Friday, March 4, 2022

Led Zeppelin - 1975 - Chasing The Dragon

Led Zeppelin
March 4, 1975
Memorial Auditorium
Dallas, TX


Chasing The Dragon / Empress Valley Supreme Disc
Soundboard Recording

01. Rock And Roll
02. Sick Again
03. Over The Hills And Far Away
04. In My Time Of Dying
05. The Song Remains The Same
06.The Rain Song
07. Kashmir
08. No Quarter
09. Trampled Underfoot
10. Moby Dick
11 .Dazed & Confused (includes Woodstock)
12. Stairway To Heaven
13. Whole Lotta Love/The Crunge
14. Black Dog
15. Heartbreaker



Dazed and Confused by Led Zep
Life at the top is everything you've always imagined ... down to the last limousine.
By David Michnoff. Postscript by Kim Martin. (“Buddy Magazine”, April 1975)

Dazed and confused after three hours of live Led Zepplin, Mike and I cruised mellowly up Stemmons Expressway last month reflecting highly or. the evening's spontaneous events. We'd come by two good eleventh row, floor seats for the second of three area Led Zepplin concerts by being in the right place at the right time; KAMC 95FM, our mutual place of employment. A listener faced with a last minute change of plans was in need of selling his precious rights to the concert and we, after little discussion, were more than happy to help out a friend in need.

Now, I suppose you think that local radio employees come by complimentary tickets automatically. Well, such is not the case for this pair. In fact we ended up paying a bit more than the actual ticket price. The deal came down only hours before the show, and now, driving up Stemmons afterwards, we had absolutely no regrets.

Suddenly, up from the rear came flashing red lights. (Ever notice how flashing red lights always seem to come up from the rear "suddenly?") Out went the number, down came our velocity, open went the windows and up, up, up went our heartbeats. Fortunately, though, as is often true with such "sudden" flashing lights, the motorcycle cop cruised on by.

But after a short prayer of thanks, we began to realize this was no ordinary blinking light situation.

Following the officer was a large orange Winnebago looking camper- mobile, followed by five or eight fancy black Cadillac limousines. Alongside the caravan rode a second motorcycle cop.

"It's a damn nighttime funeral," Mike blurted out, "a damn nighttime funeral with a coffin in a camper!" It sounded good to me, but my mind continued to scan the other possibilities. Foreign dignitaries...government officials...funeral?

"Led Zepplin!" I exclaimed, "that's Led Zeppelin." But Mike was still tripping off on bizarre thoughts of nighttime occult funerals for

wealthy Arab eccentrics. I convinced him mine was a more logical explanation.

It was rumored that Jimmy Page, Robert Plant. Jon Bonham, and John Paul Jones really enjoyed Texas and that they were staying out on a ranch somewhere in the Lone Star State. Preparing to follow the convoy till we ran out of gas, we tired up another joint and Mike jotted down our directions so we could find our way home and back to the place the next day.

No sooner had Mike written "Stemmons-North," than did the caravan drive off Stemmons and onto Mockingbird heading cast. The back three or six limousines left the formation and drove into the Regency Hotel.

"Decoys," yelled Mike, "decoys. Follow that camper!" As the motorcycle cops, camper and remaining limousines ran red lights doing 50 or so it became apparent that their final ground destination would be Love Field.

Our unsuspecting entourage drove into a restricted airport area. and onto the runway towards an awaiting airliner, while Mike confirmed our suspicions.

"What's going on?" he asked an airport employee.

"Oh, it's Led Zeppelin," she said as if there was a whole lot going on for nothing...

Reflecting on the concert I recalled Plant's mention of a "Toby" and "a brothels in New Orleans" as reasons for the group feeling as good as they did. Pat Morriss, promotional director at ABC Records, having nothing official to do with the show, but being one who knows, later confirmed the fact that Led Zeppelin had commuted to their shows in Dallas and Ft. Worth via the same private jet airliner used by the Stones and Elton John. Concerts West said they stayed in New Orleans for "security reasons." But I agree with Pat Morriss, who says they simply like New Orleans.

Postscript...by Kim Martin

So it seems, I, too, experienced the police-orange camper-Led Zepplin phenomena on Mockingbird. 1 was on assignment with photographer Jay Dickman for the Times Herald. Here's what all the mysterious limos and turnoffs and take offs mean:

The majority of Led Zep stayed in New Orleans, commuting to and from the metroplex nightly in their private jet.

One member, John Bonham. remained in Dallas throughout the three- day stint. Ile stayed at the Registry Hotel on Mockingbird at Stemmons (remember Willie Nelson played the Downstairs club there a few months back).

John Paul Jones had a room there, too, the second day, as he spent most of the time between Dallas concerts No. 1 and No. 2 working on his sound system at Memorial Auditorium.

After the final concert. Led Zep whisked off to Louisiana and Bonham, to the Registry. The next day, Zep cruised up to Dallas from New Orleans to pick up Bonham.

From here, they winged it out to Los Angeles, where they played the same base-and-fly-to-gigs game on the West Coast part of their national tour.

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