Mr Prox Speaks!

[buckeye <buckeye@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hard to believe it's been 3 years gone for Proximity Fanzine already!!  I
asked Mr Prox to share with us on the new releases.  -Bruce the Buckeye
______________________________________________________________________
May 31, 2003

Greetings, Earthlings -
Mr. Prox here, taking the occasion of Bonzo's birthday to fire off a quick
missive to y'all at the request of my pal Buckeye. Haven't been on the list
in quite a while even as a lurker - since I retired Proximity almost 3
years ago now, I've gotten completely out of the whole Zep collecting
world, though of course the music still moves me as it always has. And of
course since last Tuesday was THE day we've all been awaiting for the last
30 years or so, I must admit I've been in a VERY 'Zeppelin state of mind'
recently!

I'd like to share with everybody the little part I played in contributing
to "DVD", but first I'd like to comment on the releases themselves. Two
words immediately come to mind: FUCKING AWESOME!

Sure, one can bitch & whine about the spare packaging on the CD or the fact
that we didn't get the *complete* Earls Court or whatever - you can't
please all of the people all of the time - but in my opinion, Jimmy & co.
have done a phenominal job in finally releasing all this stuff, and these
releases will add to the Zep legend & legacy in a most positive manner.
After the relative disappointments of "Coda," the box sets & "BBC
Sessions," they finally got it RIGHT.

I believe that "How The West Was Won" will be to Led Zeppelin what "Live At
Leeds" is to the Who. Which is to say, definitive, timeless, mindblowing.
For me "Leeds" has always been the greatest live rock album of all time,
and I'm more than a little pleased to finally see my favorite band join the
short list that accompanies that masterpiece. Once again, they got it RIGHT
- - not only in releasing this now but in having Eddie Kramer record the
multi-tracks to begin with. I believe that 1972 was the musical peak for
Led Zeppelin, from a live standpoint - they still had the fire, the clear
heads, and Robert still had the voice to blow any band in the world out of
the water on a good night. How fortuitous (and smart) that they chose to
record live multitracks in Southern California on that tour, where a good
night was almost a certainty and a *great* night is what they actually
delivered.

So they didn't bother to put a booklet in the CD, and had the cover
designed to blandly match "BBC". Big deal! Have you listened to the MUSIC?
Can you believe the sound quality? Can you stop playing it?! This is a
fabulous gift folks, let's not nitpick over unimportant details! If I have
one personal [very minor] disappointment, it's that they cut out Robert's
between-song-patter. But lets try to look at this from the standpoint of a
"normal" person, i.e., not a hardcore rabid Zep fan like me and presumably
you - from that standpoint, Robert's chatter might be briefly charming but
would most certainly get old on repeated listenings. I think Jimmy rightly
chose to cut out the fat, so to speak, and present what's most important -
the music - in an uncluttered fashion that will stand up favorably next to
the other great live albums of the era not just to Zep fans, but to rock
fans in general.

I have two very good friends who are Zep appreciators, so to speak, but not
huge fans. They love the early stuff, think Bonzo was awesome and Page was
great until he lost it, you know the type. Over the years they've looked on
my fanaticism with tolerant amusement, and it's nice to feel a vindication
of sorts as both of them have made a point in the last week of lettting me
know how impressed they are with "How The West Was Won." One of 'em claims
that for his money, this album is the best Zeppelin, period. Even better
than the studio stuff. Whether you agree with that or not, you've got to
admit it's nice to see casual appreciators reacting this way. See, I TOLD
you they were the greatest live band ever!

OK, on to the DVD. Here's a little backstory. When I was but a young,
16-year old Zep freak back in July of 1973, growing up in the Hudson Valley
about 50 miles north of New York City, I was fortunate enough to procure
tix to the first two Madison Square Garden Zep shows. At some point I got
the bright idea of taking my Dad's 8mm home movie camera with me to one of
the shows. For some reason I can't recall (I was probably on pot, y'know),
I decided that I would not take the camera the first night, but instead
would get an idea of what parts of the show were most visually interesting,
and then film them the second night. Over the years I've mildly regretted
that decison - why didn't I film both nights? Why didn't I get tix to all 3
nights? - but now, almost 30 years later, my decision to make sure I caught
the most interesting visuals on film has paid off.

Last year I was contacted by Simon Pallett, who explained to me that Jimmy
was finally working on the DVD and was looking for all available footage
including fan bootlegs, and would I mind terribly Fed Ex-ing my original
Super 8mm film over to Blighty for his persual? Of course I was happy to
comply and sent if off right away. Didn't give it much thought again until
this spring when all the pre-talk about the release began, but I was pretty
sure that they would NOT use my stuff, since it was filmed so far away from
the stage, had no sound and was pretty fuzzy - low on the quality list, in
my opinion, of available 8mm footage.

So imagine my surprise and delight when I read Billy McCue's preview of the
DVD a few weeks ago and there it was, a description of the 8mm footage used
in the DVD with a tentative confirmation that mine was in there. I
mentioned it to a few people and got further confirmation from some other
folks connected with the project that it was used, but it wasn't until last
Tuesday night as I sat in my living room sipping Jack Daniels that I could
actually achieve 100% confirmation and come to grips with the mind-blowing
fact that THEY USED MY FILM! And several times at that!

The first and most extensive use of it is in "Black Dog" on disc two -
there are quick bits of it during the song and at the big crashing end,
when it cuts to the grainy 8mm footage of the flashpots going off and the
flashing colored lights spinning away (which was actually the crescendo of
"Whole Lotta Love," by the way) - that's the result of Mr. Prox choosing to
film the most exciting visuals, yessir! There are more clips used elsewhere
in the MSG footage, and there is also a fairly long clip used in the
'credits' montage, as well as in a few of the other chapter menus. And of
course, there's my name in the "Thanks To" credits, along with a few other
illustrious members of this Zep community who contributed in some way to
the release.

So as you can probably tell, I'm pretty psyched. I can't describe the
feeling I got watching the end of "Black Dog" for the first time the other
night - joy, excitement, gratitude to Jimmy for using it and for giving us
all this gift. When I was sitting at Madison Square Garden back in 1973,
squinting through that little camera's viewfinder and wondering how the
film would turn out, I never in a million years could have imagined this
day would come. I'm a happy camper, you better believe it!

I'll cease rambling here in a minute, but I can't resist a short list of
the many things I love about "DVD":

- - All that cool, oddball footage in the chapter menus

- - The fact that Jimmy had multi track audio to work with and managed to
really toughen up the guitar sounds and make the drums sound great

- - The fact that Jimmy had multi track audio to work with and made the GREAT
decision to get rid of that annoying 'octave divider' vocal effect (or
whatever it was) they used in 1977 and at Knebworth which made Robert's
voice travel to chipmunk-land periodically. THANK YOU, Jimmy! (He also
seems to have eliminated or doctored some of the more extreme effects,
making stuff like the guitar phasing in "Sick Again" sound much more subtle
and effective, and removing the heavy phasing on Bonzo's drums. Great call.)

- - The fact that even performances I have long considered sub-par, like some
of MSG '73 and most of Knebworth '79, absolutely come to life when viewed
and heard in perfect quality from that little silver disc. "Whole Lotta
Love" and "Achilles" from Knebworth absolutely kick my ass, and to all you
English blokes & birds who may have endured my past criticisms of those two
shows, please accept my apologies and now revised opinion of what obviously
was a truly great concert.


OK kids, that's all I got. Hope you're all having fun out there in
cyberspace chatting, debating and hopefully crowing about these new Zep
releases. Rock on and if you haven't picked up the CD or DVD yet, do me a
favor and pay a little extra to buy them at a 'real' record store,
preferably an independent one - don't give those bastards at Circuit City
your money!

Love always,
Mr. Prox   (Hugh Jones to most)