The 6th US Tour rolls into Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the boisterous crowd are treated to one of the best performances of them all. The audience recording first started circulating in the early 1980's and thankfully isn't too many copies down the line so remains complete and intact and fairly clean. It's a distant but pretty clear and highly enjoyable recording.
The US is a volatile place in 1970. Authority feels threatened, the order of things is changing. Having already encountered jibes and threats about their hair, had guns pulled on them and threats to stop shows, this was not new to Led Zeppelin. After kicking off with a powerful Immigrant Song, Jimmy suddenly stops playing during his unaccompanied Heartbreaker solo. It soon becomes clear as Robert explains and asks (actually pretty much insists) the house lights, which have obviously been turned on or were never dimmed in the first place, be turned off or they won't continue. This works as a wave of applause is followed by some lovely Page solo figures before the solo lift off and Led Zeppelin boogie again. The tension remains throughout the show.
Dazed And Confused is outstanding, and Jimmy is fast becoming the star of the show. His playing is very fluent and inspired, intense and relaxed. Post bow he extends the instrumental passage with a glorious White Summer and pushes the bass, drums and harmonica
to the limit with some quiet jazz licks in the extended Bring It On Home improvisation. The acoustic set is nice and relaxed, but you can tell the crowd want to boogie. There's a break for some tuning before Since I've Been Loving You that's filled with a joking hoedown. The pastoral Thank You and classy What Is And What Should Never Be Bonzo ramps up the temperature with a powerful extended Moby Dick that has Tulsa on its' feet.
The closing medley is a joy. After the first two recordings of the tour show inspired but fairly short medleys, tonight they extend and let go. Bottle It Up And Go starts the frenzy after the fanfare of Boogie Chillun', before snippets and teasing clips of They're Red Hot, Cumberland Gap, Carl Perkins' Matchbox, Let Me Be Your Big Dog, That's Alright Mama and Heartbeat before slowing things down with the blues groove of Lemon Song until suddenly Robert leads the group into a reprise of That's Alright Mama and a wonderful My Baby Left Me.
The single encore medley rounds things off nicely, Communication Breakdown grooves into Ike and Tina Turner's Bold Soul Sister alongside a Jonesy bass solo and Good Times Bad Times. Not as expansive as the final Californian and New York shows, Tulsa is a highly enjoyable and intense gig.
Bottle Up and Go on Scorpio was the first CD set, the same tape used and cleaned up bit by Tarantura for Tulsa Hillbilly (copied by Whole Lotta Live as You Gotta Be Cool) and also released by TDOLZ and Wendy Records. Well worth a listen my friends.
The closing medley is a joy. After the first two recordings of the tour show inspired but fairly short medleys, tonight they extend and let go. Bottle It Up And Go starts the frenzy after the fanfare of Boogie Chillun', before snippets and teasing clips of They're Red Hot, Cumberland Gap, Carl Perkins' Matchbox, Let Me Be Your Big Dog, That's Alright Mama and Heartbeat before slowing things down with the blues groove of Lemon Song until suddenly Robert leads the group into a reprise of That's Alright Mama and a wonderful My Baby Left Me.
The single encore medley rounds things off nicely, Communication Breakdown grooves into Ike and Tina Turner's Bold Soul Sister alongside a Jonesy bass solo and Good Times Bad Times. Not as expansive as the final Californian and New York shows, Tulsa is a highly enjoyable and intense gig.
Bottle Up and Go on Scorpio was the first CD set, the same tape used and cleaned up bit by Tarantura for Tulsa Hillbilly (copied by Whole Lotta Live as You Gotta Be Cool) and also released by TDOLZ and Wendy Records. Well worth a listen my friends.
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