Description
Double cd in digipak cover
Led Zeppelin returned from England, where they top the Melody Maker Poll Awards dethroning the Beatles after eight years, to continue to tour the States. This album was recorded on the evening show (8 pm) at Madison Square Garden on the 19th of September 1970. A press conference is held the day before the show, with Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. The show was originally slated for June 27th but the band turned down the offer of $200,000 and re-schedule the summer American tour, to appear at the Bath Festival. Two shows were scheduled: 2pm and 8pm, where Robert Plant also pays tribute to Jimi Hendrix who had just died. The evening’s performance is widely considered one of their best ever. An original concert review read; Led Zeppelin finished their American tour with around 200,000 dollars worth of business at the big Madison Square Garden where they nearly filled the first concert and completely packed the second. They were the only act on the bill and so each member earned himself around 30,000 dollars (after deductions) for just under six hours work. But work it was – second show received such audience reaction, comparable with the Stones at their Madison date, that several long encores were done by the group. They introduced several things from the new Led Zeppelin Three album, including one number with Jimmy Page on acoustic guitar and John Paul Jones on electric mandolin. Another reviewer said; Led Zeppelin’s records have, for the most part, turned -me off. Admitting their general excellence as players, I was still unable to find little of lasting value in their slavish adherence to their by-now well-known psychedelic formula. Accordingly, I was prepared for a facile performance from the Zep at Madison Square Garden; and expected to leave after half an hour. But Led Zeppelin blew the stuffings right out of my preconceived notions. In brief, everything that has ever been right with live rock and roll is right with Led Zeppelin in concert. The first hour of their two and a half hour set consisted mostly of album cuts and single hits; here Page, Plant, and Co. revealed an amazing ability to improvise meaningful and effective electronic sound, a pure, unattached sort of creative flow that, I’m sure, left many of the Zep’s teenybopper fans completely bewildered. Plant in particular astounded me with his free-noise vocal contributions. After some slightly lackluster acoustic material and a John Bonham drum solo that brought down the packed house, the group got into the best extended live rock playing I have ever heard anyone do, and that includes the Stones. Plant would start the audience clapping on a beat, and the entire group would trust us, 30,000 pairs of hands, to keep the beat while they improvised against it. And it worked, time and time again, building a sense of ritual participation and pure gut-level joy while Led Zeppelin ripped through an improvised, seemingly eternal medley of old rock and blues songs. More heartfelt cries for encores were never heard.
Track list:
1. Introduction
2. Immigrant Song
3. Heartbreaker
4. Dazed And Confused
5. Bring It On Home
6. That’s The Way
7. Bron-Yr-Aur
8. Since I’ve Been Loving You
9. Organ Solo
10. Thank You
11. What Is And What Should Never Be
12. Moby Dick
13. Whole Lotta Love
14. Out On The Tiles
15. Communication Breakdown
16. Rock Medley (Girl Can’t Help It / Twenty Flight Rock)
17. How Many More Times