Led Zep Celebration Day

[Ritchie200]

Recorded the Led Zep reunion concert a few weeks ago and finally had a chance to watch it.  I was expecting the worst because all I ever heard was that everyone but Plant wanted to go out on the road.  I was expecting him to be pretty marginal.  I was really blown away!  Plant didn't scream like in the old days, but I think he did a VERY good job.  The band was very tight in typical Zep fashion: Jason's frenetic drumming with John's almost robotic playing anchoring Page's forays!  Page just kills me!  I'm listening to one (OK every...) lead thinking, wow, that sounds like crap - what the heck is he doing!  Then in typical Page fashion, it all falls together in the end and now I'm going - how the heck did he do that!!!  That was perfect!!!  He is definitely one of the greats.  I saw them back in the 70's and they had to battle through PA and amp problems, but did a heck of a job.  I've always liked the movie, The Song Remains the Same.  However, I heard Page dubbed the crap out of that.  This was a WYSIWYG and it was impressive.  THAT Page tone was immediately recognizable.  I wish they would go on the road one last time, that would be awesome.  And I would be there!


Jim

[EL34]

Where is the video link?

[Ritchie200]

Sorry, this was more of me rambling on than posting a song!  One thing I forgot about was in typical Page fashion his ORANGE amps had the "AN" missing in the logo......


Here are a few good ones for you from the concert.


Jim


Led Zeppelin - Kashmir - Celebration Day


Led Zeppelin - Black Dog - Celebration Day [OFFICIAL]

[SILVERGUN]

Page just kills me!  I'm listening to one (OK every...) lead thinking, wow, that sounds like crap - what the heck is he doing!  Then in typical Page fashion, it all falls together in the end and now I'm going - how the heck did he do that!!!  That was perfect!!!  He is definitely one of the greats.

Great to hear you speaking up about this guy!

Most people are busy taking all of these guys for granted and acting like they didn't change the face of rock and roll and influence EVERY rock band that came after them.

Great post sir!....I will leave this planet mumbling to anyone within earshot that THIS WAS THE GREATEST ROCK BAND THAT EVER EXISTED. period.

One point for Jim.....somebody write that down. 

Anybody got an OR__GE schematic I can borrow?

[Ghetto_Soundwave]

Plant's voice seems smoother than a few years ago. Page, on the other hand isn't sounding so good.. leads are pretty brutal. Still one of the few "old fart" bands I'd pay to see.

[EL34]

Pages leads and solo's were never good, IMO
But, Jimmy Page is the master of creating awesome riffs
Led Zeppelin tunes are still the best riff tunes there ever were to me.

I leave the awesome leads and solo's to Jeff Beck's
Page said it himself "When Beck is on, no one is better"


Beck and Page together on stage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3B_-08Abe4

[EL34]

I am not sure who is playing in the Kashmir video up above
Jimmy does something different here and there but the main riff continues on without him?

[Willabe]

Pages leads and solo's were never good, IMO

I always thought "Since I've been loving you" was pretty good.   

(Edit; Just listened to it, been a loooong time, the lead, ~ehhh, maybe my tasts have just changed.  )

And yes, I'd agree, he could write/play a hook/riff. I loved them in the 70's, my teen years. But now I can't really listen to them any more, guess I'm getting old, gets on my nerves. All of Plant's screamin and pages hard edge is too dark for me now.      But 1 mans ceiling is another mans floor.

I saw a documentary not long ago on Zep that pretty much soured me on them, Page in particular. They were into some real weird stuff, awfully young girls, Page again. And their manager and #1 body guard were running things like the mob.  (Yeah I know a lot of them did it too, but still, it's not right.)

I knew a guy when I was playing for Son Seals who was a real good player. He told me that he never met Son and didn't want to meet him ever. I asked him why and he said he 'didn't want to take the chance that he wouldn't like Son and that would change the way he felt about Son's music.' I didn't get it at the time but now I can see it.        

I'd say now that my favorite Zep stuff is on Physical Graffiti, funny I didn't like it at all when it 1st came out, didn't get it.   


                     Brad     

[Willabe]

Just to add something to the party;

Led Zeppelin - Custard Pie

And yes that was Plant on all the Zep albums blues harp work, IMO, he was very good, but I guess you'd have to like blues harp.   

(And I always liked Plant's take on Elvis in parts of some songs.  Thank you very much.        )

                   Brad     

[Ritchie200]

SG - Whoa Casey Jones, that is NOT what I was saying.  Stating that Page is "one of the greats" does not hoist them all on top of the pantheon.  There are so many layers to the hard rock influence onion.  I do think the 70's triumvirate is Led Zep, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple.  But lets look a little closer.  What about Cream?  Hendrix?  Everyone was pursuing the blues style and looking for a grittier sound.  Blackmore admits that when he heard Zeps first album, that is the direction he had always wanted to go in - and he made the personnel changes to achieve that goal.  They put out In Rock and there was no stopping them.  Sabbath were originally a blues band and if it hadnt been for their dogged pursuit of their signature sound, where would metal be today?  Pagey paid his dues in the studio in the 60's, a very similar role that Blackmore and Beck had done.  And if you don't immediately recognize Janis Joplin in Plant's singing, you are deafer than my wife accuses me of being....  What about what I would consider the second tier?  At one time Slade had more top ten hits in England than the Beatles.  Every punk band in the universe, along with Gene Simmons vision for Kiss and ACDC, credit them.  ELP defined prog rock and keyboards. What about YES?  What about Santana?  ZZ Top?  Allman Bros?  I think they all have had their influence on how hard rock has evolved.  However, I still go back to my big three.  I remember reading an article about Purple that I think applies to all three.  He basically said that after the 60's love connection and fighting in and against Vietnam, the country (and the world for that matter) was in a desparate need to party hard.  I think all three bands filled that bill.  BTW, you will have to draw up your own OR__GE schematic - but please don't post it.....  Also, BTW, I think I am seeing KT88's in the back of Page's Super Leads (an old wive's tale proven out).  I guess he was just trying to be like Blackmore (SG, I'll let you chew on that for a while...).


As far as Page is concerned.  While I agree his lead playing might not be technical perfection, have you tried to play it?  He has THAT stamp on those runs.  I've never heard anyone else play like that?  I know we have quite a few members here who play or have played in bands.  If you are the lone guitar player, you have to make plenty of noise to fill the hole when you stop playing chords.  I think he does a HELL of a job in the same way Billy Gibbons does in his three man band, or Clapton (of old...), or Hendrix.  That is the hardest job for a single guitar player to do live.  I also think his (what I call) "falling down and finally landing on my feet" style of lead playing fits the tunes perfect.  And of course, like Doug said, what a riff-meister!  You only have to listen to the chord progressions and structure of the songs to see the brilliance.


"old fart bands"?!?!?!?  Oh man, I'm really feeling old now......  By the way, Page played like that back in the 70's too. 


Doug, that is JPJ holding up the melody while Page is dancing around!


Willabe, you bring up a great point.  There is stuff that I passed on back in the day because I just didnt get it or it was too keyboard oriented, etc., etc...  I can now go back and revisit it and really appreciate what the heck they were trying to do or say.  Case in point ELP.  I saw them on their Brain Salad Surgery tour and thought they were great - but heck who wants to listen to all that keyboard crap!  I hate keyboard players!  They all suck and are big-headed obnoxious wanna be guitarist idiots!  Well, now I'm sitting here for hours trying to learn the keyboard run for ELP's Touch and Go on my Hammond - that I have modded about 6 times now to try and get that great C3 bark that Emerson had....  Yes, I am hopeless....  But I digress....  I can really appreciate a lot of the music I didnt really pay attention to years ago - and I think that is great!  There is also an un-authourized biography about Ritchie Blackmore.  I bought it, read it, and wish I hadn't.  Yeah Page is a unique guy, to say the least....  He bought Alyster Crowley's house and was into all sorts of weird black "majic".  It's funny that Sabbath got that hung on them and they were just into drugs!  They even got the crap scared out of them at a castle where they were recording because of some weird things they saw, so they left and would not come back! Oooo, they were some hard core satanists!!!    Most of Ozzy's lyrics were about how bad satan is and how you better be good!  So, bottom line, Willabe, you have no taste!


Yer pal,
Jim

[Willabe]

I'm sittin here in between getting stuff ready to grill (shrimp, small lobster tails grillin a couple of rib eyes and grilled corn on the cob) listening to PG album and I'm really liking a lot of it. They sound more developed to me?

A lot of the old singers/players would say, ' I don't know what 'IT' is but what ever 'IT' is he or she has got it!' I'm thinkin Plant's got 'IT'.

This 1 in particular, love the build that the bridge adds; 

Ten Years Gone-Led Zeppelin


                           Brad     

[Willabe]

But, Jimmy Page is the master of creating awesome riffs
Led Zeppelin tunes are still the best riff tunes there ever were to me.

Well I'm listing to Zep for the last hour or 2 and boy did I miss the forest from the trees!   

I'd say your 100% right Doug, lots of good/great lead hooks/song riffs. (Joe Walsh is another great one at that too, IMO.)


                Brad     

[EL34]

It's the first 3 zep albums for me
I still listen to one and two all the time

Immigrant song on 3 is awesome

The later stuff is cool too

[SILVERGUN]

I am obviously biased    (I do realize that this thread started as a simple review of the Celebration Day recording  )
I'll limit my ramblings to this:

SG - Whoa Casey Jones, that is NOT what I was saying.  Stating that Page is "one of the greats" does not hoist them all on top of the pantheon.

I know.....I didn't mean for it to read that you were handing out awards,,,,just me 
And again,,,,this is all just opinions.
But for me, there is no contest.
When Bonzo died in 1980, I was eleven....there is no more impressionable time in a persons life than those early teen years, when I started to peel back the onion of their work and there wasn't one song or one riff that didn't speak to me on a level that was deeper and darker and edgier than anything else that was happening at the time,,,,and I locked into it.
I am from a small, tough, low income town where it was Zep or nothing.....from blaring out of the corner boom-boxes, or guys sitting on the steel playsets in the park of our elementary school with acoustic guitars, trying to cop JP riffs,,,,it was always there, and became the soundtrack to my life.....

I'll NEVER forget being 18 and sitting on a porch down at the Wildwood beach listening to Physical Graffiti,,,,,
hungover, burnt, bruised, saying goodbye to girls I knew I would never see again.....and feeling every single note like it was written just for that moment......scarred for life (in a good way) by these guys.
No other band would've worked.

As far as Page is concerned.  While I agree his lead playing might not be technical perfection, have you tried to play it?  He has THAT stamp on those runs.  I've never heard anyone else play like that?  I know we have quite a few members here who play or have played in bands.  If you are the lone guitar player, you have to make plenty of noise to fill the hole when you stop playing chords.  I think he does a HELL of a job in the same way Billy Gibbons does in his three man band, or Clapton (of old...), or Hendrix.  That is the hardest job for a single guitar player to do live.  I also think his (what I call) "falling down and finally landing on my feet" style of lead playing fits the tunes perfect.  And of course, like Doug said, what a riff-meister!  You only have to listen to the chord progressions and structure of the songs to see the brilliance.

PERIOD..........you should've been writing for Rolling Stone.
I covered about 10 of their songs through different bands in my life, and it was MUCH easier to pull off the ones where I had the luxury of a 2nd guitarist.
No matter how much time I (or anyone else I saw) spent trying  get this stuff down note for note, there was always one BIG thing missing...
You can't play those notes like JP did.

... listening to PG album and I'm really liking a lot of it. They sound more developed to me?

A lot of the old singers/players would say, ' I don't know what 'IT' is but what ever 'IT' is he or she has got it!' I'm thinkin Plant's got 'IT'.

This 1 in particular, love the build that the bridge adds; 

That's it...they've got IT!
Glad to see you opening up to this......put aside what they did to get there and just take the music for what it is.
You picked one of my all time favorite songs right there.....undeniable

I always thought "Since I've been loving you" was pretty good.   
(Edit; Just listened to it, been a loooong time, the lead, ~ehhh, maybe my tasts have just changed.  )

This lead is easily in the TOP 10 all time
It's easy to go back 40+ years and be critical.........
Soul, feel,, tone,,,in the moment....unmatched by any technical gymnastics, on any level,,,ever

The later stuff is cool too

Yup....don't miss Presence 
Look at this guy,,,struggling with his ability to re-create his own recordings, whilst hanging off the edge of physical disaster....but still managing to add to the live performance by improvising the lead sections.....yeah, it's sloppy,,but it doesn't matter.
We will never know what it was like for him.

Led Zeppelin - Achilles Last Stand (Live Knebworth 1979)

[Willabe]

I'm thinkin Plant's got 'IT'.

That's it...they've got IT!

No, read it again, I said Plant's got it, not they.


             
                  Brad     

[EL34]

While I agree his lead playing might not be technical perfection, have you tried to play it?

What do you mean, play his solo not for note?
I never do that sort of thing so I guess the answer is no.

I do my own thing, it's way easier 

[SILVERGUN]

I'm thinkin Plant's got 'IT'.

That's it...they've got IT!

No, read it again, I said Plant's got it, not they

Just when I thought.......

I'm just going to bask in the positivity that you did express above, and leave it there...
I'm glad you picked PG to get reacquainted.....that's one of my desert island albums

[Ritchie200]

SG, you are the ultimate dichotomy...  How can you like a player of quality like Page and ALSO like that dreadfully dixie dude?


BTW, my Zep favs are Over the Hills and Far Away, The Song Remains the Same, and Dazed and Confused.


Jim

[SILVERGUN]

SG, you are the ultimate dichotomy...  How can you like a player of quality like Page and ALSO like that dreadfully dixie dude?

Morse came later...late eighties to mid-nineties...what else was there? I saw him a couple times live and rented a couple of his instructional videos and that was it.......I only pulled him out on you 'cause I needed a Tele toter who would really piss you off! 
Honestly, I met him and he was a nice guy to me, and took the time to explain his rig.....I could never do what he does, but I did steal a couple pieces.
At that time I hated glam metal and grunge had no guitar heros.

Page was always there but went away for a while....I had to show a little diversity.
This was right around the time where I discovered that there were other guitar players out there. 

my Zep favs are Over the Hills and Far Away, The Song Remains the Same, and Dazed and Confused.

Listen to The Song Remains the Same studio version and try to imagine pulling that off as a single guitarist....some of the stuff he did live was just pulled out of the air.

[zendragon63]

I watched the O2 concert recently as well and can only say that it would have been a great show to seen in person. Led Zeppelin was such a phenomena, and no one--IMHO--has really challenged their reign on hard rock. No offense to the Deep Purple fans, Jim  Jimmy Page is a behemoth guitar riff talent and an incredible album/sound producer. However I would suggest that LZ was so loosely tight when they played live and would argue that live shows after the mid-70's were a hit and miss affair as to the overall quality. I 'kinda remember' seeing them at the Kingdome in '77 and thought they were fantastic at the time--that is until I watched the youtube clips of the Seattle concert a few years ago and realized how toasted I must have been.  They still have their moments of creative brilliance and the O2 show reminds me that Jimmy still has a lot of chops (although it might have been nicer if the guitar tone was a little more articulate in places).

Been a BIG Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin fan ever since I first heard Bring It On Home. And the Immigrant Song. I mean, what a great SOUND. But not so much of a Jimmy Page 'the person' fan. Many of the so called guitar gods have sordid past and were not such a decent sort. I suppose it goes along with being young, having all your boundaries removed and having celebrity status. And drugs. And marketing. Great post--no further judgment from me, for I am but a wannabe guitar player... Regards

dennis

[Ghetto_Soundwave]

A few of my favorite Page's lead work:
No Quarter: 3:57 mark to 4:45 mark No Quarter - Led Zeppelin


Hots On For Nowhere: 2:15 to 2:45 mark Led Zeppelin - Presence - Hots On For Nowhere


Celebration Day: 1:46 to 2:02 mark Led Zeppelin - Celebration Day


The Song Remains The Same: Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains The Same [HD]


Fool In The Rain: 3:54 to 4:56 mark Led Zeppelin - Fool In The Rain (with lyrics)


Physical Graffiti is my favorite Zep album too and has been since it's release.