WHAT'S THE NEW MARY JANE?

As I settle into the NEW way of sharing music and hosting a show, I thought "what an easy way out it is to just slap a NEW on the front of something and hope that it will attract or increase an audience". New Coke, The New Christy Mintrels, New Wave (was there just a wave?) or as shown above, The New Yardbirds. Here they are at their first official gig on September 7th, 1968 in Denmark. A few weeks later they apperared in Stockholm for the first show of a two night stand on September 20. It is from this Swedish show that we take today's aural Holy Grail. They have not yet defined the Zep sound as we know it and the performance treads very close to improv within a structure. In other words, these guys were fucking winging it. But what chaos! The sprawling "As Long As I Have You" (Megaupload) unfolds over 17 minutes of guitar histrionics, Bonham bashing, JPJ bottom end runs and the very beginning of the Plant/Page interplay they developed so well in their 13 years as L.Z. and beyond.

Here are the real Christy's Minstrels in all their original glory!

Cheap imitators The "New" Christy Minstrels couldn't even think of a creative name. I bet they do not even know Christy!

I have to give The NEW Yardbirds some credit, they changed their name to Led Zeppelin (thanks to Keith Moon, so the story goes) and Robert decided not to keep the "NEW hot hair style", the rest is history.

Buy Led Zeppelin music, t-shirts, pot holders, etc. and see Mr. Plant, Page or Jones anytime they are in your town. They are all still rocking strong.

Until Friday,

Dave