'I'll give you all I've got to give, rings, pearls and all...'
One of the main Yardbirds riffs and arrangements brought through for expansion and mutation by Led Zeppelin. A hybrid of the snaking boogie of Howlin' Wolf's Smokestack Lightning and How Many More Years, Jimmy flushed out the swing and sass in exchange for a powerfully strident revolving riff, compelling and insistent.
Listed as a Bonham, Page & Jones composition (Robert's CBS publishing contract precluded him from being credited), it's a maelstrom of licks, riffs, influences and hungry, barely controlled intent. Shuffling into life after the dramatic coda of I Can't Quit You Baby, it begins with an almost jazzy edge as Jimmy teases wah wah figures until Robert screams the band into overdrive.
If Dazed And Confused is the slow, brooding demonic heavy metal blueprint and Communication Breakdown is punk before punk, then How Many More Times set the stall out for countless variations over the coming decades. For all of Robert's wholesale lyric copying or stealing, the riff, the intent, the mood and the drive are pure Led Zeppelin, just staying this side of hysteria as it twists and turns, building and relaxing, adding more fuel at every break.
Jimmy's first solo is a burst of cascading notes that leads to the second bow interlude on the elpee. Unlike the other worldly atmosphere in Dazed And Confused, here it adds a dramatic backdrop to Robert's hysterical spoken tale of love. And before long were into a variation of (Beck's) Bolero, again in a much more strident mood. Then Albert King's The Hunter before once again Robert's siren call powers us into the coda as he precis Barrelhouse lyrics and Bonzo lays waste.
Closing the elpee, it was originally listed at 3.30, amended to 8.30 in the 90's when the Cd remasters were brought out. Recently Jimmy was quoted as saying it was a deliberate ploy to trick US radio stations to play an overlong song on their schedules. Live, it was an obvious set closer, the climax of primevil Led Zeppelin. It would invariably begin with Robert introducing his band mates (curiously and sadly edited out of the three official live versions) before they lift off.
During double set shows it would usually conclude the first set, extending nightly with John Lee Hooker's Boogie Chillun' as the starting point of an exciting and chaotic medley, Led Zeppelin flying high and hanging on for dear life all the while. It stayed as the finale, the remembered climax throughout those early tours, right up until the triumphant homecoming destruction at the Bath Festival on June 28th 1970.
After that it was replaced with Whole Lotta Love as the centrepiece of their cataclysmic ritual of bombast and boogie. It resurfaced in Japan, springing into life during the mad extended medleys during the two Tokyo shows on September 23rd & 24th 1971. Then at the wonderful Southampton University gig on January 22nd 1973 where it's a long, fun almost ramshackled high energy 3rd encore. The perfect quality as good as an official release recording is an essential Led Zeppelin live document, hopefully to see the official light of day before too long.
And in January 1975, How Many More Times was brought out of retirement for one last hurrah after Jimmy's finger injury prevented him playing Dazed And Confused. We only have 6 recordings of a possible 7 performances, but despite great effort it couldn't possibly come close to the early madness and frenzy.
How Many More Times couldn't have appeared on any other Led Zeppelin elpee, or at any other time other than the beginning. An exciting, bewildering hybrid, made for the live arena. Again, never released as an official single, we do have 4 official live versions - Denmarks Radio, BBC Rock Hour, Paris Olympia and Royal Albert Hall - and two of them on film! We even have small clips from the Texas Pop Festival show and Jimmy's bow sketch on the Toasted bootleg of cine film from Chicago Stadium on January 22nd 1975.
Post Zeppelin in was rekindled during the Walking Into Clarkesdale 1998 tour, and I have to mention the stunning version from Shepherd's Bush Empire, the moment when that night really hit the stratosphere!
Closing the elpee, it was originally listed at 3.30, amended to 8.30 in the 90's when the Cd remasters were brought out. Recently Jimmy was quoted as saying it was a deliberate ploy to trick US radio stations to play an overlong song on their schedules. Live, it was an obvious set closer, the climax of primevil Led Zeppelin. It would invariably begin with Robert introducing his band mates (curiously and sadly edited out of the three official live versions) before they lift off.
During double set shows it would usually conclude the first set, extending nightly with John Lee Hooker's Boogie Chillun' as the starting point of an exciting and chaotic medley, Led Zeppelin flying high and hanging on for dear life all the while. It stayed as the finale, the remembered climax throughout those early tours, right up until the triumphant homecoming destruction at the Bath Festival on June 28th 1970.
After that it was replaced with Whole Lotta Love as the centrepiece of their cataclysmic ritual of bombast and boogie. It resurfaced in Japan, springing into life during the mad extended medleys during the two Tokyo shows on September 23rd & 24th 1971. Then at the wonderful Southampton University gig on January 22nd 1973 where it's a long, fun almost ramshackled high energy 3rd encore. The perfect quality as good as an official release recording is an essential Led Zeppelin live document, hopefully to see the official light of day before too long.
And in January 1975, How Many More Times was brought out of retirement for one last hurrah after Jimmy's finger injury prevented him playing Dazed And Confused. We only have 6 recordings of a possible 7 performances, but despite great effort it couldn't possibly come close to the early madness and frenzy.
How Many More Times couldn't have appeared on any other Led Zeppelin elpee, or at any other time other than the beginning. An exciting, bewildering hybrid, made for the live arena. Again, never released as an official single, we do have 4 official live versions - Denmarks Radio, BBC Rock Hour, Paris Olympia and Royal Albert Hall - and two of them on film! We even have small clips from the Texas Pop Festival show and Jimmy's bow sketch on the Toasted bootleg of cine film from Chicago Stadium on January 22nd 1975.
Post Zeppelin in was rekindled during the Walking Into Clarkesdale 1998 tour, and I have to mention the stunning version from Shepherd's Bush Empire, the moment when that night really hit the stratosphere!
No comments:
Post a Comment