I saw tull in the very early 80s when their popularity was In a decline. I'm a tull fan but recognize they garnered little praise by rock critics of the day, tull and the british prog/metal movement provided endless fodder for the spoof rocumentary "Spinal tap" i'm a generation younger than you, so I missed most of the 70s super groups live in their heyday - I was a mere 10 yrs old in '75! by the time I could drive or bum rides at 14-15, john Bonham had to go and die (I was in HS then) so there went my big plans to see Zep (later saw them as Plant & Page in the '90s). Keith Moon died just before I got to see the who (I saw them later with Kenny in his place). I made plans to see ac/dc's follow up tour to highway to hell when its reported bon scott had just croaked. then ozzy left Sabbath, by the time I got to see them Dio had taken his place. when I finally got to see ozzy's new band randy rhoads had died in a plane crash - talk about poor timing. when the '80s rolled around '70s rock bands were clichés and yesterdays news. the only group that had staying power were the stones. them and maybe floyd were the only post '70s super groups that could still sell out stadiums.
They were killer in their heyday. I went back and looked up the date of the show I attended; it was Oct, 1970, before the release of Aqualung, but they played songs from that album. I remember Jon Evan doing the piano parts to Locomotive Breath, and that light/heavy thing on the acoustic guitar when Martin Barre comes in stinging on his Les Paul on "My God."
Production values were pretty low then, no fancy staging or lights (other than lo-rent light shows). Zep was trashed by the critics too, which only proved something- I forget what
The added allure was that you hadn't already heard this stuff- recycled- in different forms- it felt fresh. That's part of the quest I'm on now, of finding the right pressings -they are more vivid and deliver more of the life of the music. Problem is of course condition and in some cases price. (Check UK first pressings in King Crimson "In the Court" on Island- it's easily in the same ballpark price-wise, perhaps even more, than the UK first press Harvest (solid blue triangle) DSOTM). (I've stayed away from that one, but have several early Harvest UKs- the best sounding being A3/B3- and one copy was actually cheap. Sometimes, you get lucky!)
I could never find a Zep 1 that sounded good- and yes, I have the Classic, albeit at 33, not 45 rpm. I finally got turned on to a Monarch pressing from 1969, which actually sounded good- it was basically a terrible recording. Not all the tracks sound great, but some of them punch through, with real bass and don't sound like they are 3 generations down. The one I heard over my system was a friend's- an original press done on Monarch at the time of release. The one I bought- from another forum member if memory serves- is a later (74) Piros pressed at Monarch; I haven't dragged my friend back with his copy to compare them. That's one of the reasons I'm so blown away by those early Black Sabbaths on Vertigo (though I never went to hear Sabbath then or in any later incarnation).
FWIW, you missed a good era. When I looked at some of the lists of concerts that were in town in 69, 70, 71 all the acts were on tour- and I lived in a "B" or "C" tier city then- Pittsburgh, Pa, not NY or LA. I still missed a bunch of acts I would have dearly loved to see in their heyday. But, the vinyl lives on. I'll post one more, separately, though it's not really a 1970's record.
