Terry Reid - vocals, guitar; Keith Webb - drums; Pete Solley - keyboards, bass pedals
Most rock fans over the age of 40 know the story of Terry Reid. He emerged from the British Invasion pop music machine headed by Mickie Most, the producer who had launched the careers of the Yardbirds, the Animals and Donovan. Most had used both Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones as session players on many of his recordings, but was told they were leaving the studio world to form their own band. The story goes that he recommended Terry Reid ( who had been signed to Most) for the job as lead singer of the group, which had been named the New Yardbirds, and later changed to Led Zeppelin. Reid, convinced his solo career would explode, turned them down. They went with another unknown singer named Robert Plant, and the rest is rock 'n' roll history.
Led Zeppelin remains one of the biggest selling and most popular bands of all time; Reid has been all but forgotten. What does remain is a handful of studio albums, originally recorded in the '60s on Epic Records, and a few failed comeback attempts in 1994 and 2004. For this concert, recorded at the Fillmore West in December 1968, Reid runs through material from his first album as well as select rock covers. He uses the original trio he had fronted, which limits his performance, but allows for him to focus almost completely on his vocals.
Reid opens with an eight-minute-plus version of the Eddie Cochran classic "Summertime Blues" (a tune that was to be adopted the following year by The Who as their staple closer). Other interesting tracks include his nearly 12-minute take on Screaming Jay Hawkins' "I Put A Spell On You," an awkward arrangement of Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited" and a cover that appeared on his second album: "Bang Bang, My Baby Shot Me Down," made famous two years earlier by Sonny and Cher.
Reid faded into obscurity after his third LP was virtually ignored by critics and fans, but he returned with comeback albums in 1991 and again in 1994.