Led Zeppelin - 1973-07-27 - New York City
Led Zeppelin
July 27, 1973
Madison Square Garden
New York City, NY
101. The Rain Song
102. Dazed And Confused
201. Stairway To Heaven
202. Moby Dick
203. Heartbreaker
204. Whole Lotta Love (medley)
205. The Ocean
Review: Led Zeppelin Rocks to a Close at Garden
I saw the Friday opening of the Led Zeppelin concert from backstage, feeling the weight and response of the packed Madison Square Garden. It was possibly the best place to test the power of the British rock group, making the final dates of its current and very successful American tour.
And power it is – Led Zeppelin provides a kind of tent-show hard rock revivalism, healing and providing succor to the faithful, on a stage that throughout the evening became cluttered with smoke, dry-ice fumes and that most privileged of rock ‘n’ roll people, the film-maker.
Led Zeppelin remains unchanged. The group may perform different pieces, but the effect is the same. Jimmy Page’s lead guitar still dominates and mixes and merges with Robert Plant’s agile voice and Nureyev pirouetting to provide the basic essence of Zeppelin.
And Page is still into musical freakiness; dramatically dragging a violin bow across his guitar, he did his familiar squealing impersonation before boogieing off.
Page’s guitar more often than not sounds like thunder, but for all the power and fury at their disposal, the stage had much scaffolding on either side to hold the equipment, Zeppelin manages to provide some separation of instruments in the blare.
The group and the loyalty of its pilgrims out front (who remained shouting for an encore after the group had left) provide solidarity to hard rock. (NYTimes, July ’73)
Well ... a historic gem and only a portion! Plant introducing Stairway To Heaven saying: "I think this is a song of hope..." and he suddenly ad-libs "...and it's a very quiet song so shut up!" but only the first part of his introduction can be heard on movie and soundtrack. Bonham launching with a fury his drum introduction to Heartbreaker and then heavily leads the band with Whole Lotta Love.
The first of three nights at Madison Square Garden used to create the 1976 concert film The Song Remains the Same and the live album of the same name. The tape begins just after the first verse of an excellent The Rain Song. The heavy section is incredibly powerful. As the song ends, Plant tells the crowd "that was a sort of a love song" before introducing Dazed and Confused as "a very old one." Several shouts of "sit down!" can be heard coming from the crowd during the intro. Page's fingers fly across the fretboard during the frantic lead-in to the bow solo. The San Francisco interlude is both hauntingly beautiful and devastatingly heavy. The band is absolutely on fire during the outstanding guitar solo/workout section. Page shreds wildly during the outro. An incredibly powerful performance.
Before Stairway to Heaven, Plant tells the rowdy crowd "I think this is a song of hope... and it is a very quiet song, so shut up." Page's fingers get a bit sticky during an otherwise fantastic guitar solo, one of the best thus far. Someone in the crowd can be heard repeatedly shouting "The Ocean!" prior to Moby Dick, which Plant introduces by saying "ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Elvis Presley has now left the building." Page's fingers get stuck in the strings during the guitar solo in Heartbreaker. He blazes through the Boogie Chillen' section during Whole Lotta Love. As the song ends, Plant calls out "New York, goodnight." Strings of firecrackers crackle in the distance as the band returns to the stage to close the show with The Ocean.
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