believed to be the only recording from inside the event.Montreux, Switzerland
August 7, 1971
"Led Zeppelin A Montreux: Bon Public"
A TimD Series production
Lineage:
Master > DAT (Transferrer) > DAT (Collector) >
CD-R (Supplier) > CD-R (TimD) > PC via EAC (TimD's PC) >
Adobe Audition 3 > WAV > FLAC(8) via EAC.
Setlist:
Disc 1:
1 Immigrant Song (4:23)
2 Heartbreaker (6:46)
3 Since I've Been Lovin' You (7:43)
4 Black Dog (6:03)
5 Dazed and Confused (18:21)
6 Stairway To Heaven (10:51)
7 Going To California (5:00)
8 That's The Way (6:46)
9 Celebration Day (5:05)
10 What Is And What Should Never Be (4:31)
Disc 2:
1 Whole Lotta Love (22:57)
Blues Medley
2 Weekend (3:29)
Notes from original uploader:
Remember a few months ago when we had the brief discussion of "Smoke On The Water," about how Deep Purple were recording in Montreux when an idiot fan with a flare gun fired a flare into the acoustic-cloth ceiling of the Montreux Casino Theater, and burned it down during a Frank Zappa show... And of course that brought up the classic show that Led Zeppelin played on August 8, 1971, just before the Zappa show in question. And that brings up the story of Peter Grant's generosity, of how he saw hundreds of fans unable to get tickets just camped out on the lawn in front of the venue to listen to what they could hear from there. Peter magnanimously had PA speakers set up outside and broadcast the concert onto the lawn for the fans who rallied to support his band. See, Peter LOVED fans, it's true! And the recording of the show was alright, taken from a source that was taped in front of these PA
speakers, and you could hear the sound get better when the doors opened from time to time.
Many reviews of this show lament that there is no higher-quality source for such an awesome show - Led Zeppelin is at full throttle, tearing through maybe the first live Celebration Day, and a rare teaser of Ramble On. Well, someone else was taping that night, according to my source. Inside the arena. And, brothers and sisters, with a little helping hand from TimD, you can hear it pretty much the way it was heard on the night. In fact, unless I'm a total fool (possible,) I think the tape authenticates itself - it contains one of the most bizarre oddities I've ever heard on a bootleg. I thought I couldn't possibly be hearing it, but I'm sure of it and I'll explain why. This recording exhibits forward echo. More specifically, I'm positive that the recording was made from inside the building, because deep in the background, when you turn the remastered version way up high, *you can hear Peter's PA speakers outside* on almost a full second delay, one would assume both from the extreme length of the cables for the speakers, and the time it takes sound to travel back into the hall. At first I thought it was an odd remastering thing, like I had some sort of reverberation or harmonics or ghost-images on the tape - anything but that. But it's the only thing that makes sense. You can only hear it in soft passages, mostly of Robert singing - the band or the crowd drowns it out most of the time. If it were a reverb or harmonic the whole band would presumably be doing it, making the recording a bloody mess. Plus, it does it with all the effects turned off. So it's real. This is an inside tape.
And what a tape. The band launches to a hot Immigrant Song, just like the album, and then straight into Heartbreaker. The band is absolutely incredible this night. Robert has had a few weeks off and sounds like the Golden God - one truly spectacular performance for Percy as he hits every high note and roars like the banshee of 1968. You have got to hear this Heartbreaker solo. Jimmy absolutely destroys it, pulling off a note-perfect hammer-on pull-off display with ease, and the band absolutely stings it coming back in at "Worked so hard to turn it around, get some money saved," one of the most consistently powerful Zeppelin moments over the years. A brief hello from Robert to Montreaux and Claude Nobs precedes a bleeding-hot "Since I've Been Lovin' You" with somewhat screechy keyboards but Bonham laying it down in classic fashion - it seems almost odd to say we take this for granted, but I guess it's hard to find ways to praise John Bonham that aren't
repetitive - but I'll say it here again, loud as I can - John Bonham is the engine that makes Led Zeppelin go. Jason, great as he is and as much as we all believe in him... his old man just had it, whatever *it* is for drummers. Jason has it, just not as much of it. Know what I mean? And this is the comparison that he's handled with grace for all these years. Back to business. The old man is absolutely killing it on SIBLY, stomping his way through, his bass pedal at the end sounding like a heartbroken Robert beating on the door of his own house at midnight, and Robert wails his way through the end of the song.
Again, Robert really is bringing it tonight and Jimmy is feeding off him this time, giving Robert room to improvise and make up lyrics, extending "Black Dog," which might be the best recorded version I've ever heard. I'm not sure why, but Jimmy's
tone is better on Black Dog than I've ever heard it during the signature riff - maybe it's because Jonesy is behind him, *deep*, on every single note. It just plain sounds better, harder, with more roar than maybe even the studio track, and certainly any other live version, on a song that in my opinion often didn't sound very good live. I wonder why they changed it. Huge roar from the crowd for a song they've never heard before.
With no further ado, the mighty Zeppelin slams into "Dazed and Confused," Jonesy booming through the theater and the countryside outside and Bonham... well, he did always enjoy Montreaux. The band really really spanks the ending, and Robert gives Jimmy his due to the roar of the crowd... and then it's quiet.
An odd, warbly tease of what's to come from Jimmy and no applause from the silent crowd for the introduction of "Stairway to Heaven," which means to me that they hadn't heard the fourth album yet. Of course not - the album doesn't come out until November. So not only a scorching Heartbreaker and maybe a best-ever Black Dog, you get a pre-album-release Stairway. This is starting to shape up as a pretty good show. Jimmy makes mistakes playing around with the intro, and I don't think the lyrics are completely set yet, Robert changing small words here and there. It comes together nicely very early though, and through the first movement is turning out very nice. Robert, my goodness, is singing he still loves the song, even though he blows the "bustle in your hedgerow" line, the crowd is starting to roar underneath
the band as they realize what they're hearing. Smooth transition and Bonzo handles the move into the hard section smoothly and appears to be playing his ass off - the tape suffers here from some reason and then comes back, like someone's muffling the microphone, and damn! there's a sloppy finger-on-the-reel Millard Marking in the middle of Jimmy's extremely hot solo. The song ends majestically to a roar from an
appreciative crowd.
A cut in the tape gets us to Going To California, which Robert introduces "for better or worse" - I think he feels like the new material is going a little rough after the mistakes at the beginning of Stairway. But GTC is gorgeous as always, and the tape is back close to that original quality as Robert's voice soars and Jimmy's acoustic rings through the hall. Not the cleanest time Jimmy's ever played it, and
Robert's late in at least once.
Wanna take the time to mention that this engineering job is going to sound best turned up LOUD. I just couldn't help it - I had this sucker cranked to eleven the entire time I was working the show. My God, what a show. Anyway...
There's an ugly blank spot on the tape before That's The Way with some mic banging - I've edited it out and the tape sounds gapless now. I didn't see the need to leave in a bunch of boomy banging noises with nothing going on behind them, so I took them out. No motive here, I'm not marking the show or anything. Shades of The Battle of
Evermore in Jimmy's playing during the middle part of the song. And I'll be damned if I don't hear chunks of Swan Song at the end, not to mention an extremely famous Everly Brothers lick.
After the song Robert says something in French, and then something that sounds like "Give me the microphone" and then announces that someone is making a bootleg album this afternoon - makes a comment about someone thinking they're not capitalists.
Of course, Celebration Day and What Is And What Should Never Be electrify the crowd. A note about the remaster here - another masterer left notes on a very good job he did that stated he speed-corrected the portion of the show between Going To California and Whole Lotta Love. I listened to it over and over and didn't feel the need to speed correct anything. I'm not criticizing his job, I'm just saying I didn't hear enough to make that change.
The Whole Lotta Love medley is as bluesy as I've ever heard it, and damn long, with a really unusual intro that gets the crowd clapping and then roaring when they finally recognize it. It's exactly the thing to remind you that this band was playing You Shook Me and ICQYB just a year or so ago, and by the time they get back to WLL some 21 minutes later, well, I'm sure Bonham is out of breath, and the crowd is absolutely going bonkers. The show finishes with Weekend, the band really finishing it off and playing hard until the end.
The guy who gave me this described it like this - "i picked up from 'Collector' - he got his DAT from 'Transferrer' who transfered his DAT from the tapes - unlike the first torrent, - mine is noticeably clearer - significantly less hiss - and brighter to my ears... ...I do believe this show was recorded INSIDE rather than outside - I guess well never know - the evidence from the recording points, in my opinion to the former however"
That would make the lineage Master > DAT (Transferrer) > DAT (Collector) > CD-R (Supplier) > CD-R (TimD) > PC via EAC (TimD's PC) > Adobe Audition 3 > WAV > FLAC(8) via EAC.
This is the source previously remastered by Eddie Edwards. Re-remastered by me at the suggestion of the anonymous supplier. He also complimented Eddie's work and simply thought it was time someone gave it the full EQ treatment.
Speaking of which, I'm not going to lie to you at all about what's been done here - this recording has been twisted and turned through the vagaries of Adobe Audition 3, which is an extremely powerful mixing and mastering tool. It's been subjected to balancing of the channels, amplification (without compression,) three consecutive layers of graphic EQ, adaptive noise reduction to reduce the tape hiss produced by
amplification and EQing, a slight amount of reverb to open up the recording, plus Mastering-EQ, stereo-channel width adjustment, and a full-output gain. And even then, there are sections that don't sound as good as others. Rather than attempting to shift around with a million event-EQs I've tried to create one good level for the whole show without making other parts suffer. Probably works best with Heartbreaker and not-as-well with Celebration Day, but pretty damn nice overall.
So again, a new and/or improved set for The TimD Series. Honey, get it while ya can...
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