Led Zeppelin 1st Night Berdul. Swing Auditorium, San Bernardino CA 6-22-1972
Welcome Back To How The West Was Won Part 1
Rock And Roll
This is an 8 CD Boxset that includes 3 concerts, the second being the concerts used for the official release of How The West Was Won. But in this audience recording, You get the full concert! They left out a few songs in the official release, So you get to hear the real entire concert here! Enjoy!!!
This is a great Audience Recording.
Plant introduces “Black Dog” as a song “about an old dog who like to boogie a lot.” Page flirts which some chromatic scales in the solo and also plays Bouree and “Feeling Groovy.” “Since I’ve Been Loving You” contains phenomenal soloing by Page before the newer track “Stairway To Heaven.”
The recording is good at picking up the vibrations on the other neck during the solo. The acoustic set was four songs long on this tour and was the longest they played at this point in their career. “Tangerine” was introduced to the set list in Japan the previous September and is really out of place.
The studio version is partly acoustic but needs the electric slide guitar for its effectiveness and this pure acoustic version played on stage is never really convincing. The arrangement used at Earl’s Court three years later is much better and it makes me wonder why they didn’t include “Friends” by this time. John Bonham does his best Johnny Cash imitation during “Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp” and is a fun song.
The audience are audibly impatient with the acoustic material however. “Dazed And Confused” is the first long epic of the evening. At twenty-seven minutes, this version is a masterpiece. But everything gets blown out by the fantastic “Dazed & Confused” which is probably the best from this tour and one for the ages. He includes many riffs including “Walter’s Walk”, “The Crunge” and the “Hot On For Nowhere” riff also heard on the December ’72 Manchester tape (Rovers Return).
Right before the violin bow interlude, between 5:30 and 6:00, Page plays a interesting slow and majestic piece. The improvisation includes both “The Crunge” and “Walter’s Walk” as Page goes riff crazy.
A firecracker goes off before “What Is And What Should Never Be.” This is one of the final live performances of the Led Zeppelin II track. It would be dropped from the live repertoire after this tour, never to return. “Moby Dick” is kept short tonight, reaching just over ten minutes.
“Whole Lotta Love” includes the normal inclusions in the medley with “Boogie Chillun’,” “Let’s Have A Party,” the Ricky Nelson classic “Hello Mary Lou,” and ending with Howlin’ Wolf’s “Going Down Slow.”
The last song is a strange choice for Zeppelin to play and particularly for Plant to sing. Sung by Howlin’ Wolf, the lyrics come across with a strange mixture of anger and regret, weathered by the years of a wasted life. But with Plant’s high pitched voice, it comes across as shallow fan worship, a youngster standing in shoes ten times too big. Page’s solo rattles the rafters of the auditorium, however, and is an excellent way to end the medley.
“Rock And Roll” is the only encore played in this concert. It’s a shame they didn’t play anything from Houses Of The Holy as they had several night before in Seattle and would also play in the final shows.