6/14/77 Thanks for the Memories (long)

[Nestor Tytla <tytlane@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Wow, 22 years ago today. The 2nd & last time I was to see Led Zeppelin.
sigh.
It was probably around this time as well 01:00 6/15 that I was walking
out of the Garden Dazed & Amused and dragging my wacked out brother
outta there. Somehow I didn't think that that image of a totally wasted
dude being dragged out by cops(6/8/77)would be hitting so close to home.

Oh well, so be it.

After seeing LZ on the 8th the 6 days wait till this night seemed like
absolute torture. The anticipation before the 8th was intense but now
that I knew what awaited us at MSG this was unbearable.  I only managed
to get 4 tickets for this show. After all, my income at age 13 was
somewhat limited. This totally blew what I had gotten for my upcoming
8th grade graduation. Not to mention the money spent on various um,
consumables. Finally my cousins ( brothers, one my bro's age and one
youger than me) arrived by bus from Tuckahoe, NYand we piled into the
old Buick Skylark for the trip to NYC. I have no idea how my brother who
had only recently gotten his license managed to convince my folks to let
us have the car. We pulled around the block to pick up the previously
concealed cache of goodies. (Beer, the obligatory Blackberry brandy
(shudder) cigarrettes and most importantly, Lightning Laser, the bong my
brother got from his date as a Senior Prom present. Not a bad trade ,
corsage for a bong)  No further than a mile from our house we were
already tripping the light fantastic and singing along rabidly to
Presence. The car didn't have a stereo so we brought along this big ol
crate of a boombox. I was just dying to hear them do NFBM again.

As we approached the Garden, again the masses of drunken , stoned,
crazed people freaked us all out. My brother was quite high by now and
being an amateur at driving didn't make matters any better. After what
seemed like hours trying to find a place to park we were off on that
last leg to MSG. Since we couldn't bring ol Lighting Laser along we made
sure we each got a lung breaking hit and attempted to walk. I don't
think my feet ever touched the ground. ZEPPELIN ZEPPELIN WE"RE GOING TO
SEE ZEPPELIN!!!!

I had brought along all my cash 'cause I knew I just had to get some
memorabilia. Tour program, gotta have that! T shirts, I'll take two!!
Begged the radio staion guy to give me another swan song button. I think
it was WPLJ can't remember, certainly don't listen to that station
anymore, or much radio at all (Thank you FBO and whoever came up with
the tree concept!!!!)  My hands were full so I ended up wearing one T
shirt on top of another on top of the cool hippy shirt I was wearing.
After the first show I decided to wear something to better fit in with
the rest of the crowd. And now it was under two layers of Zep!!!

The Garden was even louder and rowdier than the other night. Must be the
last stand lack of ozone layer thing. There certainly wasn't a lack of
anything in there tonite. Oh man, the shit people were smoking around us
was nothing that I had ever heard of before!! We're talking hash, hash
oil(?), opiates, the guy in front of me was offering me some sort of
mushrooms (Alice didn't live here yet!) a veritable pharmacy of
innebriants!!!!! I'll stick to our Panama red & beer thank you.

We had better seats this time, 1st mezzanine right to the left of the
stage staring straight down to where Jimmy would be. C'mon C'mon I had
to piss so bad but didn't dare leave my seat for fear of missing that
first note. I couldn't take it and finally ran out. Sure enough as my
wee wanker was wagging in the breeze I could hear the walls rumble as
TSRTS blasted out. Utter mayhem ensued as all the folks getting high in
the can and all us draining the main vein scrambled to get to our seats.
I was stuck outside the gate as dudes way larger than me muscled in. And
then I couldn't find my ticket stub!!!! Oh the agony. Suddenly this
velvet jacketed seat nazi wasn't gonna let me in.The Bastid!!!! My
wallet, yes you stupid stoned moron it's in your wallet!!! Why the fuck
do you think they call it dope anyway?!?!?!
They were well into the  verse by the time I made it into my seat again.

Then MSG went wild. The roar of the crowd to Robert's Good Evening
was/is undescribable!!!  Wow, last night at the Garden and the Garden
wasn't gonna let them forget us!

When NFBM stated up and I was up and jumping around like a maniac, after
all this was my favorite LZ tune at the moment. The folks behind me took
offense and I remember this really big guy grabbing me by the back of my
shirt and slamming me down in my seat. I couldn't understand how anyone
can just sit at a moment like this. I guess these were seasoned veterans
already and didn't have the enthusiam and stamina of a drunk & stoned
punk.
Robert wailed on that harmonica and I think from that point on the
hearing in my right ear has never been the same. And when it was over I
remember him flinging that harmonica into the stands to his right. Some
lucky person must've gotten nailed by that. I hope they at least managed
to keep the harp.

Being that we had a different view of things the light show seemed alot
more spectacular.
I remember during JPJ's piano solo suddenly what seemed to be two huge
funnels of green lasers appeared and started rising to the rafters. The
crowd went bonkers and as JPJ & Jimmy started doing the honky tonk jam,
the "funnels" turned into two giant Oscilloscopes on the ceilng of MSG
going in tune with the band. that must've been some high tech shit back
then!!! Either way it got the crowd moving.
They were bout to start in on the acoustic set and Robert was going on
about Lisa Robinson and how she was one that didn't pan the set. I was
elated, I had read that review!! I actually knew who the fuck he was
talking about!!! This Ralph Donner (??) guy though, I still have no
idea. Suddenly trouble was afoot. My brother who had been imbiding in
Lord knows what with the dude next to him started turning green around
the gills and needed to get to the can FAST!!!! My cousins wanted
nothing doing with that so it was up to me to get him there. Not a good
scene. He barely made it into a stall before wretchinbg his guts
out.over & over & over again. I could hear the accoustic set was over
and damn it , I just couldn't leave him there like, that. Somebody
must've told the cops or something 'cause next thing I knew two of NYC's
finest were there and wanted to take my brother to a hospital to get his
stomach pumped or whatever. Holy shit how would I explain this to my
folks?!?!?!
My brother was pretty much out cold slumped against the toilet. I
managed to convince the cops that I was able to take care of him and
they left us lone.  During WS/BMS my older cousin finally came in to see
how we're doing so I struck a deal that we'd alternate songs while
someone watches over my brother. I came out into the Garden just as the
lasers hit the glitter balls during Kashmir and totally forgot about my
brother. I was in total awe of this huge diamong crystal that the Garden
resembled at that moment. All troubles forgotten. I didn't go back into
my seat but instead tried to get closer to the stage. And amidst all the
noise and mayhem I somehow managed to get into the orchestra section.
And it was from there that I watched in total star struck drooling glory
as Jimmy took that violin bow and made our ears bleed. That rotating
pyramid of light aroung him was the coolest fuckin thing in the whole
world. From that point on in my life, I knew that I was & forever will
be a Led Zeppelin addict. As that ground into Achilles the audience
around me all jumped to their feet and I was overwhelemed and smothered
and jostled around like a toy doll. I swear the floor of the Garden
must've been bouncing up & down and I thought the whole place would
collapse. It was the greatest feeling to be amongst so many folks all in
tune with Robert as his voice ascended that scale of notes. And everyone
was "air drumming" along with Bonzo and those white lights blasting out
from his riser. I was absolutely drenched in sweat. Remember I was
wearing three shirts!!!   Stairway started and there wasn't a single
person sitting in the Garden at that point. And everyone that had
anything flamable was holding it up.
I got a nasty burn from my Bic lighter. Some folks were turning theirs
way up till I guess the nozzle broke and they would then have this huge
blowtorch going. I'm amazed that folks didn't lost their hands from them
exploding. As I was making my way back to my original seat, there to my
bewilderment was my brother just standing there frozen in the aisle
staring at the stage looking like walking death. He spotted me and
started yelling at me "where the fuck were you, we've been looking all
over for you?!?!?!?!"  What?!?!?!?!?! He was the one I left behind
praying to the porcelain. He had absolutely no recollection of that and
said that he just wanted a hotdog. Imagine that.
Once again as WLL started up I started getting really melancholy as I
knew that it would be over soon. Halfway thru Rock 'n Roll I couldn't
stop crying. And then it was over. The whole experience left me gasping
for air, with swollen palms, no voice, and a brother who had no clue of
the hell he put us thru earlier. Needless to say we ended up going to
Weinerwald for coffee and weinersnitlzles to sober up before the ride
home. My cousin ended up driving as noone wanted to trust my brother.
Turns out later, that he did take some of the mushrooms offered to him.
Bad move human. To date I bust on him and how he missed part of the
show.

What a night. What a band. What fond memories. I still have all three
shirts I wore that evening. Call me crazy but they're all packed away
neatly, wrapped around cardboard so that the silkscreening dosn't get
cracked (it did already anyway) covered in a large ziplock baggy to keep
any vermin away. The programme is also is near perfect condition. My
tickets are framed but the buttons are lost. I think I ended up pinning
them to my Boy Scout uniform and they got snitched at a summer camp.
Scouts honor my ass.

Time to crank up the Victrolla,

Nech