Jimmy Page w/ Eddie Kramer: “There had been a robbery at the Drake Hotel” – Led Zeppelin Madison Square Garden 1973 – New York – VIDEO – Ticket Sales – Setlist – COOL HISTORY
On July 29, 1973, Led Zeppelin played the last night of Madison Square Garden in New York. This was the final night of our American tour and here at MSG recording and filming the concert.
I was informed as we were on the side stage just before going on to perform that there had been a robbery at the Drake Hotel where the safety deposit box had been relieved of cash the previous night. Somehow all this manifested in even more passion in that night’s performance.
Here I am with Eddie Kramer, who handled the engineering on this and subsequent evenings.
July 29, 1973
New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
Setlist
Rock and Roll, Celebration Day, (Bring It On Home intro) Black Dog, Over the Hills and Far Away, Misty Mountain Hop, Since I’ve Been Loving You, No Quarter, The Song Remains the Same, Rain Song, Dazed and Confused (incl. San Francisco), Stairway to Heaven, Moby Dick, Heartbreaker, Whole Lotta Love (incl. Let That Boy Boogie), The Ocean, Organ solo ~ Thank You.
From an Eddie Kramer interview w/ Finding Zoso:
In 1973 you recorded the band at Madison Square Garden for the ultimate release of “The Song Remains the Same”. Do you recall that evening?
Eddie Kramer:
Ah yes! This was toward the end of their tour and Robert’s voice was not exactly perfect, and I think they had to go back in and punch in a couple of phrases here and there. But I thought the performance was bloody good. I think the filming was a bit of a problem for them. They had to go back in and recreate some of the shots that weren’t captured correctly. It was tough, it was a tough film for them to make. Certainly, I think the performances are great.
We ended up mixing it at Electric Lady Studios, and then we had to take it to California to do the postproduction for the film. It was very difficult because there were unions involved and I couldn’t touch the board, so it was never mixed quite the way I would have liked it to be.
We were going to do it in four-track surround sound, but the film company said “No, we can’t do that. It’s going to cost too much money.” Sure enough, The Who came out with their four-track surround sound film.
Variety (August 1973):
Led Zeppelin’s U.S. tour, which wound up at Madison Square Garden, N.Y. Sunday (29th), shattered attendance records, many previously held by the Beatles and grossed some $4,000,000. Latter figure for the 33 dates is unofficial as the British quartet began withholding such info after breaking Beatles marks to launch the tour in Atlanta and Tampa.
The Garden concert was the third consecutive sellout at the arena, where a $7.50 top usually means a $130,000 gross potential.
From LedZeppelin.com:
