[jseth]

Back in the 60's, so many of my friends loved the Yardbirds... when Clapton left the band and formed Cream, that was a great follow-up to his brief stint in the Yardbirds... and then Jeff Beck left and put out "Truth", and THAT had a huge impact!

So, when Jimmy Page left to form his own band, we were all interested in what he'd do... heard some rumors about a "mainly acoustic-oriented blues band", then I heard the story about someone telling John Paul Jones that the idea would go over "like a lead zeppelin"...

And then that first album came out.. absolutely mind-blowing sound from 4 guys! NOTHING else sounded remotely like it; maybe "Truth", but, no... they played at the University of California at Irvine on that first tour, when they were largely unknown, opening for Lee Michaels (!)... cost $4, and they definitely killed the show! They were so good that, even at 17 years old, I felt sorry that Lee had to follow them onstage!

At that time, they had none of the accoutrements of stardom; minimal lighting, no stage show, just that band, playing their butts off! Jimmy did have the violin bow for "Dazed and Confused", but really, no sort of special effects gizmos...

The first album is still my favorite, with "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You" as my favorite, followed closely by the segue from "Communication Breakdown" into "Black Mountain Side".

Saw the band again at the Forum in LA, 3 or 4 years later... they came out and played a marginal 40' set to an absolutely PACKED house... and then walked away. Of course, that time they had all the lights and bells and whistles going for them... but I was sorely disappointed with the trappings of The Rock Star that prevailed that night...

Funny thing - I bought the first 4 albums on CD, and my copy of III has the most annoying glitch on my favorite song on that record, "Since I've Been Loving You"; sounds like there's a little "tail" of tape that keeps rubbing everytime that master tape rolls around... really ruins that song on that particular CD... couldn't believe that something like that would slip past any quality-control folks...