Led Zeppelin North American Tour 1973

The tour took place shortly after the release of Led Zeppelin's chart-topping fifth album, Houses of the Holy. Prior to its commencement, Led Zeppelin's manager Peter Grant hired PR consultant Danny Goldberg for promotion and booked large stadium venues.{{cite book| author = Dave Lewis|author2=Simon Pallett | title = Led Zeppelin: The Concert File| year = 1997| publisher = Omnibus Press| isbn = 978-0-7119-5307-9| page = 90 }} The resulting tour broke box office records across North America.{{cite web |url= {{Allmusic|class=artist|id=p4739|pure_url=yes}}|title= Led Zeppelin Biography| access-date=2008-11-11 |last= Erlewine|first= Stephen Thomas|publisher=Allmusic}} On May 5 at Tampa Stadium, Florida, they played to 56,800 fans (breaking the record set by The Beatles at Shea Stadium in 1965), and grossed $309,000 (US${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|309000|1973}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US}} dollars{{inflation-fn|US}}).[http://ledzeppelin.com/show/may-5-1973 Led Zeppelin official website: concert summary]Stephen Davis (1995). Hammer of the Gods (LPC) {{ISBN|0-330-43859-X}}. In total, this tour grossed over $4,000,000 (US${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|4000000|1973}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US}} dollars{{inflation-fn|US}}).

Led Zeppelin's shows evolved from those on previous tours, with the introduction of dry ice, laser effects, backdrop mirrors, hanging mirror balls and Catherine wheel pyrotechnics.{{cite book| author = Chris Welch| title = Led Zeppelin| date = 1994-11-01| isbn = 978-1-85797-930-5| page = 65 | publisher = Orion}} Their dress attire also took on a more flamboyant nature, evidenced in particular by guitarist Jimmy Page's hummingbird jacket and John Paul Jones' Spanish matador jacket. This increase in on-stage theatricality was later referred to by Page during an interview he gave with rock journalist Mick Wall:

{{quote|Originally, we saw the whole essence of our live performance as something that the audience listened to very carefully, picking up on what was going on, the spontaneity and musicianship. And you can’t do that if you’re running around the stage all night, or at least we couldn’t back then." By 1973, however, "we were much more ambitious, in that respect. We really wanted to take the live performances as far as they could go.Mick Wall, [https://web.archive.org/web/20110616140226/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article5037614.ece "The truth behind the Led Zeppelin legend"], Times Online, November 1, 2008}}

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Three sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden in New York City that concluded the tour were filmed for a motion picture, but the theatrical release of this project (The Song Remains the Same) was delayed until 1976. The film documents the theft of $203,000 of the group's money from a safe deposit box at the Drake Hotel in New York, just before their final show. The theft was discovered by Led Zeppelin tour manager Richard Cole, who was immediately interrogated by police as a suspect. The sum of money was the band's takings from their three New York concerts. It was never recovered and the identity of the thief or thieves has never been discovered.Liner notes by Cameron Crowe for The Song Remains the Same, reissued version, 2007. The band later sued the Drake Hotel for the theft.{{cite book| author = Dave Lewis|author2=Simon Pallett | title = Led Zeppelin: The Concert File| year = 1997| publisher = Omnibus Press| isbn = 978-0-7119-5307-9| page = 91 }}

Led Zeppelin hired for the first time The Starship – a former United Airlines Boeing 720B passenger jet. During the early part of the tour the band had hired a small private Falcon Jet to journey from city to city, but these aircraft are comparatively light and susceptible to air turbulence. After performing at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco on June 2,[http://ledzeppelin.com/show/june-2-1973 Led Zeppelin official website: concert summary] they encountered bad turbulence on a flight back to Los Angeles. As a result, Grant resolved to hire The Starship for the remainder of the tour, at a cost for $30,000.{{cite book| author = Dave Lewis|author2=Simon Pallett | title = Led Zeppelin: The Concert File| year = 1997| publisher = Omnibus Press| isbn = 978-0-7119-5307-9| page = 92 }}{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20051212153440/http://www.led-zeppelin.org/reference/index.php?m=starship Led Zeppelin :: Achilles Last Stand]}} The exterior of the plane was re-sprayed with Led Zeppelin emblazoned down the side of the fuselage.

Flying on The Starship, Led Zeppelin was now no longer required to change hotels so often. They could base themselves in large cities and travel to and from concerts within flying distance. After each show, the band members would be transported directly by limousine from the concert venue to the airport, as depicted in the concert film, The Song Remains the Same.

In an interview with William Burroughs in 1975, Page commented on the exhausting nature of the 1973 tour:

{{quote|[W]e were playing [sets] for three hours solid, and physically that was a real... I mean, when I came back from the last tour I didn't know where I was. I didn't even know where I was going. We ended up in New York and the only thing that I could relate to was the instrument onstage. It was like swinging on liana from one city to the other… I was just totally and completely spaced out.William S. Burroughs, [https://web.archive.org/web/20071014170854/http://www.geocities.com/thoea2004/LedZeppelinRockMagic.html Rock Magic: Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin, and a Search for the Elusive Stairway to Heaven], Crawdaddy!, June 1975.}}

In a more recent interview, Page recalled:

{{quote|We arrived in America and we did 53,000 at Atlanta and then 55,000 at the following concert in Tampa, Florida — it was quite clear that if people were going to come along to see us in those kind of numbers we weren’t going to have problems doing concerts that would fulfil the demand. It was phenomenal though — the audience reaction was just so with us, y’know.James Jackson, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20110809081905/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article6979690.ece Jimmy Page on Led Zeppelin IV, the band's peak and their reunion], The Times, January 8, 2010 .}}

Vocalist Robert Plant said:

{{quote|I remember that tour rather like the lyrics to "The Battle of Evermore". A flash. Really fast. Lots of battles and conquests. And the din of the hordes. So much happened in such a short time. It was phenomenal.Liner notes for the Led Zeppelin boxed set.}}

{{quote|The kind of speed we were moving at, the creative juices in the air, the whole thing was just an absolute mixture of adrenaline, chemical, euphoria ... and there were no brakes. We couldn't stop what was happening. We had no idea what it even was. But we just kept trying, pushing forward, every show.}}

"I got to see Led Zeppelin at very close quarters on that tour, travelling as part of their entourage," recalled Roy Harper. "The level of their success then was unbelievable… Being so close to them at the time, it was difficult to be objective about it all – you know, I was going along on the bus. But Zeppelin in full flight was an incredibly intense experience."{{cite magazine|title=Live albums|magazine=Classic Rock supplement: The Live Albums That Changed The World|date=December 2011|page=14}}

The song "No Quarter" from the band's recent album release, Houses of the Holy, was played for the first time on this tour. The band also dropped their acoustic set, which was not revived until the Earl's Court shows in May 1975.

The fairly typical set list for the tour was:

1. "Rock and Roll" (Page, Plant, Jones, Bonham)
2. "Celebration Day" (Jones, Page, Plant)
3. "Bring It On Home" (intro) (Dixon, Page, Plant) / "Black Dog" (Page, Plant, Jones)
4. "Over the Hills and Far Away" (Page, Plant)
5. "Misty Mountain Hop" (Page, Plant, Jones)
6. "Since I've Been Loving You" (Page, Plant, Jones)
7. "No Quarter" (Page, Plant, Jones)
8. "The Song Remains the Same" (Page, Plant)
9. "The Rain Song" (Page, Plant)
10. "Dazed and Confused" (Page)
11. "Stairway to Heaven" (Page, Plant)
12. "Moby Dick" (Page, Jones, Bonham)
13. "Heartbreaker" (Bonham, Page, Plant)
14. "Whole Lotta Love" (Bonham, Dixon, Jones, Page, Plant)

Encores (variations of the following list):

• "The Ocean" (Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant)
• "Communication Breakdown" (Bonham, Jones, Page)
• "Thank You" (Page, Plant) (Played on 3 June and 29 July)
• "Dancing Days" (Page, Plant) (Played on 13 July)

There were some set list substitutions, variations, and order switches during the tour.

• {{cite book| author = Dave Lewis|author2=Simon Pallett | title = Led Zeppelin: The Concert File| year = 1997| publisher = Omnibus Press| isbn = 978-0-7119-5307-9 }}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.ledzeppelin.com/timelinebrowse Comprehensive archive of known concert appearances by Led Zeppelin (official website)]
• [http://www.bootledz.com/setlists.htm Led Zeppelin concert setlists]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070824225746/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/ledzeppelin/articles/story/6085498/led_zep_rule_the_us_in_1973 Article on the tour in Rolling Stone magazine]
• [https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=117377988734231201134.000456cd5e5396d3e4864&ll=37.09024,-93.603516&spn=53.564699,79.101563&z=4 View in Google Earth]

{{Led Zeppelin}}

Category:Led Zeppelin concert tours

Category:1973 concert tours