The source for Led Zeppelin's June 14th show in
New York has seen two previous silver editions in the past.
Over The Hills And Far Away from the original Tarantura featured the first half of this tape and mixed it with
June 22, 1977 to complete that show. It was also available as part of the 8CD set
Strange Tales From The Road, copied from the LPs of the same name, which not only ran at the wrong speed but showed evidence of being sourced from vinyl and is less complete. TCOLZ offers the most complete version and runs at the correct speed certainly making this the definitive version.
Final Night At The Garden features a very good sounding audience source for the last of the Garden shows. It is somewhat distant but the sound is clear and sounds like it comes from a low generation tape. It is lacking in the bass guitar but captures the drums nicely. There is a decent atmosphere although some crowd noise is present but really doesn't detract from the music. Plant is also loud in the mix and his voice is in good shape (for 77 standards anyway) while Zeppelin delivers perhaps what is the best of the '77
New York shows. An interview with Plant after revealed his dislike for returning to the same venue night after night but it seems to have paid off in this string of concerts.
Page sounds like he is having a very good night as well. His playing is loose yet energetic in "The Song Remains The Same" and continues into "Sick Again". Plant greets the audience with "welcome to the last night at the Garden" and goes on to once again make excuses for a delay. He hits the notes with ease at the end of "Nobody's Fault" and is a testament to the strength of his voice tonight. "In My Time Of Dying" was played next at the first two Garden shows and with the exception of June 11th, is replaced with "Over The Hills And Far Away" for the remainder of the
New York concerts. Robert is pushing his limits and reaches for some high notes with mediocre results before returning to his comfort zone.
John Paul Jones' electric piano sounds nice and full in the recording and Jimmy plays some beautiful passages during "Since I've Been Loving You". Some firecrackers can be heard in the verse and also in Jones' piano solo about eight minutes into "No Quarter". A very small cut is evident at about
16:40 right in the middle of a blistering Page workout and another at 24:16 omitting some of the last verse but the track is still an amazing 28 minutes.
Page stumbles a bit in his solo in "Ten Years Gone" but gets quickly back on track. This is followed by the standard '77 acoustic set. Plant teases with "Gallows Pole" by singing "Hangman" a couple times before "The Battle Of Evermore" and Page hints at "Dancing Days" during "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp". "White Summer" is another good workout for Page and is segued into a solid version of "
Kashmir". Only the first four minutes of "Moby Dick" are featured before the tape cuts off and also misses "Guitar Solo/Achilles Last Stand", "Stairway", and "Whole Lotta Love" at the very least. We can imagine that perhaps Zep may have included an extra encore being the last night in
New York. I will remain hopeful that someday the full soundboard recording from this night will become a reality so we can finally have the benefit of the entire show.
TCOLZ continue offering nice looking artwork.
Final Night At The Garden is a very enjoyable performance from the '77 tour and a worthwhile addition to any Zeppelin collection.
