Led Zeppelin
L'Olympia
Paris
10 Oct 69

Recorded for the show "Musicorama", on French station Europe 1
First broadcast : 2 Nov 69
Second Broadcast : 17 Nov 07

FM > MZ RH10 (PCM mode) > Trader's Little Helper > Flac 7

1. Communication Breakdown
2. I Can't Quit You Baby
3. Heartbreaker
4. Dazed And Confused
5. White Summer/Black Mountain Side
6. You Shook Me
7. How Many More Times

Notes:

Moby Dick was played but not broadcasted.

The DJ feels compelled to make announcements in the middle of the songs... sigh. So some major editing has been done to this show. But which version to edit - there are several versions of this show in circulation all due to different capture methods and FM tuners. My version is a modified version of the 'digital FM (192kbps)' broadcast, as torrented and posted by theodrik on Dime.  So what was done?

All problems were fixed (as best possible) by:
- editing out the DJ (all except after D&C which was the only one that was harmless)
- de-clicking the source files (hopefully all of them)
- filtering out the 50Hz hum
- editing to make all breaks & transistions seemless
- adding some volume changes to try & help improve the dynamics (hopefully tastefully done)
Other tweaks performed:
- centre the stereo image (by +0.4db on right channel)
- boost overall volume by +1dB
- add fade-in & -out
- add 1 sec silence for lead-in & lead-out
- slight adjustment of track positions

My opionion is that this version is much more listenable now.

Every die hard LZ fan knew of the existence of this recording, but it seems that the circulation was very very limited for almost 40 years. A recent rebroadcast of the show, in honor of the 2007 reunion,  has changed all that. A pre-FM would be even better of course, but it's still a fantastic - LZ in their early blues fusion prime.

There is some echo but it remains to be seen whether or not it was added during the show by those who were working the sound for the broadcast, or  whether this was something added in post back in '69, or whether it was added by someone specifically for the re-broadcast. However, the feedback at the end of the echos suggests that it was added during the show itself. It really is fairly minor anyway.

It is safe to say that Page wasn't responsible for it via his personal effects. If you listen to the bow solo, you can hear Page's echoplex decaying at the rate it was always used at, with the additional echo provided by someone else on top of it.  That and for the fact that Bonham's snare gets some echo too at the beginning of Dazed, which doesn't effect Plant's vocals or Jones' bass. Which again suggests that it was added live on just those instruments via the house or recording engineers.  But until we can get more info on the source or the pre-fm, it's all just going by what we each think it is.

Plant is very strong, pretty much every show from 68-70, and some from 71 as well (Montreux 70 & 71 come to mind) and he nails it on this '69 show in Paris.  It is nice to have his young powerful voice captured, all of its blues screaming in full fury (check out his amazing intro to ICQY - by late 72, he simply could no longer do that).  Page has his many moments as well -  a bit sloppy during the CB solo, but with some absolutely brilliant shredding early in HMMT, as well as parts of ICQY, HB, D&C, and YSM.  Somewhat surprisingly for , the highlight was John Paul Jones. The bass underbelly is squarely in the forfront - almost as prominent as Page & Plant themselves. John Bonham's playing is excellent and very well captured, especially considering that, as we see in pictures from the event, there appears to only be one microphone on Bonham's set!  His highlight might be the thrashing he gives his drumset during the first couple minutes of D&C.

All in all a terrific performance with a few, but very few, rough spots, Plant in his early strong voice, Page & Bonham at their peak (pre-Heroin days), the whole band still young and hungry and playing their asses off on every song. Oh la la!

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