Posted on 04/18/2026 6:58:52 PM PDT by Bullish
When Led Zeppelin bombed in front of 1.9 billion people
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Paging guitar and bass pinglist
It was Led Zeppelin. No one cared. The show must go on.
“ohthehumanity” — LOL
I was at Live Aid at JFK in Philadelphia. It was a great day, and a great event, and some great music was played that day. The Four Tops, The Cars, Judas Priest, the Hooters, Power Station, CSN, Black Sabbath…heck, even Madonna was good.
And yes…Zeppelin was bad. I mean really bad. Indeed, they were so bad they wouldn’t let their set be included in the official Live Aid box set.
But I can say I saw Zeppelin. We didn’t care.
The WORST was Patti LaBelle.
That angle was actually covered in the video towards the very end.
I’m sure it was covered. I’m sorry, but I didn’t watch the video (this time…I usually do.) I might be a little ornery tonight for some reason. ;)
Come on folks. It wasn’t Led Zeppelin without Bonham on drums. Phil Collins is very good but he didn’t know the material. The start of “Rock and Roll” is damn near impossible even if you know it.
It was a disaster because it wasn’t Led Zeppelin. It was only a bad jam session.
Btw, would you add me to your ping list? I don’t play any instruments, but I do appreciate the musical talent that others have. Thx.
This is another video of a guy yapping away.
🎶“It’s been a while since we played rock-and-roll…”🎶
“Does anyone remember laughter?”
Wonder who decided to start the set with the song Rock and Roll. That was asking for trouble. The intro is notoriously tricky to play. Cover bands blow the intro all the time. It’s like an iceberg looming out there, waiting to sink any band who attempts it. Naturally these guys could have nailed it with more rehearsal but under the circumstances they were doomed.
Done... Welcome
That’s one of my least favorite Zeppelin songs of all time. All it is, is a simple 1-4-5 12-bar rock song that most of us players can do in our sleep. Super boring song if you ask me.
What did you expect?
LZ was always a better audio band than a live band.
On their studio stuff, most of the songs had several guitar tracks and several vocal tracks, honed and edited and perfected and it was marvelous.
Live, that studio magic didn’t come across. Yes, it was LZ, but it was always hollow and thin and inevitably disappointing vis-a-vis their studio efforts.
LZ was always a better studio band than a live band.
Simple chord progression once you’re into it but the intro is tricky.
Actually, there were TWO drummers. The other, the late great Tony Thompson of Chic, knew what he was doing.
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