The majority of the San Diego crowd, not unlike those in the 29 other tour stops, had spent at least seven hours waiting outside the Sports Arena in anticipation of the evening’s performance by British rockers Led Zeppelin. Sold out by mail-order weeks in advance, the event had led many to pitch their sleeping bags outside the doors the night before. Now, with house-lights dimmed and 8 o’clock several moments away, 18,000 hold their lighted matches high while throngs crush toward the stage-front.Crowe's website, The Uncool, currently has over 150 of his old pieces online, including a profile of the Allman Brothers (his first Rolling Stone cover story, also 1973) with a backstory which may sound extremely familiar: I left the tour in an emotional mess and wound up catatonic in the San Francisco airport, where I ran into my then-stewardess sister Cindy. She cheered me up and sent me home....
Just as hysteria reaches a peak, four musicians take the brilliantly lighted stage and the thunderous opening notes of “Rock and Roll” blast through 33,000 watts of amplification, more wattage than the sound system used at Woodstock....
Saturday, May 28, 2011
"I WAS SHOUTING TOO MUCH ON THE FIRST ALBUM," ADDS PLANT. "I STOPPED SHOUTING A LITTLE BIT BY THE SECOND ALBUM. BY THE THIRD ONE I FINALLY LEARNED HOW TO SING": In the fall of 1973 Led Zeppelin toured the West Coast in support of Houses of the Holy, and the Los Angeles Times sent a 16-year-old Cameron Crowe to profile them. Here's your lede:
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And as everyone knows, Crowe's experiences with Led Zep became the basis of "Almost Famuous," originally titled "The Uncool.:
ReplyDeleteI may be old, but I saw the Chicago show on the tour he describes here.
ReplyDelete0http://www.theuncool.com/journalism/rs182-led-zeppelin/
Page's finger was broken, so instead of "Dazed and Confused" they played "When the Levee Breaks"
And I still remember them starting the show with "Rock and Roll"
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