Led Zeppelin/MA,USA 1973

The 1973 US tour was so long that it was split into two legs with a break of nearly a month in between. The first leg from May to June produced many smart performances and proceeded relatively smoothly, while the second leg in July is known to have proceeded while being hit by trouble. After all, Plant was in a terrible state from the first day, July 6th in Chicago. Ironically, the soundboard recording clearly recorded the appearance of a bad throat and difficulty in singing. As a result, it was a disastrous opening, but the tour proceeded calmly for a while after that. The performance that was born there was the Seattle performance on July 17th, and it is still fresh in our memory that the release from our shop containing the audience recording version was sold out. However, as if it had burned out on that day, the days of Plant’s suffering began from here. In “VANCOUVER 1973”, which was released the day after our shop released it, the show started as usual, but due to Plant’s abnormality, the show was cut off before the end. In the first place, it was a hard schedule of five consecutive days from Seattle on the 17th to Providence on the 21st, and there was no good reason for Plant, who had not been in good condition since the beginning of the second leg. In such a situation, disaster befell not only Plant but also ZEP as a whole at the Boston performance on the 20th. In the first place, Boston was a place that ZEP had unforgettable good memories. When they played at the Boston Tea Party in January 1969, they played for four and a half hours because of the excitement, and there was an important stage where they were sure of the success of the fledgling group. However, after ZEP’s popularity exploded and the venue suddenly became bigger, every time they performed in Boston, it turned into a troublesome thing. First of all, in 1970, they performed while having trouble with the excessive security at the Boston Garden. Even more decisive was the time they performed at the same venue in 1971. Once again, the security at the venue caused trouble for Plant and the rest of the band, and firecrackers were set off. What’s more, the performance was interrupted during “Dazed And Confused”. The 1972 US tour also had a concert at the Boston Garden at the beginning, but unfortunately the recording of that day has not been found. However, based on ZEP’s later response to Boston, it is easy to imagine that this show would not have been a peaceful one. It is also easy to imagine that ZEP had a resistance to performing at Boston and the Boston Garden based on their previous experience, but Boston could not be left out of the 1973 tour, which had gained immense popularity in the US. However, the timing of the 1973 Boston performance was too bad. It was right after Vancouver, where Plant had already fallen ill and the concert was cut short. In fact, from listening to the recordings to be released this time, it is clear that Plant was in very bad condition from the opening. This sound source is recorded with a distant sound image, but the state of the plant in a terrible state is still clearly transmitted. It seems that it may be worse than Chicago on July 6th. What’s worse than that time is that even the usual melody that Plant sang in 1973 can’t be sung here. Wow, this is bad. What’s even more troublesome is the bad manners of the audience gathered at Boston Garden, which can be said to have reached its peak in a bad sense. It was quite noisy in 1971, but on this day it was at a level that almost made me think it was a riot. Ironically, I can’t help but think that this situation covered Plant’s poor condition. As soon as “Over The Hills And Far Away” ended, he called attention to the too noisy audience. You can see the tense situation from the fact that the usual “good evening!” that Plant always utters is not heard at all. Due to the excessive noise, the decision was made early on in the show to omit “Misty Mountain Hop” and “Since I’ve Been Loving You”. It is certainly difficult to play the latter slow blues in this chaos. However, on the other hand, it may have been a good idea to skip a few songs and go for “No Quarter”, where he could take a break with a long performance, given Plant’s poor condition. Plant’s condition here is also not good. Even though it is not a song that requires a strong shout, he can barely sing it. However, the performance is heated, and you can hear the tricky rhythm of Page and Bonzo. From around St. Paul on the 9th, Bonzo’s play on this song began to stand out, and the performance of the two of them seemed to have developed further from there. If this had been 1975 or 1977, it would have been extended even further. Perhaps due to the success of Plant’s breaks in this song and after the middle of “The Rain Song”, Plant clearly started to recover from “Dazed And Confused”, and the voltage of the performance increased all at once, which is interesting. Here too, you can’t miss the flashes of Page and Bonzo’s playing. That said, the audience became even more noisy than before, and Plant couldn’t help but sing “take it easy” before the “San Francisco” part started. Plant, who had recovered from that, also sang a song with a lot of energy in “Stairway To Heaven” like a different person from the first half of the show. Even with such passionate singing, it was clear that the situation was no longer manageable, and eventually “Moby Dick” was skipped (it was only natural that Bonzo didn’t want to play it), and the live show moved towards the end at once. Interestingly, the performance was still very spirited, which is typical of a professional, but it’s easy to imagine that the members were full of the feeling that they had had enough. There was no encore, and instead, firecrackers from the audience expressing dissatisfaction rang out in vain. In fact, ZEP never performed in Boston again after this day. There are two types of audience recordings of such a tense night, but the one released this time is the Joe Maloney recording, which should be called “recorder 2”. The sound quality is more clear and realistic than the degree of on of the sound image, and it boasts an ease of listening that is incomparable to “recorder 1”, which was previously available in “ZEP VS BOSTON”, for example. In that respect, let’s say that the sound quality is overwhelmingly more prominent when played from speakers than headphones. In this release, instead of applying any equalization like the past items, the high pitch and the muffled sound in the left channel that occurred periodically due to the deterioration of the tape are precisely adjusted. This makes it possible to maintain a natural taste while achieving an ease of listening that is incomparable to past items. Only by listening to it in this stable state can you tell whether the big fuss show in Boston was so interesting? You’ll definitely be reminded of this. Enjoy this real documentary of a unique day on the 1973 US tour! Live at Boston Garden, Boston, MA. USA 20th July 1973 Disc 1 (50:17) 1. Intro. 2. Rock and Roll 3. Celebration Day 4. Black Dog 5. Over the Hills and Far Away 6. MC 7. No Quarter 8. The Song Remains the Same 9. The Rain Song　 Disc 2 (68:22) 1. MC 2. Dazed and Confused 3. Stairway to Heaven 4. Heartbreaker 5. Whole Lotta Love IMPORT TITLE