Oil Well Bootlegs - RSC CD: Led Zeppelin – White Summer Oil Well

Led Zeppelin – White Summer
Oil Well – RSC 003 CD

1 Communication Breakdown 3:13
2 I Can't Quit You Baby 6:25
3 Dazed And Confused 11:22
4 White Summer 8:21
5 You Shook Me 10:25
6 How Many More Times 12:56

Note
Live at the Playhouse Theatre, London, June 27, 1969.

Lineup:
Jimmy Page (guitars)
Robert Plant (vocals and harmonica)
John Paul Jones (bass and organ)
John Bonham (drums)

This CD is a digital clone of "White Summer" - The Swingin' Pig - TSP-CD-019
This is an excellent quality soundboard recording, recorded live for the BBC in 1969 and featuring two tracks omitted from the official BBC Sessions release. This CD release on Oil Well is without the interview and comedy sketch interludes which appear on some versions.
This Oil Well version has a fine cover, fine quality. Fold-out insert shows details of other CDs in the series. Limited to 200 copies only. Due to its rarity and good quality, this disc is recommended.
On the front cover Robert Plant and Jimmy Page performing live during a concert.
Read below for more information on the concert.

Audio quality:

Quality content:

© Official released material:
This concert has been released officially as "The Complete BBC Sessions" - Atlantic – 16 Sep 2016
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Led Zeppelin BBC Rock Hour (Playhouse Theatre London, June 1969)
The June 27th, 1969 In Concert appearance has had releases dating back to the Neolithic era. On vinyl it was released well over a dozen times with the better titles being Complete BBC Performances on Toasted, Dazed And Confused on Royal Sound (RS009), Hot London (Kolne), and Four Symbols (Accord). The version on Accord was reissued this twice. White Summer (TSPCD019) on The Swingin’ Pig, How Many More Times (QCP 69008) on the Korean Quality label, and Classics Off The Air Vol. 2 (NZCD 005) on Neutral Zone are among the earliest compact disc releases. About the time Antrabata released Rock Hour, which was copied onto BBC 69 (BBC Transcription Series), the complete broadcast with interview and the Liverpool Scene sketch became the norm.

Several months ago Empress Valley released a great version on disc two of their four disc Complete British Broadcasting Corporation Radio Sessions. This new release on Bumble Bee is in similar excellent quality. It isn’t as loud as the Empress Valley. However, older releases have a fifteen second cut in “White Summer” at 2:53 into the track, but BBC Rock Hour does not have the cut making it the most complete and as close to definitive as possible.

Alan Black introduces the format which gives the band an opportunity to give a true statement about their music with “complete creative freedom and a chance to communicate”. Ironically the first song is “Communication Breakdown”, the normal encore. This version includes Page playing a funk riff over which Plant sings “I wanna do little mama babe yeah but I don’t seem to mind / I can’t stop the feelin’, baby mama, I’m givin’ you a ride” before quoting from the Isley Brothers “It’s Your Thing”. The song segues perfectly into “I Can’t Quit You Babe”.

The interview following this song is conducted by the host with Plant and Page, speaking about the popularity of underground groups like them and Jethro Tull. At the end Black encourages the band to play one of their longer numbers. John Paul Jones can be heard in the background replying “Oh really?” and Page, for some reason, says “Jim Morrison?” before Plant says, “when we finish that, we’ll be well out of breath”.

What follows is an excellent eleven and a half minute version of the piece. The late Adrian Henri, Andy Roberts and Mike Evans of the band The Liverpool Scene who released their first album Incredible New Liverpool Scene on CBS in 1967 and broke up in 1970 perform the following sketch. They were a band that wove together music, poetry and satirical humor. This faux commercial is done for the “next great war” in which they advertise PAD meat (Prolongs Active Death), BOMB (the international passport for smoking ruins), and FALLOUT.

The mc introduces Jimmy Page to play “White Summer/Black Mountain Side”, one of the most perfect versions on tape. “You Shook Me” is a rare version which has John Paul Jones playing the Hammond organ. The opening notes are still much louder than the rest of the track, probably due to the engineer not expecting the loud volume. The finale “How Many More Times” lasts for thirteen minutes and includes snippets of “Smokestack Lightening” before the first verse. This recording is one of the best sounding and played of the early Led Zeppelin which accounts for all of the editions available.
https://classicrockreview.wordpress.com/2013/03/10/led-zeppelin-bbc-rock-hour-playhouse-theatre-london-june-1969/

June 27, 1969 - London, UK - Playhouse Theatre
What you will read is only the personal judgment of the writer. But led Zeppelins' 1969 tour is one of their best. A live band that was noisy, maybe too loud. In 1969, however, the band gave a lot of space to improvisation, almost as if it were a preparation for Led Zeppelin II which would be released in a few months; a calibrated, perfect, file-worked job. The blues was still the fundamental element around which the whole sound of the band revolved. This bootleg is highly recommended. It circulated for years before being published in the BBC Sessions. The audio quality is excellent and the band was in top shape. Few other bands have been able to revolutionize the blues in this way. A band that made school. And this is further proof of this, if there was a need for it.

Led Zeppelin had many appearances on the BBC during their first year of existence. This one has always stood out from the others because it is the only one to be taped in front of a live audience. They sound very raw and it captures the excitement of their early live show. Up until June they were finding ways of expanding their sets to ninety minutes to two hours long, but the summer was filled with appearances at festivals beginning the following day at the Bath Festival on June 28th. This gives a glimpse into their stripped down, hour long festival set.

Communication Breakdown (incl. It's Your Thing), I Can't Quit You Baby, Page & Plant interview, Dazed and Confused, White Summer / Black Mountainside, You Shook Me, How Many More Times (incl. "Lemon Song"). Studio - Playhouse Theatre, Northumberland Avenue BBC live session for "Radio One In Concert". Released on the BBC Sessions cd in 1997. Producer - Jeff Griffin; Engineer - Tony Wilson https://www.ledzeppelin.com/show/june-27-1969