Vol 5, No. 13, Apr '94
January 10, 1969
©1995 Proximity/HJR Productions
(From Proximity #13)
1968 had been an incredible year of live music for me. Exactly one year before the Zeppelin debut, I'd seen Hendrix destroy all previous notions of how the guitar could be played. A few weeks later I'd seen one of the Cream concerts recorded for the Wheels of Fire live disc. Later that Spring it was the Yardbirds' brilliant last stand, and only a few weeks after that Jeff Becks legendary debut at the Fillmore West.
At the Beck show the audience had nearly rioted, until Bill Graham had them set all the gear back up, to play what I'm sure was the only real encore I've ever seen. In August, it was the pre-Tommy Who, and the year ended with the second and final appearance of the Jeff Beck Group.
All this would change with Led Zeppelin - their debut and the changes that followed in the rustic music industry would turn rock & roll on its pocket book. Never again would a night at the Fillmore or Winterland be a small, insiders-only experience. Music was about to reach the masses and they weren't gonna give it back for a few years.
It was only a few months after the Yardbirds' final appearance at the Fillmore in May, 1968, that word of Led Zeppelin reached us. Having seen the quartet Yardbirds three times, I was well aware of Jimmy Page's rather remarkable talents. In mid-1966 I had the good fortune to see one of the first appearances of Page as the Yardies lead guitarist, in San Jose. We had read of his joining the band, but I was not prepared for the sounds that came from his Les Paul and stack of Jordan amps.
Tom Donahue at KMPX-FM in San Francisco had convinced Atlantic that the Zep record was going to be huge and wanted to be the first to play it, so it had been on the radio non-stop for a month prior to the January dates.
When my brother Vince and I arrived at the Fillmore, we found a spot on the ballrooms floor, just in front of the pair of Rickenbacker Transonic amps that Page would be using. The low stage and ceiling gave the Fillmore West an incredibly intimate setting for live music.
As was usually the case with Bill Graham shows, you were assured a wide variety of music on any night. Avant Garde pianist Cecil Taylor had opened for the Yardbirds in 68, and tonight's openers were Taj Mahal and his original band, including the late Jesse Ed Davisno - no slouch on guitar - and the band was well received by the always polite Fillmore crowd.
When Zep hit the stage, it was a real eye-opener. I don't know if there had been any photos of the band in the press yet. Page was looking sharp as usual, his hair a lot longer than when we last saw him. Plant, on the other hand, had relatively short hair, and really looked his tender age [19 years old]. From the opening notes, which we all recognized as Train Kept A-rollin, the difference between this and the Yardbirds was light years. Bonham had a totally new drum sound. It was big, like Moon, but he also had the English jazz swing, and then some more.
They slammed into I Can't Quit You, Babe, the first from the LP to be performed this night, and followed with the elusive As Long As I Have You. This long medley of guitar licks was not unlike the jams the Yardbirds were doing on their last tour, and Page had taken the wah-wah and found some sounds of his own as well. We were trying to make sense of it all as they began another Yardbirds holdover, Dazed and Confused. We had hardly caught our breath after the blinding bursts of guitar and powerhouse dynamics in As Long As I Have You, and Dazed promised more of the same.
Beginning with the haunting opening, Page bending the harmonics behind the nut of the guitar, the crowd sat mesmerized. It was delicious anticipation waiting for the white light solo - of course these were some of the best licks he recorded with the 'Birds, but not many people heard that stuff so why waste it? Page started getting comfortable and moving around the stage at this point, showing some moves of his own; pure enthusiasm.
How Many More Times closes the first set, and as usual the introduction serves as a chance to thank the audience, plug the LP, and introduce the band. During the Smokestack Lightning-like intro, Bonham gets off a few of his patented bass drum/tom fills. As they move to the call and response section, Page again rips through his book of licks. The audience is on their feet at the end of the all-too-short five song set, but unlike the procedure at the Fillmore East, we get to stay for both sets.
Country Joe And The Fish are the headliners tonight, following Zeppelin, and by this point in time the band is about to fall apart, so this show was part of another farewell tour (though they did reform later in the year to perform at Woodstock.) A special treat tonight is Jack Casady on loan from the Airplane, sitting in for the departed Bruce Barthol, and they are in fine form. Selections from this series of gigs can be heard on the Vanguard LP Life & Times of Country Joe And The Fish, which raises an intriguing question: was Led Zeppelin also recorded professionally this night?
Zeppelin's second set opens with another Yardbirds favorite, White Summer. Sitting down with his Danelectro, Page pulls out a few licks from the Bert Jansch/Davey Graham songbook. Four months later at Winterland, Page walks off the stage when the crowd refuses to quiet down for this same solo, but tonight the performance is well-received.
Plant introduces Killing Floor as the next number. Page has a brilliant lick to give this old standard a new twist, and takes a solo at double-speed, perhaps in tribute to the Hendrix version. Plant answers back with a spot-on tribute to Sonny Boy Williamson, not unlike his vocal in Bring It On Home. Page comes back with another short burst of guitar, and its all over.
For You Shook Me, Page pulls out his slide for the first time tonight. I'm pretty sure Plant gave Muddy Waters a plug in introducing this number; I remember going home and looking it up in the UK Gramophone catalogue, and finding You Need Loving on the same Muddy EP [called Muddy Waters Twisted.] Plant blows some passable harp, but again it is a vehicle for Page to work out. For a moment I catch a hint of Jeff Beck, or maybe its just the same Buddy Guy lick they both learned. When Beck had been through a few weeks earlier, he played his own arrangement of this very same tune.
It's Bonzo's solo up next; the intro sounds a lot like one of the Yardbirds out-takes recently released on the Little Games reissue. The band come back on for a scorching version of Babe I'm Gonna Leave You. This blend of folk and rock has now become something of a cliche, but the Zep can take credit for this one. This is still one of my favorites in their discography.
The set wraps up with a barn-burner, Communication Breakdown. From the opening notes, when Jimmy kicks in the wah, its classic Led Zep being invented. A great song being played be a very amped band - Wow! I don't remember exactly what my 16 year old brain was thinking as they walked off the stage, but I'm sure I was satisfied with my $3.50 investment.
As the band walked back on stage for an encore, Plant said with a little bit of a smirk, "This was a hit with Keith Relf. He used to have this job, but now I do," And they proceeded to dive into a radical rearrangement of For Your Love. Page goes straight to the wah-wah and finds new lines for this old chestnut; he had come full circle on the Yardbirds history, while showing where Led Zeppelin was going to take it.
Zeppelin returned to headline just four months later, this time booked into the much bigger Winterland Auditorium for two of the four nights. They are a huge success, and held over at Winterland for the Sunday night show. They played a similar set, with You Need Loving replacing For You Love on the encore.
After these shows, I didn't find myself a big part of what Led Zeppelin had become. I continued to enjoy their music, but the changes they brought to the music scene made it difficult to go see them. Not to give up so easily, I did go see them again at Oakland Stadium in 1977, for what was to be their last American show. This unfortunate gig was a strong reminder of the magic I was a part of just a few years before - I will always remember the joy and enthusiasm they had when they walked out on stage at the Fillmore some 25 years ago.
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