About the Review Author

I hated being born in 1961. As a child growing up, that made me old enough to hear good music, but too young to appreciate it. I remember many Led Zeppelin songs from my youth thanks to my older sister, Laura, but I know of only two songs that really touched me. "Going to California" was the first. It wasn't "Whole Lotta Love" or "Heartbreaker" or even "Stairway"--that was second--it was this dreamy California love song, written by Robert Plant and inspired by his admiration for Joni Mitchell and a home away from home. Believe that? Hey, I was only eleven, all right? Give me a break…Yet there was something about the way it sounded, the images it brought to my mind, the angelic sounds of Page's melody and the way Plant's voice faded slowly away at the end, like an endless dream…beautiful and mesmerizing. I will always remember those moments, and the fact I was playing these songs on an eight-track! It was this song and "Stairway to Heaven" that I remember listening to the most, with an occasional "Good Times Bad Times" on my sister's turntable. I liked the music as much as a young boy could, but it was way over my head back then. It would take me until I was twenty-five to understand what Led Zeppelin music was really all about….

An MTV weekend of Led Zeppelin back in 1986 included the movie "The Song Remains the Same." Ah-h-h-h, shut up--before you even start. Okay, okay, it wasn't "really" live--even though it was. There was three nights of music squeezed and pinched into a video and album soundtrack. Jimmy Page got blisters on his fingers from working with all those cuts. They had the audacity to use a fake soundstage setup in 1976 to fill the holes and the undesirables. Plant had miserable teeth one take, shiny new white ones on the next take. No "Bewitched" here, just Plant having his teeth fixed between 1973 and 1976, all captured live on live concert footage. And how many times does John Paul Jones have to take off the bass guitar before he actually leaves the stage? Perhaps it was compulsive behavior? No, just some miserable editing. Have I made your point?

Yes, it's a live concert with many ugly warts, but who cares? That night, I listened to Led Zeppelin play the first live performance of "Dazed and Confused" I had ever heard, and I was sucked into a whirlwind of rock music I am still spinning in to this day! And I'm not about to let go! I'm going to be the only 70-year-old man who's still clenching his fist after a Led Zeppelin song and who uses his cane as a Les Paul. I became possessed that night, and since then I have devoted almost all my listening time to the music of Led Zeppelin. First, just the soundtrack album, then all of the albums, followed by a few stray boots from an old Led Zeppelin fanzine, culminating in my discovery of Led Zeppelin nirvana on the Internet. Stupid as this sounds, I thought I was the only one who was so passionate about the music, but I was, of course, thankfully wrong. The discovery of pages and pages of websites devoted to Zeppelin was like a dream come true. I became an instant Web Zeppelin junkie!

This website comes from the passion I feel for Led Zeppelin music and my love of writing. I put them both together to offer other fans another take on the live history of one of the greatest live bands ever to play. I dedicate this Web site to all those wonderful tape traders out there who have made it possible for fans like me to enjoy Led Zeppelin live. I also dedicate this Web site to the many daring bootleggers out there who surely risked more than lost tape equipment to capture Led Zeppelin in history so we could all enjoy their play so many years later….

A special thanks to Paul Holdren…Without his kindness and generosity to me, this site would never have become a reality. Hope you are doing well, Paul, wherever you are.