Led Zeppelin played two nights at Long Beach Arena on March 11th and 12th, 1975. March 11th was captured in a stunning audience tape recorded by Mike Millard and was the more popular of the two nights because of this but the second night is more known among collectors for its superior performance. The band seems much more in tune with each other and delivers a much better performance than the previous night. Plant sounds strong both vocally and spiritually making this one of the best nights of the tour. Three very unique sources are available for this show and TCOLZ presents all three separately.
The first source came out years ago on Standing In The Shadow (TDOLZ) and Trampled Under Jimmy's Foot (Silver Rarities) and contained almost the complete show. The second tape, recorded by Millard was featured on Long Beach Arena Fragment (Holy) and both Bootleg License (Tarantura 2000) and Taking No Prisoners Tonight (Badgeholders) are mixes of sources one and two. Long Beach Continuous Performances (Wendy) was the first to issue source three, using source one to fill the gaps and included source two as bonus tracks.
The first source suffers from low end distortion with the drums and bass pedals being the biggest culprits. There is a cut at
3:27 in "The Song Remains The Same" and again at the start of "The Rain Song", eliminating the first few seconds. "No Quarter" has a small cut at
18:50 during Jones' transition back to electric piano omitting Plant's reentry and the track cuts out at
19:44.
The show is full of great moments and Page really burns up the solo in "No Quarter" and sounds very loose. "Dazed And Confused" is almost 32 minutes and Plant mentions afterward "the vibes are really good tonight, a bit better than last night". He wishes a "Happy Birthday to Steve Weiss" before "Whole Lotta Love" where they get into "The Crunge" almost complete. John Paul Jones gets to stretch out with some funky bass during the theramin solo while Robert gets into "Cold Sweat" and "Lickin' Stick" but only briefly. "Heartbreaker" returns to the encore section after being absent for almost two weeks and includes an impromptu version of "I'm A Man".
Source one of Dedicated To Anyone from TCOLZ is an upgrade over Standing In The Shadow. It has a much fuller sound, is better balanced and runs at the correct speed. It has an extra minute and a half of "Moby Dick" and doesn't have the digital static during "Stairway" that was present on TDOLZ.
The second source on disc four was recorded by Millard and is an excellent sounding tape. It is by far the best sounding but sadly the most incomplete version. What was recorded is a real treat and to hear the entire show in this quality would have been outstanding. It cuts in during the beginning of "Stairway" and runs through the encores only containing a little over a half hour. TCOLZ sounds much better when compared with Long Beach Arena Fragment (Holy) but does miss the first eight seconds of the tape.
The third source offers a new perspective on this great show and is complimentary to the Millard tape in regards to content. It is much quieter than the other two recordings but less distorted than source one and is a more enjoyable listen. The tape unfortunately cuts out at 28:17 in "Dazed And Confused", missing "Stairway", "Whole Lotta Love", and "Black Dog", but does includes six minutes of audience cheer before "Heartbreaker". The story I'm told is that the missing portion of tape was badly damaged and could not be salvaged.
TCOLZ's title comes from Robert's comments before "
Kashmir" where he dedicates this to "Anybody who got divorced today". Dedicated To Anyone is packaged in a fatboy jewel case with some nice live shots and a scan of the ticket. TCOLZ is the most comprehensive release of this show to date and offers an excellent way to obtain all three sources in good sound quality.
