In this issue:

Concert Night in Canada: Led Zeppelin Connects with Canucks

As a Canadian, I’ve always had a special interest in the concerts Led Zeppelin performed here on my home turf. (And living on this side of the US border, their Buffalo concerts were important to me too, as discussed in a past series of Enzepplozine issues).

It makes me happy as a researcher and fan that Canada played a part in the band’s touring history, having hosted the group twenty times during its career.

On the band’s First U.S. and Canadian Tour, they performed on December 28, 1968 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, British Columbia and on February 2, 1969 at The Rock Pile in Toronto, Ontario. There’s a complete list of Zeppelin’s Canadian tour stops at the end of this article.

But for now, let’s focus on the two Canadian tour stops on Zeppelin’s Fourth U.S. and Canadian Tour of 1969. They kicked it off at New York City’s prestigious Carnegie Hall on October 17, 1969. John Bonham was thrilled to be playing on the same stage that one of his idols – Gene Krupa – had graced!

The façade of Carnegie Hall. This photo was taken in June 2009. Courtesy L.A. Reddon, used with permission. Enzepplopedia Archives.

At the time, Zeppelin was performing material from the band’s brand-new album Led Zeppelin II which would be released on October 22 to coincide with that Fourth Tour. This second album continued to pay homage to Zeppelin’s roots in the blues; however, there were fewer covers and more original songs than there had been on the self-titled debut Led Zeppelin album released in January of the same year.

Zeppelin’s tour rolled into Toronto on November 2, 1969. This time, the venue was the O’Keefe Centre where the band was supported by local Canadian group, Edward Bear. The O'Keefe seats about 3200 on two levels.

The O’Keefe Centre opened in 1960 with a production of Camelot that starred Richard Burton as King Arthur, Julie Andrews as Guinevere and Robert Goulet as Sir Lancelot. Given to the City of Toronto in the late ‘60s, it kept its original name until 1996 when it became The Hummingbird Centre. Since 2006, it has been known as The Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, as seen in this photo taken in 2008 during renovation. Courtesy L.A. Reddon, used with permission. Enzepplopedia Archives.

The Led Zeppelin literature and fan accounts from this time concur that the band was definitely flying high, not only on record but in concert. Their performance in Toronto was no exception.

Fortunately, that November 2, 1969 concert at the O’Keefe was well chronicled with pictorial evidence and a live audience recording of unusually good quality. That bootleg CD is called Beast of Toronto. It documents Zeppelin doing new material from Led Zeppelin II as well as improvising heavily on songs from the band’s debut album.

Zeppelin’s phenomenal ability to improvise is what made it such an exciting band to see and hear in live performance.

Anyone who had purchased Led Zeppelin II (released in late October) would have been amazed at this concert. The album versions were so different from the live ones they were treated to at the O’Keefe! Here’s what I mean, based on Beast of Toronto.

Robert Plant greets the crowd to a rousing cheer. “We’re pleased to be back. It’s very nice to be back in Toronto.”

There are scathing renditions of new songs from Led Zeppelin II: What Is and What Should Never Be and John Bonham’s brain-bludgeoning solo spot, Moby Dick.

Jimmy Page also dazzled the crowd with an early version of Heartbreaker that's absolutely electric.

The band revisited material from its debut album, improvising heavily on these concert versions. For instance, this performance of Babe I’m Gonna Leave You from the O’Keefe Centre incorporated material from popular songs of the day like Buffalo Springfield’s Be On My Side as well as portions of new material from a new song on Led Zeppelin II called Ramble On.

In the middle of Communication Breakdown, Plant throws in lyrics from a tune called Listen To My Bluebird. It’s a very rare song reference. And Page’s virtuoso guitar piece from the first album, Black Mountain Side/White Summer, contains references to The Yardbirds’ song, Still I’m Sad.

Can you think of another group that would weave brand-new material from its latest album into the framework of an older song from a previous one?

Compared and contrasted against other performances that have surfaced from that Fourth U.S. and Canadian Tour of 1969, this bootlegged audience recording of Zeppelin’s November 2 concert at the O’Keefe shows it to be one of the strongest and most unusual gigs of that entire tour.

The pictures, literature and bootleg together paint a powerful picture of what Led Zeppelin was fast becoming and achieving at this point of the band’s career. And it was a massive success!

Thanks to the boot, Beast of Toronto, we’re able to hear how Led Zeppelin’s music is evolving by comparing it to previous bootlegs dating back to the band’s beginnings; for example, the CD called Gonzaga ’68, released on Capricorn Records.

Back then, Zeppelin was doing more covers because they hadn’t yet written a lot of their own, original material. Songs like As Long As I Have You by rhythm’n’blues artist, Garnet Mimms, is a good example of a number that Zeppelin steered into psychedelia .

Pat's Delight, John Bonham's original drum solo played at Gonzaga and other stops on that First U.S. and Canadian Tour of 1968-‘69, gave way to Moby Dick, now on Led Zeppelin II. It's interesting to note how much more evolved Bonham's Moby Dick solo is, versus Pat's Delight, which never made it onto an "official" Zeppelin album.

Other songs Zeppelin did at Gonzaga include: I Can't Quit You Baby, Dazed and Confused, White Summer...all of these songs played at the O’Keefe Centre and at other stops on that November 1969 tour grew tremendously since Gonzaga, in so many different, musical ways.

Much of the Led Zeppelin literature laments that the band received a lot of bad press on that Fourth Tour. But in Toronto (and in Kitchener, which we’ll look at next), the reviews were excellent when the mighty Zep flew through there in November ’69.

Ritchie Yorke, a music reporter for the Toronto Telegraph, had always given Zeppelin glowing reviews dating back to their First U.S. and Canadian Tour of 1968/’69. His review of their O’Keefe gig was equally positive.

Poster and ticket stub for the Led Zeppelin/Edward Bear matinee and evening performances at the O’Keefe Centre on Sunday, November 2, 1969. Note the promotion of Zeppelin’s first two albums. Courtesy of Sheldon Frymerman, used with permission. Enzepplopedia Publishing, Inc.

Two days later, on November 4, 1969, Led Zeppelin performed at the Kitchener Memorial Arena in Kitchener, Ontario. Toronto is the largest city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario with a population of over 2 million.

By contrast, Kitchener/Waterloo is the urban centre of a mainly rural area, about sixty miles west of Toronto. And yet the Memorial Arena is still attracting rock acts and fans. Bob Dylan just performed there on November 7!

But our story is from 1969. When Led Zeppelin played there (supported by a group called Copper Penny), the Kitchener fans were blown away as the band ripped through numbers from their first two albums again.

To date, no bootleg recordings of that Kitchener performance have surfaced; however, there are many excellent photographs and terrific reviews that attest to the chemistry and magic of those early Zeppelin concerts.

Although I have no pics I can share with you because of copyright issues, it’s easy to spot a photo from this Kitchener concert. The stage backdrop is a large panel of corrugated steel. Jimmy Page is wearing a short-sleeved pink t-shirt and Robert Plant’s jeans are tucked into a pair of fur-trimmed white mukluks!

Here are the known Canadian tour stops for Led Zeppelin’s entire career:

December 28, 1968 – Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, British Columbia February 2, 1969 – The Rock Pile, Toronto, Ontario May 9, 1969 – Edmonton Gardens, Edmonton, Alberta May 10, 1969 – PNE Agrodome, Vancouver, British Columbia July 26, 1969 – PNE Agrodome, Vancouver, British Columbia July 29, 1969 – Kinsmen Field House, Edmonton, Alberta August 18, 1969 – The Rock Pile, Toronto, Ontario November 2, 1969 – The O’Keefe Centre, Toronto, Ontario November 4, 1969 – Kitchener Memorial Arena, Kitchener, Ontario March 21, 1970 – Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, British Columbia April 13, 1970 – Montreal Forum, Montreal, Quebec April 14, 1970 – Ottawa Civic Centre, Ottawa, Ontario August 29, 1970 – Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg, Manitoba (part of the Manitoba Pop Festival) August 19, 1971 – Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, British Columbia September 4, 1971 – Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario June 7, 1972 – Montreal Forum, Montreal, Quebec July 18, 1973 – Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, British Columbia February 6, 1975 – Montreal Forum, Montreal, Quebec March 19 & 20, 1975 – Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, British Columbia

Hope you liked this look at Led Zeppelin's Canadian Connections. I'd love to hear from you with ideas about future Enzepplozine issues.

Many of you seem to enjoy reading about the live concert recordings. If you have a favourite, let me know and we can "compare notes"!

Until next month, rock on!

Reminders

Want to learn about Led? Visit Learn-about-Led.com

Order Sonic Boom Volume 1 at Enzepplopedia.com.

And don't forget to tell us what's YOUR favourite Led Zeppelin album!

Do you already own True Blues & Beyond, my e-book that explores Led Zeppelin's earliest influences in the blues? It's free for Enzepploziners. Click here to download it.