Somebody Please Pinch Me ~ On Stage with Led Zeppelin

See previous posting for continuing storyline.

Copyrighted photos (c) by Phillip Rauls. Unlawful duplication prohibited.

In these previously unpublished photographs shot onstage, a shirtless Robert Plant twists his torso sideways while guitarist Jimmy Page, donning a rarely worn top hat, focuses-in on the rhythm section for a punctuating cord change. The band sent a supersonic trance into the audience with a slaying effect. As a Memphis-boy, I'd grown-up during an era of music legends and not easily impressed. My hometown produced several generations of Rock & Soul icons and I thought I'd seen just about everything. But on the evening of this event, I think I died and went to heaven.

A shirtless, barefooted and razor-thin Robert Plant jumps into the air in sequence with Led Zeppelin's edge-of-mayhem stage performance. Page in the background sends a scorching guitar break filled with distortion and feed-back beyond any one's imagination. Somehow it blended so perfectly with the electronic sculpturte of their sound. Trust me, they wrote the book on Rock.

If only I'd kept all of those concert posters that covered my walls and filled the closet. From Otis Redding, The Gentrys, The Box Tops to Yes, Led Zeppelin and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Somehow I let them slip through my fingers and into collectors hands.