BOTM#11 Special Edition!!

[tytlane@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

 As promised, today I am happy to bring you a very special BOTM, 
submitted to me by our very own JR. To call this a tape review will not 
do it justice. Instead, I shall refer to it as Zep does in relation to 
their songs...it is a journey, an experience, an emotion,a color, it is 
JR's very own Kashmir....... take it JR.....


 Today as I write this, I'll be turning the clock back 30 years to a
day that will live in my memories forever:

April 25, 1977

The place: Louisville Kentucky

For me this show is one that reminds me of a time that was of both
innocence and depravity. When I found out that this show had been
located and "liberated", I was beyond ecstatic. "They finally found a
tape of *my* Zeppelin show!!!!". Can you imagine the sheer elation
that came from finding out this gem existed?? I mean, there was the
'Destroyer' show, but that was from Cleveland, 2 days later. But that
wasn't "My" Led Zeppelin show. It was close, but when it comes to
reliving a youth spent in various concert halls across Kentucky,
close only counts with horseshoes and hand grenades. I wanted the
LOUISVILLE show.

Now, before I get to the meat of the tape review, I'm going to go
ahead and get personal, since this was *MY* Zeppelin experience. And
it was an experience that almost wasn't.

I remember it was a few days before the show that a friend of mine
suggested that we go to the Zeppelin concert in Louisville coming up
on the 25th of April. I was cool with that, although I didn't have
the $8.50 for a ticket (I think adjusted for inflation, that's
practically $50-$60 of today's money).
Ron (my bud) was going to go get the tickets 2 days after he
mentioned it to me. I had to get to work fast to score the bread for
my ticket. First thing I did was start selling loose joints at
school. I had struck up a deal with the "weed-man" to get 10% of
loose doob sales around the schoolyard. Pretty good deal, only he
didn't front me quite enough to make a dent in the $8.50 I needed for
my ticket. So what's an enterprising 15 year old to do? Why, cut that
shit with Oregano of course! Armed with a pack of Top® papers and my
mom's can of Durkee® Oregeno, I rolled up twice what the weed-man had
allotted me. With the proceeds from selling mexican/oregano joints to
the freshmen, and a couple of bucks I had stashed back, I now had the
cash in hand for Ron to go ahead and get me a ticket. After Ron made
it back to town with tickets to the show, we made our plans and got
the crew together for the trip. One of the guys that went with us had
some reds (real fuckin' Eli Lilly 100mg Seconal). A whole handful of
them puppies! Another dude had the *good* grass; Columbian, no less.
I had swiped about 8 10mg Valiums from my mom's purse and a quart of
my dad's Old Fitzgerald whiskey plus a 1/2 case of Falls City beer
for the trip up (Louisville is 2.5 hours away form here). We cut
school that Monday to get on the road as soon as we could. Ron came
by in "The Green Lime" (a puke-green '74 Mustang hatchback with
mismatched tires and expired tags) and I was the 3rd rider picked up.
After we got the last rider, we struck out on the long and perilous
journey to Louisville. About halfway there, we had a god-damned flat
tire and the spare was fucked, so two of us had to stagger about a
half mile to get the thing plugged and aired up. We rolled it back to
the car, mounted it and was on the road again. All this had eaten up
the better part of an hour or so, so needless to say, we were not
happy campers. Nothing that a few beers, a couple of shots of that
red-eye and one of those reds apiece couldn't take care of. After a
while, we had forgotten that we had the flat. We also forgot we had a
speedometer and expired tags. The sun was just about to go down and
we were right outside of Bardstown (just south of Louisville) when
the cop got behind us. I didn't see the blue lights, but I sure as
hell heard Ron say "OH FUCK!!!! COPS!!!!".
Battlestations!!! Weed was getting hid, whiskey bottle slid under the
seat (leaking), beer cans hastily put out of sight. Dope shoved into
ball area.
Red A-Fuckin-lert!!!
Ron played it cool. The rest of us sweated like pigs just *knowing*
we were headed for jail. The cop asked us how fast we thought we were
going, Ron said that the mismatched tires probably made the speedo
wrong and that we'd slow down. The cop looked at the tires and said
"yeah, maybe". We all looked at each other like "whoa, he bought
it!". But then he mentioned the expired tags. Here's where it got
weird. Ron explained that "The Green Lime" wasn't his car, but his
brother's car (he didn't have a fuckin' brother) and that he was
unaware of the tag problem. The cop went back to his car and sat for
what seemed like ages. We were all shitting rubber nickels by this
time. The cop finally came back to the car and gave Ron a *warning*
ticket and told him to have his brother get those tags fixed.
WHEW!!!! Jesus Christ on a cracker!!!!
After the cop left, we sat there for a minute and Brian (shotgun
rider) said "did that really just happen?". We all died laughing and
popped another red apiece. By the time we got to Freedom Hall, we
were late as hell and figured we'd missed a good portion of the show,
but there still a HUGE throng of people still outside and the band
hadn't started yet! They were LATER than we were!!!! What a stroke of
luck! After we managed to stagger inside to the sea of humanity that
was the show, we were greeted by frisbees, firecrackers, flying
bottles and some dude talking some stupid shit over the PA about the
law. We wriggled our way to about 3/4 the way back of the floor and
resigned ourselves that we could get no closer. The crowd was just
too nuts to chance it. We got our places to stand and started firing
up the joints we had already rolled up and ate another red each. GOD
we were waxed! After about 15 minutes, the house lights darkened, the
crowd roared like nothing I'd ever heard before and then that guitar
note rang out!!!! LED ZEPPELIN WAS HERE!!! ONSTAGE!!! AND WE WERE
STILL CONCIOUS!!!!