Led Zeppelin North American Tour 1975

Led Zeppelin live at Chicago Stadium, January 1975.

The 1975 North American tour took place nearly 18 months after the conclusion of their previous concert tour, which was the longest break between concerts yet taken by the band. As a result, some critics have suggested that the band seemed sluggish and rusty upon their return to the stage, with the group lacking dynamics and giving rather 'heavy' performances.[1]

To make matters worse, prior to leaving England for the tour guitarist Jimmy Page suffered a broken ring finger after slamming his fingertip in a train door. This forced him to take pain killers and to develop a three finger playing technique during the first portion of the tour.[2] In addition, Robert Plant contracted a bad case of influenza early in the tour, causing the cancellation of one show and negatively affecting his singing ability for much of the rest of the tour, leading to some unfavourable reviews.[3] However, toward the end of the tour it was noted that the group seemed to be recovering, leading to some memorable performances.[1][4] Indeed, by the end of this series of dates, Plant himself stated that:

This has been our most successful tour on every level and I had a great time all the way through.[2]

For this stint of concerts, Led Zeppelin employed a much grander light show than had been used on previous tours, featuring a large neon-lit 'Led Zeppelin' backdrop and krypton laser effects for Jimmy Page's violin bow interlude.[5]

One scheduled concert in this tour, on February 4 at the Boston Garden, was canceled by the Mayor of Boston, Kevin White, when fans, who waited in the freezing cold for the tickets, were taken pity on by the stadium owners and were let in inside but rioted and trashed the stadium. A concert at 8 March at the West Palm Beach Speedway in Florida was also canceled following the promoters' failure to make property improvements at the venue.

The concert tour was promoted by the Concerts West firm, and it marked one of the first tours ever where an individual concert promotion firm promoted the whole U.S. tour of an artist or group. The company further established its mark by promoting the band's subsequent 1977 tour of North America.

An image of Katharine Hepburn in Christopher Strong wearing her aviator's suit appeared on the tour poster.

During this tour Led Zeppelin hired The Starship – a former United Airlines Boeing 720B passenger jet, to transport them between cities. This was the second and final time the band used this plane, having initially done so on their previous tour of North America in 1973.

Towards the end of this tour, Lynette Alice "Squeaky" Fromme, a member of Charles Manson's "Family", confronted Danny Goldberg, vice-president of the band's record company demanding to speak with Jimmy Page to warn him of "bad energy." Fromme claimed to have foreseen the future and wished to forewarn Page of the imminent danger. She swore the last time this happened, she had seen someone shot to death before her eyes. Goldberg stated that even he couldn't see Page until the following night, to which Fromme responded "tomorrow night will probably be too late." Goldberg persuaded her to write a long note to Page, after which she left. The note was burned, unread.[6] Later that year, Fromme made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford.

The second leg of the band's US tour concluded in March, and was followed by a series of shows at London's Earl's Court in May 1975. The band had planned to continue touring after a break, with a further round of eight US shows scheduled from August 23 to September 9; this leg would have commenced with two sold out dates at Oakland Coliseum and included a show at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California in addition to concerts in Tempe, Arizona (Sun Devil Stadium), Kansas City, Missouri (Arrowhead Stadium), Atlanta (Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium), New Orleans (Louisiana Superdome) and Norman, Oklahoma (Lloyd Noble Center).[7] A European tour was also planned for fall, including one scheduled concert in Helsinki. These plans were cancelled when Robert Plant sustained serious injuries from a car accident on the Greek island of Rhodes on August 5. During Plant's convalescence, in the time originally allotted for the tour the band opted to take time off before writing for the Presence album.

Audio recordings from many of the tour's shows have been preserved on unofficial bootleg recordings. Several high-quality soundboard bootleg recordings of shows from this tour have surfaced in recent years, including the 12 February Madison Square Garden, 13 and 14 February Nassau County Coliseum, and 16 February St. Louis Arena dates. The recording of the Dallas show from March 5th rivals the quality of officially released recordings, and shows that by the later stages of the tour, the band was playing as skillfully as on previous tours. Proof of this was the complete soundboard release of the 21 March Seattle show. Possibly the longest show of the tour in excellent quality. In 2021, an almost complete soundboard tape of the tour opening concert at the Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomington, Minnesota surfaced. The band can be heard playing new material from the upcoming album to an American audience for the first time, a week after two warm-up dates in Rotterdam and Brussels.

The new set list included material from the band's recently released album, Physical Graffiti. Songs from that album which were played for the first time on this tour included "Sick Again", "In My Time of Dying", "Kashmir", "The Wanton Song" and "Trampled Under Foot". This was in spite of the fact that the album itself was not released until the second half of the tour. Unforeseen delays in the production of the album's elaborate sleeve prevented its release before the commencement of the tour.[2]

Initially, both "When the Levee Breaks" and "The Wanton Song" were included in the set; the only period during which these songs were played live by Led Zeppelin. Both were dropped after a few weeks. It was also the last time "How Many More Times" was played, being temporarily brought back to replace "Dazed and Confused" which Page was unable to play until his injured finger healed.[2] "Since I've Been Loving You", the other song that Page was unable to play due to his finger injury, was played only three times on the tour: 14 February at Nassau Coliseum,[8] 21 March at Seattle Center Coliseum[9] and 27 March at the Los Angeles Forum.[10]

The fairly typical set list for the tour was:

1. "Rock and Roll" (Page, Plant, Jones, Bonham)
2. "Sick Again" (Page, Plant)
3. "Over the Hills and Far Away" (Page, Plant)
4. "When the Levee Breaks" (Minnie, Bonham, Page, Plant, Jones) (Dropped after 21 January)
5. "In My Time of Dying" (Page, Plant, Jones, Bonham)
6. "Since I've Been Loving You" (Page, Plant, Jones) (only on 14 February, 21 March, and 27 March)
7. "The Song Remains the Same" (Page, Plant)
8. "The Rain Song" (Page, Plant)
9. "Kashmir" (Bonham, Page, Plant)
10. "The Wanton Song" (Page, Plant) (Dropped after 25 January)
11. "No Quarter" (Page, Plant, Jones)
12. "Trampled Under Foot" (Page, Plant, Jones)
13. "Moby Dick" (Bonham)
14. "How Many More Times" (Page, Jones, Bonham) (21 January to 2 February) / "Dazed and Confused" (Page) (3 February to 27 March)*
15. "Stairway to Heaven" (Page, Plant)

Encores (variations of the following list):

• "Whole Lotta Love" (Bonham, Dixon, Jones, Page, Plant) (including "The Crunge")
• "Black Dog" (Page, Plant, Jones)
• "Heartbreaker" (Bonham, Page, Plant) (Played on 6 through 16 February and 4, 12, 14, 20, 21, and 24 March)
• "Communication Breakdown" (Bonham, Jones, Page) (played on 20, 22, 24, and 29 January, 1, 3, and 13 February, and 21 March)

* Performances of this song during the first leg of the tour included "San Francisco", while the band switched to "Woodstock" during the second leg. Also when performed, "Mars, Bringer of War", was included

Notes

In Uniondale from 13–14 February, Ronnie Wood joined the band during the encore of "Communication Breakdown"

• Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4.

• Comprehensive archive of known concert appearances by Led Zeppelin (official website)
• Led Zeppelin concert setlists
• Led Zeppelin North America 1975 Tour Programme
• Interview conducted with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page during the concert tour^[Usurped!]
• View in Google Earth