Led Zeppelin - Stairway To Heaven - Atlantic Records 1988

[bastardgear8]

lol this is the shittiest Led Zeppelin concert I have seen. They all must be drunk

[1bravioso]

I know, it's only "Rock'n Roll", but, I LIKE IT.

[marcelostormrider]

... guitar 10 X Page 00... hahahah!!!,,, Page can be amazing no matter how bad he is playing...

[LedWilde]

But if you listen, Jimmy's tone sounds way off. It sounds too plain and too clean for him.

[JustinPierce1226]

3:50... FAIL

[threecases]

This difficult solo is due to not Page's tech but sound arrange, I believe.

[scotty4422]

@goonsauce FYI....That's John Henry Bonham's fucking son!!!...he's a pretty damn good drummer and had EVERY right to be there......that line up is the ONLY legitimate Led Zeppelin we may ever see again.....

[yaeliscool14]

PLANT MESSED UP THUMBS UP IF YOU WERE SINGING ALONG AND YOURE LIKE WTF WEN HE MEST UP

[Yardbirdsfan]

I read that Jimmy and Robert had a huge argument before they walked on stage. The argument was about Robert not wanting to do Stairway.

[bluerhino97]

did plant just mess up the lyrics? 4:33-4:55

[dbowienlmd1987]

@bluerhino97 Yes he did

[spike65]

TV mixes are usually shite. This was never meant to be viewed after this TV performance. Still it did give them a reason to perform. None us sitting behind our computer keyboards at home could do a better job. Thanks Zep.

[BeatleMoe]

I might be in the minority, but though it's not one of his better performances of the song, I didn't find the solo of this version that terrible.

[marcelostormrider]

... just phantastik !!!...

[jimihendrixtribute]

that snare drum sounds really awesome..

[petersba84]

im just gona say that solo with the right sustain and distortion for the guitar!!! would of been a awesome solo!! its was a big mistake of the sound crew!! i just hate when ppl put the fault to jimmy!! when he has nothing to do with it!!

[killaoflimmus]

@petersba84 You are so right, there were so many artists performing at this event that it must hae been quite a job to set up all the different stuff and it to sound spot on for them all. It just wasn't going to work.

[JustinPierce1226]

They all look like they quit. I would too for some reasons: A) THe sound equipment failed and went out a bit as you can tell. B) the tone levels are very very shitty. C) Jimmy sounded drowned out, again sound issue. The tech fucked this whole thing up. Somebody got fired for sure lol. Robert Plant seemed to be nervous by this point, or just fed up.

[benjamin308]

what gives with the where-abouts of the original multitracks of this gig? I reckon if the sound was decently mixed this would be a fairly decent enough performance. That solo sounded as though there was no amplifier and the guitar was direct into the board. Had it have been dripping with distortion it would have sounded okay.

[TheHockeyCentral]

@benjamin308 The solo to Stairway has NEVER been played with a lot of distortion on it so that really has nothing to do with it.

Page has always played with a slightly overdriven clean tone so when he makes mistakes they are definitely noticeable.

Sure if he was using a lot of distortion you probably wouldn't have heard many of the mistake but that doesn't mean that they weren't being made.

Page butchered the solo to Stairway at this gig. Period. Not one of his finer nights.

[benjamin308]

@TheHockeyCentral I think it has something to do with it. The solo usually (by my ears) has rather a lot of overdrive and boost on it. The guitar here sounds like it's not even going through an amplifier. For some reason the sound we're hearing is the direct input. I reckon someone set the soundboard to bypass all the effects.

[68SSCAM]

@TheHockeyCentral You've obviously never listened to any of page's solos, this is terrible because there is no distortion. None of the notes he is playing has any sustain, they die out right away, and when you are playing a solo like this one you have to be able to hold some of the notes for a while. Who ever was in charge of the sound that night did a terrible job. Page has never nailed that solo at many gigs, but he has always had that distinct sound.

[68SSCAM]

@TheHockeyCentral Listen to the record first of all, that has distortion and overdrive, or even listen to the live aid concert for a comparison to this.

[UpTheSnakes]

On a regular show if you play ten songs you can fuck up two and nothing happens. Short TV shows are usually the weakest. They were too much under pressure.

[dario3444able]

Robert is losing his voice here......

[kidzsanlorenzo]

Man I heard that who mixed the audio of this concert after became Bin Laden because he went and hid in a cave for 20 years !! :D

[ludwigvan17]

Oh god. Page's solo was so off. The tone of the guitar sounds plastic. It doesn't even seem like it has disortion on it.

[TheHockeyCentral]

@ludwigvan17 The solo never had distortion on it.

[ludwigvan17]

@TheHockeyCentral It definitely did. It wasn't heavily distorted but judging by the sound as I'm listening to it right now, the distortion was probably set at around 4....which is just enough to give it a tasty little bite. Here, Page, has almost nothing.

[jjbarbados]

digital 2000s middle class gets way too nitpicker . This was like a rehearsal OK, they met hours before, also even being led zep they need a second guitar like 99% of bands do Why dont you guys try to search who actually wrote mega-classics like Yesterday- My Michelle - In my life , Angie and  many others , instead of intellectualizing a simple forced reunion

[bluorangefyre]

First, Page had been doing some drinking from what I've read. Waiting made him nervous back in the day. Then, they weren't sure if Plant would even sing Stairway, since by this point he'd grown to detest this song. It shows by how he sort of half-asses it. Also, Peter Grant was likely watching this and saying, "See, this is EXACTLY WHY we never did TV!" The mixing was just terrible, but I hear the FM mix was better, and Page reportedly had a personal mixdown that was superior to both.

[lopezmiguelo]

Ironically, the non-original member (Jason Bonham) was the best performer. I'll like to assume that Page was drunk/high cause I have never seen him playing like this. They shouldn't had played that night. I remember that Robert Plant played that night with his band and was great. Then came the stairway to where?

[Caliame]

@lopezmiguelo That´s what they wrote in a German newspaper. Jason was the best. Jimmy didn´t had his best day and even Robert was not as good as possible.

[tutantianh]

jimmy jams elvis

[clashwho]

Awful.

[SmelOdies]

Agreed, it's like that "shreds" stuff.

[Anthaleus]

Good God. This is why they didn't get back together. They wanted to, but only after giving a good performance here. So, based on this one bad (ripped apart) performance, Zeppelin never re-established itself in music. But yea, Plant looked like a statue O.o. He was thinking "good god. Let this end". I mean, he was hit with something during Kashmir, the mixing of the sound was horrible, the gain on everything was crap, and Robert could not sing the mid sections in kashmir or at the end. Damn.

[MrDrProfessorJrMD]

During the solo the mixing was way bad. Might have actually sounded better if you were there in person though. Probably the stupid TV recording equipment. For one you can't hear the keyboards. The guitar was probably too loud too. I don't think it's that bad of a solo. Page was playing in relation with the band but you can't really hear Jones at all so it sounds funny. Not enough keyboard. I wouldn't blame this all on the band or the solo totally on Jimmy Page. I blame sound recording people.

[MrDrProfessorJrMD]

But obviously they were out of shape, performance wise.

[jnorjen]

@MrDrProfessorJrMD I was there, and it sounded pretty much like Stairway to me.

[jnorjen]

@jnorjen OK, it certainly wasn't their finest moment. But given the often-mentioned issues with this show, including the lack of rehearsals and the screwed up performance schedule that had them go on at 12:30 or so, etc. etc. Funny thing was, Jimmy was way off his game at this show but I saw him later that year on the Outrider tour and it was night and day. He smoked on everything that night, including an instrumental Stairway.

[101ledzepfan]

robert plant looks frozen idk why

jason was good

the rest looked messed up

i am a big fan and i like them back in the 70s

[willyhung1204]

Whoa, what happened...

[oscarivan1021]

Jason Bonham rocks... the sound of his DW was amazing!!! son of the thunder...forever!

[purphanz]

DW's suck balls

[Nethros]

Okay, heard the solo :P It's certainly worse than his usual stuff.

[cschizzo]

Horrible performance. You can hardly hear the guitar! not to talk about Plant; he even fucks up the lyrics... What was the matter with LZ back then?

[8CORVETTE4]

Drunk na,, stoned off there asses or coked up. / major F.U.B.A.R.ED, But still a good song!!!!!!!!!!!

[nsjsjsjsd]

hahahahaha you should know what plant said about this performance. its hilarious

[MrDrProfessorJrMD]

What did he say?

[nsjsjsjsd]

he said sumtin like its like sleeping with ur ex wife but not makng love. hahah he thought it was that bad lol

[MrDrProfessorJrMD]

lol. I've actually had to end up in the same bed as my ex once and we didn't make love. Not that I wanted too but the whole thing was akward so I understand.

[gerbile3]

@nsjsjsjsd what did he say?

[culinaryrocks]

Hunkola he was either stoned or drunk. it didn't help that they were the last act meaning they didn't get on stage until 12-12:30am plus right before they went on stage, page and plant got into a huge argument because plant didn't want to play stairway to heaven.

[sfischermilford]

drunk

[Hunkola]

Wow.........Jimmy Page sucks so bad in this performance..........was he stoned or maybe senile by this time ??

[sfischermilford]

drunk.

[RoloPrisionero]

In which Key was Jimmy Playing the solo? Man, that was horrible...

[Jkill619]

RoloPrisionero jimmy page cant be as good as he was back in the 70s

[nickrtvt2]

Dude, He's almost better in his 2007 shows...

[bma473]

Some other guys are just whiners, pointing out imperfections, geeez, I pity you for your lofty expectations. As if you can reach their level of expertise, write your own piece of music then without flaws.

[PeaniaFights]

this was a real disappointing guitar solo from jimmy page

[KarmicOmen]

Come on ... you know JP better than that, I hope -- he would never play like this unless there was a reason for it, and there was a reason. Equipment problems and/or failure = the reason for JP being off tone and lack of sustain here

[Nimlas1]

No no, it's because he's an asshole.

Asshole on heroin actually.

[Matthew9444]

he had quit by this stage, idiot

im pretty sure he had been drinking and was plastered

[zed0469]

@Matthew9444 ... Yes you are right. Jimmy quit heroin by '82 or '83. It was around the time of the ARMS tours I think. He was probably drunk to steel his nerves a little.

[mackmack281]

whatever..!! i like this performance..

[mstep61]

It's funny, I was at this show and thought how great they sounded at the time. Now listening to the playback, it's a bit disappointing. Oh well, I'll always remember how great it was.

[djtrixen]

mstep61: You're still a lucky bastard for having been there... lol

[leandar]

I'm pretty sure that the band themselves would consider this a sub-par performance. I know they do Live-Aid, which is why the Zeppelin reunion wasn't on the Live-Aid DVD. I do remember after this show happened how Plant and Page and Jones were very complimentary though toward Jason Bonham's performance. I remember reading that Page never forgave the sound people for not capturing the keyboard sound for Kashmir.

[MrDrProfessorJrMD]

mstep61, it probably actually did sound good in person. It was just recorded shitty for TV. So what you see in the video fails to capture the actual sound you heard when you were there in person.

[andwi03]

rob seems angry at 2:20 XD

[djtrixen]

andwi03: He doesn't look angry to me... just a little spaced out. I imagine the man's done his share of drugs.

[ludwigking]

I remember this show, they had a lot of problems with the sound company.

[andwi03]

you doesnt hear jpj (john paul jones)

[Anthaleus]

Wow. Goes to show that Robert Plant gave up trying to be hard after the Zeppelin days. The voice is gone, the energy is lacked here majorly, and to state again, his voice is in shambles compared to the Zeppelin days. What did he do after Zeppelin? Try to change completely? And Page had his gain turned way down lol. It was cool to hear though :). Heck, Robert did better in2007 than here when he was much younger lol.

[goflames99]

rob messes up the lyrics around 4:45