its second time ever played live on stage. After Bonham's 20 minute workout, Moby Dick, comes the always enjoyable Whole Lotta Love medley and tonight's version is definitely a killer one, with excellent covers of Boogie Chillen', Let's Have a Party, Hello Mary Lou, and Elvis' Heatbreak Hotel which bring down the house and leave the audience hollering for more. And if the show wasn't extraordinary enough they take it legendary lengths to which more than satisfy the audience with not 2 or 3, but 6 encores. Which kicks off with a rocking version of the aptly-named Rock and Roll, which is soon to be promoted from encore to set opener. Next the audience is treated to The Ocean, another song just recently debuted and a song dedicated  to the "ocean" that is their live audience. After a brief pause, a short organ riff by Jonesy is all it takes to make the audience go ballistic, ballistic over a cover of Louie Louie by the Kingsmen which segues into a intense Thank You. The night could have ended there and it would have been one for the ages but they  were convinced back on stage by audience's screams for more zeppelin, to which they responded with a short Communication Breakdown jam and finally finished the night off with Bring It On Home, this being the last time the band played the piece completely and the loose jam a fantastic way to end the three and a half hour show. So whether you're looking for the party atmosphere, the amazing encores, or an excellently played show, this is definitely a must have and a really bootleg gem we're lucky to have, enjoy!


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