MusicRadar.com reports that Led Zeppelin‘s earliest known live recordings have surfaced.
Follow the link for the whole article and some YouTube audio. It’s a terrible recording, but still of interest.
Led Zeppelin, in 1968, back when they were still being called “The New Yardbirds” by some…
Led Zeppelin’s earliest known live recordings have surfaced on YouTube for the first time. The three audio clips, recorded during the band’s maiden voyage to America, are taken from their fifth US show, which took place at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington on 30 December, 1968.
They were opening for groups like Iron Butterfly, Vanilla Fudge and Country Joe And The Fish at the time, and Led Zeppelin, their eponymous debut album, was still weeks away from release when they embarked on a rather ambitious 34-show run that took them from Denver, Colorado to North Miami Beach, Florida.
US rock fans were familiar, to some degree, with Jimmy Page from his work with John Mayall And The Bluesbreakers and The Yardbirds, but it’s interesting – and downright quaint even – to hear Robert Plant announce the name of the brand-new band to the barely receptive audience. Read more…
Not sure exactly when these tracks surfaced, but the YouTube comments are hilarious as people debate the pro vs. cons. of Zep. “Presence” is my favorite Led Zep album, and “real” Zep fans used to love to tell me how “wrong” I am.