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[review by Bill Glahn]Led Zeppelin: Killer Highlights (2
LP, Retrorock records 2002)
Venue: Festival Hall,
Osaka, Japan September 28* and September 29**, 1971
Sound Quality: Superb
soundboard recording with well defined instruments and vocals for all tracks
except the final two on side D, which are audience recordings (muddy with a lot
of “audience participation”).
Cover: Exquisite double
pocket gatefold with period photos throughout, track listing on back, and
interesting liner notes inside. As stunning as anything the majors have come up
with that wasn’t a box set.
Tracklist: (side
A) Immigrant Song**/ Heartbreaker**/ Since I’ve Been Loving You* (side B)
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp*/ That’s The Way**/ We Shall Overcome*/ Tangerine*/ Down By
The Riverside*/ What Is and What Should Never Be* (side C) Heartbreaker Of A
Solo*/ Smoke Gets In Your Eyes**/ Communication Breakdown**/ Rock n Roll**/
Please Please Me*/ From Me To You* (side D) Stairway To Heaven**/ C’mon
Everybody (audience)*/ Hi Heeled Sneakers (audience)*
Comments: This
is only the second release from Retrorock Records (no affiliation with the old
Retrorock syndicated radio show), the first being the stunning The Byrds Across
The Borderline, released in early 2020. Evidently Retrorock will not be one of
those high production labels that knock out new titles by the truckload,
regardless of quality.
In the CD era, the Japanese bootleggers were obsessive
completists, several labels vying to issue every newly discovered tape source in
an attempt to release every note ever played by Zep on stage. Often, tape
sources were “blended” in multiple disc sets to present full concerts, whether
the source was from soundboard or the most infuriatingly poor audience
recordings. The 1971 Osaka soundboard recordings are infamously incomplete with
the recordings ending in mid-song and other songs absent altogether. This didn’t
seem to deter the Japanese CD specialists – they would simply splice the
recordings with audience recordings, often in mid-song. While the edits were
exemplary, and attempts were made to match the sound as closely as possible,
the listening experience left something to be desired.
There is not a note on Killer Highlights that hasn’t
appeared on a Japanese CD at sometime or another, but for much of it, there has
never been a vinyl release. Retrorock has taken the old school approach of
presenting an incomplete document, but one that is an enjoyable listening
experience from beginning to (almost) end.
Unlike some of their contemporaries, Retrorock hasn’t
simply made a transfer from CD, or worse yet, an MP3 download, but rather done
an excellent mastering job (most likely from an analog source) which is evident
from the get-go – mastered exclusively for vinyl which is different than CD
mastering.
Side A starts off with Page hitting a few notes in a
final soundcheck. The full crunch of his Hiwatt amplification is captured
perfectly, no hiss, no digital noise, no digital compression that reduces everything to midrange. Then Bonham bangs his snare a bit followed by an off-mic
shout of “Louder” in his midlands accent. A few more hits around the kit, followed
by “Louder, louder, Zeppelin, Zeppelin” (again off-mic but more clearly than
you will ever hear it elsewhere) – and they’re off delivering the full hammer
of the gods.
After two bombastic rockers from the second night, the
first side finishes off with a blistering rendition of “Since I’ve Been Loving
You” from the first night. The transfer is seamless with no change in mix or
atmosphere. At the end of “Since I’ve Been Loving You,” Plant announces the first
unreleased song of the evening, “Black Dog” from their upcoming album, IV
(ZOSO). But alas, it is not to be. “Black Dog” was one of the songs where the
soundboard source ends before the song is completed.
Side B changes pace, featuring acoustic performances
from both nights – and what an interesting song selection it is! Having spent
the previous day touring Peace Park in Hiroshima, Plant had obviously been
affected by the memorial for the victims of the atomic bomb that ended WW2.
With another war raging in Asia, and peace talks going nowhere, Plant leads the
boys through two anthems of the anti-war movement, “We Shall Overcome” and “Down
By The Riverside.” The performances would never be repeated in any other Zep concert (not a band noted for political or social commentary). It’s quite
moving, actually, that Plant would put image aside and the “hammer” would be
laid down for a brief moment in time. Side B finishes off with a return to
electric instruments, doing the appropriate “What Is and What Should Never Be.”
Side C picks up where side A left off. Or to quote
John Bonham, “Louder, Louder! Zeppelin, Zeppelin.” “Heartbreaker” from the
first night was another of those songs that were maddenly incomplete on the
soundboard source. But with a blistering solo by Page, it just couldn’t be
ignored. Retrorock has done the only sensible thing and picked things up in the
quiet “Greensleeves” lead-in to the solo that follows the first part of the
song. What you get are four minutes of the most fleet-fingered Page soloing on
record. Guitar fanatics will love it! After a few seconds of Plant warbling “Smoke
Gets In Your Eyes,” the fretworks continue with the band firing on all cylinders
with a long and funky rendition of “Communication Breakdown.” The audience then
gets a fine rendition of another, as yet, unreleased song, “Rock n Roll.” Plant
serenades the crowd with a line from “Please Please Me” and then Page seems to
want to go full throttle into “From Me To You.” But that song is abandoned
after less than a minute as well.
Side D provides one last unreleased (at the time)
song from IV, the spectacular “Stairway to Heaven.” Imagine the delight of the
Osaka crowd, at hearing so many gems before the rest of the world! The final
two tracks on Killer Highlights are, to put it mildly, lesser in sound quality
than everything that preceded them – two audience recordings of encores from
the first night in Osaka, included for their rarity, no doubt. “C’mon Everybody”
is somewhat rare, but other versions exist. “Hi-Heeled Sneakers” is unique to
this show.
Killer Highlights follows in the tradition of early
vinyl bootleggers, such as TMOQ, (Live on Blueberry Hill, Going To California,
Hiawatha Express, Bonzo’s Birthday Party) by avoiding the expensive box set
route for the sake of completeness, and opting, instead, for a two-LP set that
can be enjoyed from beginning to end. No points deducted for the last two
tracks this time. You can always lift the needle without missing any of the
good stuff.
Grade: A
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