Windy City Tapes, Vol III (weedwacker)

Source: Audience
Lineage: 1st gen cassettes>wav(24/96)>wav(16/44)>flac(level 8)

Notes:
Good to Very Good audience recording. Almost complete missing about 10 minutes give or take of Moby Dick. These cassettes were located by Jonohull through a friend of his who went to all 3 Zeppelin shows in 1975 with the taper of this recording. His friend Kevin was gracious enough to lend the cassettes out to Jonohull who in return passed them along to me for repair and transfering. This is the first time this recording has ever been in circulation and the first time it has been heard by anyone including Kevin in a great many years.

Jonohull's Notes:
One of my friends introduced me to Kevin because he knew he was at some Zeppelin shows, so I helped him get those recordings. Later he told me he had 2 Chicago shows on tape that he was at, and he was next to the taper when it happened. He had copied the master tapes the next day and these are the tapes this show is from. At this point I got excited, and the process started from there!

Kevin's Notes:
What do I remember about the chicago concerts? It was quite a while ago and there was a lot of effort in driving to chicago in freezing weather and then dealing with the large crowd. What I remember is that we didn't have the same seats on any of the nights and we were never very close to the stage, always in the upper balconies somewhere. It was very Magic though. I was a complete zeppelin fan. They were very special to me. I had some live recordings from earlier tours but Physical Graffiti was not out yet and new things undreamed of were emanating from that small stage down there! Almost all of my attention was riveted on Jimmy Page who was just a small figure way down there from where I was sitting. But what was coming out of him was simply unbelievable. I do remember one night we were a little closer, somewhere in the middle of the ground floor. I remember hearing Kashmir for the first time ( I hadn't understood the title when Plant announced the new song). As I said, sheer magic. No other music affected me like this. I guess this is all very subjective, and most people back home thought I was out of my tree, but now, look at all the people who are interested!! No one in my environment would have believed it then. I do remember that Plant's voice was substandard, apparently he had been suffering from the flu after hitting the freezing temperatures of Minneapolis coming straight from the much milder winter in England. That was especially true the first night. I wish I could remember more, but all of the Led Zeppelin concerts I saw (9 altogether) had me in a state of transformed excitement ( intoxication) which I can't explain and was totally different from any other concerts I saw ( for example the Who and Pink Floyd- to name two of the best). And, no, I was never using drugs or alcohol when I went to these concerts. Sorry if this has run on too long, but that is as accurate as I can be. That opening riff from Kashmir, which I'd never heard yet and was thus totally unexpected, is my most poignant memory. You see, the music was so overwhelming and had such a transforming effect that I was just stunned and came out of there in a state of total disorientation. I guess that's about the highest compliment you could pay to an artistic event.
I don't remember much about getting the equipment in because I wasn't paying any attention. I didn't want any distraction from the experience. All I remember is that he had a small tape recorder, and it was January with heavy winter jackets you know. I do remember that a security guard detected it while frisking him trying to enter one of the shows. He left and just came back again, this time not being detected. Very persistent fellow.

Credits:
The taper for recording the show in first place.
Kevin for lending his tapes out for repair and transfer.
Jonohull for locating the tapes in the first place. Without his leg work this release never sees the light of day.
Bozone Baby for his excellent artwork and covers.
Weedwacker for repairing and tape transfers.
Led Zeppelin for all the obvious reasons.