{"id":577535,"date":"2026-05-11T05:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T05:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/577535\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T05:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T05:30:12","slug":"led-zeppelin-live-on-blueberry-hill-the-story-of-one-of-rocks-greatest-bootlegs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/577535\/","title":{"rendered":"Led Zeppelin Live On Blueberry Hill: the story of one of rock\u2019s greatest bootlegs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sure, Led Zeppelin IV and Physical Grafitti are generally accepted as Led Zeppelin<\/a>\u2019s twin peaks, though you could find someone to make a case for each of their albums (even In Through The Out Door).<\/p>\n

But if you want a true connoisseur\u2019s choice, then this hugely influential live bootleg is the one. Bootlegs and Zeppelin have been synonymous for decades. Despite manager Peter Grant\u2019s heavy-handedness when dealing with anyone he caught taping their shows, Zep became the most bootlegged act of all time.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The impact the band made on their initial American tours made them a prime target for the then emerging bootleg recording business. From their inception, it was more than evident that Zep\u2019s studio output was just the starting point. On stage was where the real action occurred, as they constantly improvised and expanded their material. Peter Grant summed it up when he stated: \u201cLed Zeppelin was primarily an in-person band\u2026 that\u2019s what it was really about.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On the night of September 4, 1970, during their sixth American tour, two separate teams of fans were intent on taping the Zeppelin gig at the Inglewood Forum in Los Angeles. Both parties came away with lengthy representations of the band\u2019s then current state of play, recorded on reel-to-reel machines close to the stage.<\/p>\n

The recording that would become known as the album Led Zeppelin Live On Blueberry Hill was captured by a pair of West Coast bootleggers whose previous credits included Dylan\u2019s Great White Wonder set and the Stones\u2019 Live\u2019r Than You\u2019ll Ever Be. Another bootlegger known as Rubber Dubber also recorded the show and quickly issued it as a double album stamped Led Zeppelin Live Los Angeles Forum 9-4-70. The more common Live On Blueberry Hill Blimp label version with a distinctive surreal cover insert, also came out within weeks of the show.<\/p>\n

Regardless of which version you hear, the sheer authenticity of the performance shines through. The dynamic thrust of Bonham\u2019s drums, the sinewy grind of Page\u2019s guitar, Jonesy\u2019s resonant bass lines and melodic keyboards, plus the outstanding clarity of Plant\u2019s vocal shrieks (enhanced by the echo unit used at the time), all merge into a ferocious mix that magically recreates the electricity of the occasion.<\/p>\n

Moments to relish include the unpredictable Communication Breakdown medley that included Buffalo Springfield\u2019s For What It\u2019s Worth and The Beatles\u2019 I Saw Her Standing There, plus the Zep I opener Good Times Bad Times. Not forgetting freshly minted nuggets from the soon to be released Zep III album such as Since I\u2019ve Been Loving You and the rarely played live Out On The Tiles. A lengthy Whole Lotta Love turned into a rock\u2019n\u2019roll juke box as they randomly threw in covers of Buddy Holly\u2019s Think It Over and Leiber, Stoller & Barrett\u2019s Some Other Guy \u2013 a formula they repeated with a breathless encore rendition of Fats Domino\u2019s Blueberry Hill.<\/p>\n

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LED ZEPPELIN “LIVE ON BLUEBERRY HILL” – LA Forum Sept. 4, 1970 – THE ORIGINAL 8mm FILM – YouTube
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Things got even better in 2022, when seven minutes of video footage emerged after lying unattended in a drawer for more than 50 years. While the video itself didn\u2019t have its own audio, fans matched it to audio from the Live On Blueberry Hill bootleg, giving fans previously unseen images of Zeppelin performing Since I\u2019ve Been Loving You, Thank You, What Is And What Should Never Be, Whole Lotta Love, Some Other Guy and Lemon Song, as well as organ and theremin solos.<\/p>\n

Back in their heyday, bootleg recordings of Led Zeppelin offered a whole new perspective on the band. This remains as essential a part of their discography as any of their official albums. To paraphrase the great Fats himself, Led Zeppelin Live On Blueberry Hill is still an absolute thrill.<\/p>\n

Originally published in Classic Rock issue 222 (March 2016)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sure, Led Zeppelin IV and Physical Grafitti are generally accepted as Led Zeppelin\u2019s twin peaks, though you could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-577535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}