The Heart of Markness Led Zeppelin Podcast Mark Donahue

On August 23, 1998 Jimmy Page & Robert Plant played on a "wet, miserable field" in the rain at the Bizzare Festival, in Cologne/Koln Germany. They were touring in support of Walking Into Clarksdale, which was produced/engineered by the late Steve Albini (RIP).

This is a fantastic, professionally broadcast, performance and all systems are go with Jimmy on fire,and Robert's voice strong and in control. It's brilliant. I play two songs off Clarksdale and then a very cool performance of Spoonful into a frenetic Whole Lotta Love.

I wrap it all up with a clip of Steve Albini talking about working with Jimmy and Robert, in an insightful, if irreverent, interview. Good stuff.

Them Crooked Vultures is a band with John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl, and Josh Homme and they rock. Hard. This show is from April 17, 2010 in Las Vegas, and it rocks. Hard.
I play Mind Eraser, No Chaser, New Fang, and Warsaw. These men are from Led Zeppelin(!), Foo Fighters, Nirvana, and Queens of the Stone Age. Legends all. It's a great one.

Led Zeppelin's 1973 European tour is generally considered to be the instrumental peak of the band, with Jimmy Page, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones locked in tighter than ever, and playing with breakneck speed.

This performance is from Hamburg on March 21, 1973 and is a lovely remastered merge of the 2nd gen audience recording, and the clean as a whistle soundboard (Dazed, Stairway, and Whole Lotta Love only) to present a complete concert experience with best possible fidelity. All this is courtesy of the legendary dadgad.

I play a sublime Since I've Been Loving You and then a Dazed and Confused which is a contender for best ever. It's brilliant. As Luis Rey says, you've heard it all before, but never this perfectly. Bonzo. Goddamn. So good. So so good.

June 1972 is a golden month for Zep fans. Lots of great shows, including the ones which would eventually be released as How The West Was Won. This is June 15, 1972 at Nassau Colosseum and it is awesome.

We hear a first gen from the AC recording and boy do those guys like to talk. I play Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker, and a Whole Lotta Love with a zillion amazing medleys.

This show is all kinds of magickal, to me. First, I was there. Second, Jimmy Page was on fire this whole tour. Third, Robert Plant was in attendance so the band knocked it up a notch. This is October 29, 1988 and Jimmy Page is at the Worcester Centrum supporting his Outrider album. A performance of legend.

I play a stellar Midnight Moonlight w/Black Mountainside, an even more amazing solo section of The Chase w/ bow solo, noise solo (short), and Dazed & Confused w/ some Walter's Walk. It's awesome. We finish up with a perfect, I mean perfect, instrumental performance of Stairway to Heaven that may make you weep. For real.

This a brand new transfer from Mike Millard's master cassettes themselves (not the DAT tansfer) by the laudable JEMS tape group, remastered tastefully by DADGAD. June 27, 1977. Led Zeppelin's final night of a five night run at the LA Forum.

I play Sick Again (which rocks), Since I've Been Loving You, which shines in its more mature 1977 arrangement, and an adventurous Ten Years Gone in which not every landing is stuck, but the attempts are noteworthy.

This is a stellar recording of really good show. Lots of magic here. Zeppelin at the Forum is not to be missed.