Led Zeppelin - Ally Pally Hard Rock Daze - The 2nd Daze (1972-12-23) FLAC

GENRE: Hard Rock 
FORMAT: Lossless (Flac) 
SIZE: 1,08 Gb (3% Recovery) 

Recorded live at Alexandra Palace, London, England, 23rd December 1972
Bonus Disc Recorded live at Alexandra Palace, London, England, 22nd December 1972 (Bonus source first released on "RIOT HOUSE" single vinyl album)
Label: Empress Valley Supreme Disc - (EVSD-952/953+BONUS)
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
204 Heartbreaker

CD3
Bonus Disc [Riot House LP version]
301 Stairway to Heaven
302 Whole Lotta Love
303 Immigrant Song
304 Heartbreaker
305 Mellotoron Solo
306 Thank You


NOTES:

There are two sources for the second night in London, the first is by far the best, a bit distant falling in the good to very good range with just a bit of hiss. It has been the singular source for all previous titles, Merry XMas Mr. Jimmy (Lemon Song LS 7208-09), Titanic (Image Quality IQ 16/17/18), and Disturbance House (Wendy WECD 52/53). The second source is a short fragment of the first 30 minutes of the concert, is much poorer in sound and has never been bootlegged before. I broke out the old Lemon Song title Merry XMas Mr. Jimmy for evaluation, This new title was not amplified as much so it has less hiss and also sounds clearer, brighter and has a warm sound I find much more easy on the ears, clearly a much better version of the tape.

Second night in London, While this concert is not as good as the previous evenings performance, it is certainly no slouch either. Again the band is plagued by the temperature of the building and Plant’s vocals do sound a bit rough at times, the band is so in tune with each other that even an average performance makes for a good listen. You can hear a pin drop as Rock and Roll ends and Page plays the first few bars of Over The Hills and Far Away, they do however help Robert out a bit in Black Dog. Plant’s initial good evening finds him talking of good vibes something that does get a response of Hallelujah from one punter and he also says they left on the heaters in the bathrooms in an attempt at sarcasm.  

Misty Mountain Hop is really good, Page’s guitar has a nasty sound to it and he plays an almost pregnant transition to Since that again the audience give polite applause to. The pure English blues of Since I’ve Been Loving You is easily the highlight of the first half, Plant and Page put some really nice nuances to the performance as they share their musical conversation. Jones switches to the organ for the second part of the song giving it a very heavy vibe. Tuning is a constant in these cold temperatures, Plant asks the audience if anyone was there and he gets a loud response. He introduces Dancing Days to zero applause, and while the other three seem content with the isolation, Plant will continue to create a rapport with the audience, easier said than done.

The audience sounds bored and impatient prior to Dazed and Confused, they shout at the band but at least they’re alive! Another good transitional Dazed, each night Page sounds like he is experimenting with different notes and themes and is slowly working his way to perfection that would come during the European tour in a couple months time. The audience seems to agree and the song gets the first warm applause of the night. Shouts of sit down precede Stairway, the band seems a bit harassed by some trouble in the audience, which Plant addresses as “its one of the hardest numbers to do with a monkey house”, the band then start the piece over. Perhaps wanting to sooth the crowd and retain the vibes brought upon by Dazed, the band deliver a really nice version of Stairway that culminates the energy of the group in a positive manner.

Just before Whole Lotta Love Robert tells the audience Bonham has a new drum solo called Titanic, and the band embark on a glorious 28 minute joy ride of a Rock n Roller coaster. The band gets into a funky instrumental version of The Crunge and don’t know how to get out of it so they just stop. The medley is the same as the previous night and has the same effect, awakes the sleeping audience with superb playing from the entire band and based upon the ovation at the end, their noble quest was successful. The band come back and dedicates the sole encore of Heartbreaker to Roy Harper. Just prior to Bouree, Page gets into some hoedown picking that had the audience stomping along, the vibes are finally real.

Bonus Source first released on “Riot House” vinyl album AlexandriaPalace, London, England – December 22, 1972

As a bonus, EV gives us the complete second source of the first Alexandria Palace gig, the recording is excellent, full range of dynamics and sounds clear and atmospheric almost in complete contrast to the first source. This brings back a lot of memories for me as the recording picks up an atmosphere the other does not and was my first audience source for Immigrant Song and to this day is still one of my favorites. A great addition to this set.

The packaging is nice, both concerts are house in a box with cover art taken from an Italian Magazine feature on the band showcasing pictures from the event. It seems like the latest trend is to include an OBI and the back of the box features a live shot of Robert. You open the box and each concert is housed in its own gatefold sleeve both with the same cover art with the center being different and the back has venue, date, and track listings and each also feature its own OBI. Simplistic yet classy looking. I like the mastering on this set very much, the packaging is nice and while it seems these mini box sets are a new fad, when done like this, works most effectively.

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Enjoy !