Led Zeppelin North American Tour Summer 1969

North America Summer 1969

Concert by Led Zeppelin
Poster by artist Frank Bettencourt for Led Zeppelin's concert at Santa Barbara, used to help promote its Summer 1969 North American tour
Associated album	Led Zeppelin
Start date	5 July 1969
End date	31 August 1969
Legs	1
No. of shows	36
Led Zeppelin concert chronology

Led Zeppelin's Summer 1969 North American Tour was the third concert tour of North America by the English rock band. The tour commenced on 5 July and concluded on 31 August 1969.

By this point in the band's career, Led Zeppelin were earning $30,000 a night for each of the concerts they performed.^[1] According to music journalist Chris Welch:

One New York concert drew 21,000 people, while support like The Doors and Iron Butterfly were consistently blown off stage by the rampaging Britons.^[1]

This concert tour is notable for the number of festival appearances made by Led Zeppelin.^[2] On 21 July Led Zeppelin were the headliners of the Schaefer Music Festival at New York City's Wollman Rink, along with B.B. King.^[3] The band also appeared at the Atlanta International Pop Festival on 5 July,^[4] the Newport Jazz Festival on 6 July,^[5] the Laurel Pop Festival on 11 July,^[6] the Summer Pop Festival on 12 July,^[7] the Midwest Rock Festival on 25 July,^[8] the Seattle Pop Festival on 27 July,^[9] the Singer Bowl Music Festival on 30 August^[10] and the Texas International Pop Festival on 31 August.^[11]

It was during this tour that the infamous shark episode is alleged to have taken place, when Led Zeppelin visited Seattle for their appearance at the Seattle Pop Festival.

Also of note, at the conclusion of the tour, John Paul Jones declared himself the "Anti-Scrooge" and burned all the money he made from the tour in a spectacular bonfire.

Tour set list

The fairly typical set list for the tour was:

1. "Train Kept A-Rollin' " (Bradshaw, Kay, Mann)
2. "I Can't Quit You Baby" (Dixon)
3. "Dazed and Confused" (Page)
4. "White Summer"/"Black Mountain Side" (Page)
5. "You Shook Me" (Dixon, Lenoir)
6. "How Many More Times" (Bonham, Jones, Page)
7. "Communication Breakdown" (Bonham, Jones, Page)
8. "Long Tall Sally" (Johnson, Blackwell, Penniman) (on 6 July only)

There were some set list substitutions, variations, and order switches during the tour.

Tour dates

References

External links

• Comprehensive archive of known concert appearances by Led Zeppelin (official website)
• Led Zeppelin concert setlists

Sources

• Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4.