Led Zeppelin - Ally Pally Hard Rock Daze - The 1st Daze (1972-12-22) FLAC

GENRE: Hard Rock 
FORMAT: Lossless (Flac) 
SIZE: 799 mb (3% Recovery) 

Recorded live at Alexandra Palace, London, England, 22nd December 1972.
Label: Empress Valley Supreme Disc – (EVSD-949/950/951)
Released: 2017

TRACKLIST:

CD1
101 Rock And Roll
102 Over The Hills And Far Away
103 Black Dog
104 Misty Mountain Hop
105 Since I've Been Loving You
106 Dancing Days
107 Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
108 The Song Remains The Same
109 The Rain Song

CD2
201 Dazed And Confused
202 Stairway To Heaven
203 Whole Lotta Love

CD3
301 Immigrant Song
302 Heartbreaker
303 Mellotron Solo
304 Thank You

NOTES:

There are two audience sources for the first night at the “Ally Pally”. The first recording is in the very good range, it is more distant and while clear and detailed lacks dynamics, a bit flat sounding. This had a few titles on vinyl as Alexandria Palace 1972 (Gell), Alexandria Palace 22/12/72 (LZ 1972 AOZ7211A-APZ7211B), and People Weekly (Toasted TSTD 1910A-D). The second was the source for the brilliant and quite famous vinyl title Riot House (Jump JMP-02A-B). The quality is excellent being taped close to the stage but sadly only features the last hour of the concert (I had this title for years on green vinyl). This concert would also be the subject of a scant few titles, Riot House (Wendy WECD 47/48/49) would feature both recordings but kept separate while Flawless Performance (Image Quality IQ 013/014/015) and Riot Show (Cobra Standards Series 006) would mix the sources together. For this new release, Empress Valley uses the entire first source and fills a couple small gaps and for the entire mellotron solo > Thank You. I dug out my old Flawless Performance title to see how this new one stacks up. Surprisingly I found them both to be similar, the IQ title is amplified a bit more and thus has a bit more tape hiss where this new EV sounds cleaner with more natural dynamics, a big difference is that the bass does not muddy it up.

The concert begins with announcements, short and sweet sit down so all can see and the band get into Rock And Roll. Ah hearing this song as an opener can be a good thing (72/73) or a bit rough (75), thankfully Jimmy is in perfect shape and his playing is most fluent. The sound clears as they transition into Over The Hills and Far Away, I have always thought the band was thinking on what to put in this second spot as it is not as dynamic as Train> I Can’t Quit You or the devastating Immigrant Song> Heartbreaker openers used prior. London gets its first airing of this most important new song, something that would be a mainstay of the next five years. Jimmy plays a wonderful guitar solo while the rhythm section bobs along. Robert gives his opening speech about the prior date in London at Wembley Arena and mentions how cold it is and states “we must Instill the warmth in our bodies”, Black Dog certainly starts the thaw. The coupling of Misty Mountain Hop into Since I’ve Been Loving You was started on the Japanese tour the previous October and for me would be perfected as high drama on the American tour the following year. This combo is no slouch, the audience applauded the guitar solo that transition the two as Page breaks into Since I’ve Been Loving You’s opening chords.

Dancing Days has a great intro by Robert, “Summer, Inebriation…good times” and I must concur. I first started listening to this album on the junior year of high school and that was certainly our mantra. I love live versions of this song and wonder why the band did not keep it in the set for the American tour other than the rare second night in Detroit encore. The single acoustic number, not a Conway Twitty song but a tune written in the Mountains of Wales about a blue eyed dog, Bron-YR-Stomp. The hootenanny style of the song gets the audience clapping, at least some of them perhaps in a way to generate heat. The audience sound a bit impatient and shouts of Whole Lotta Love and Stairway To Heaven are heard as the group prepares for The Song Remains The Same and Rain Song, the double neck sounds a bit out of tune during Song giving an even feel to the first half.

The ever evolving Dazed And Confused gets a nice ovation, the song is also in transition into a structure that will last through 1975 and features the first known inclusion of San Francisco, curiously in his most recent Led Zeppelin Tape Documentary, Luis Rey traces its origins to the previous weeks performance in Birmingham and even goes deeper in recognizing the piece as being loosely based upon Neil Young’s Cowgirl In The Sand. Things finally heat up, Dazed is almost a prelude to a brilliant and well received Stairway To Heaven, and as with concerts from this era, it is Whole Lotta Love that brings the house down. The string of songs in the Medley features the band hitting a stride where the music flows and in dizzying pace. Everybody Needs Somebody To Love and a couple of Elvis classics are split by a cut in the tape from 11:39-11:34 that is filled with source 2. Lets Have A Party and Heartbreak Hotel give Robert a chance to play King and for Jimmy to really let loose with some excellent lead playing. I Can’t Quit You has the group returning to its roots, Page plays what he feels brilliantly while Bonham and Jones play a shuffle as it flows effortlessly into Shape I’m In bringing an end to a typically well played set ending epic.

The second source is used for a few seconds of crowd noise at the end of the second disc and beginning of the third. The first encore is a brilliant Immigrant Song > Heartbreaker, the devastating combo is just as effective in the latter part of the show as the beginning, the audience are quite pleased with Heartbreaker and clap along joyously, the first source ends at the songs conclusion, the mellotron solo and Thank You are both solely from the second source. The difference between the two sources is like night and day, I like the labels choice to present the complete first source and it is nice to have it. Jones’ solo is interesting, at times it sounds quite whimsical and other time you feel like you are in some English cathedral. The audience seems happy as the band break into Thank You, Robert gives a beautiful vocal rendition of the track, sounds very much from the heart. Despite the cool conditions and audience the band plays well for the first night in London.

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Enjoy !