A few days after RSD 2017* I accidentally found myself in another record shop in Liverpool and on a whim picked up a smart little 10″ of Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes Live At Jones Beach, the fact that it was on marbled black and white vinyl may have tipped the scales a little, that and the fact it was numbered only #62 out of 4000.
Recorded on their joint tour in 2000, we get three tracks ‘Misty Mountain Hop’, ‘Bring It On Home’ and ‘In The Light’**; none of which made it onto the Live At The Greek LP of that tour.
Chris Robinson, contrary Crowe that he is, has referred to the gigs as just a job and that ‘it was alright‘. Oh how my little 9-5 deskbound heart bleeds for him! We’ve all had to put up with shitty jobs to put food on the table Chris, I remember the time Iron Maiden asked me to replace Bruce Dickinson for a tour and I went through with it because I needed a new cooker; integrity be damned.
I digress, this is not my favourite iteration of the Black Crowes, I’m a Marc Ford and Johnny Colt kinda guy personally but they were still an excellent band in 2000. I particularly dug the late Eddie Harsch on keys and that young Jimmy fella on third guitar seems to be quite a find too.
Opener ‘Misty Mountain Hop’ is as deep as you would ever want, that riff still sounds like nothing else in the hard rock canon^ and it is a treat to hear Page, Rich Robinson and Audley Freed all getting room to do their respective thangs. Chris Robinson’s vocals mar this one for me though, he just sounds off the pace and lacking in the necessary horsepower.
Mind you, Chris R really redeems himself on next cut ‘Bring It On Home’ with some good mouth organeering and a deep shuffle mouth blues moaning. Steve Gorman drums up a storm on this cut too, obviously nowhere near as good as you-know-who but he really brings it on, umm, home. On the video of the gig Page really loses himself in the music here, which is lovely to see.
The 9 minutes 6 seconds of ‘In The Light’ takes up the second side of the 10″. It is a cracking rendition too, the sinister drones and spiralling chord sequences really are great and Eddie Harsch really gets to shine. Of the three tracks on Live At Jones Beach Chris Robinson seems most at home here and it is by far his best performance. This was definitely a real highlight of the gig.
Live At Jones Beach is an interesting curio, it has never tipped me over into buying Live At The Greek^^ but I do rather like it, flaws an’ all. It is really well produced by Kevin Shirley too
Whatever did happen to that third guitarist chap?
And if you feel that you can't go on
And your will's sinkin' low
Just believe, and you can't go wrong
1270 Down.
PS: Whole gig.
*where I actually went to a record shop on RSD for the first time ever.
**never performed live by LZ.
^not to be confused with the hard rock cannon, Brian Johnson pressed into service back in 1981.
^^those in the know – is it worth it? a big fancy pants box set version is due for release shortly.
