Led Zeppelin Destroyer (Cleveland 1977), vinyl LP, early 80s pressing

$

208

Led Zeppelin Destroyer 4 LP set. 1977 tour, Cleveland.  This pressing is from 1983-84.
Pretty wild artwork featured on the LP labels!  (Fyi- the art is slightly marred by song lists handwritten in pen.)  The cardboard box is crushed but might be restorable. Jimmy Page photo stuck onto the cover is the only indication of Zep contents, anywhere in the set.
A few notes: - Played sparingly during my ownership. - one major surface imperfection: a gouge on each side of one LP, probably caused by a pincher device of some sort in production. Amazingly the record plays right through it, with no drop-out of the music. But it does cause a repeating 'pop' on each revolution for about a minute. (During Battle of Evermore, and flipside No Quarter.) - Plant's introduction to Moby Dick has a 'single-pop' skip (ie doesn't repeat). There are no repeating skips anywhere on the set, and very few skips/imperfections of any kind. - great sound!




 

Played it for first time in 20 years today. Plays-through much cleaner than I remember. Didn't detect any skips or popping other than two areas mentioned above. Left-channel volume drops periodically (but not often)-- I'd assume this is either a flaw in original recording, or a production flaw. (or perhaps my cheap digital record player). Bit of static at very beginning of White Summer, and once during Kashmir. (Doesn't detract from either piece.) A few gaps of silence in Kashmir. Overall, Good+ seems about right but I'm not the expert on 'destroyers' or their typical quality-level.

Was just reading about Destroyer-- apparantly many versions omit Plant's talking between songs.  To clarify: this version INCLUDES all these moments. As mentioned there's a skip in the Moby Dick intro where Plant teases Bonham: "..childhood friend.. sweet baby.. always been.. the lover boy of the band.."  The last part  ("lover boy of the band") is unheard because of the skip. (I only discovered what was actually said by applying pressure to the armature at that exact moment.)

FYI my original guess of 1983-84 is probably wrong. Just noticed the date under the artwork is 1981. Most likely this is one the 1982 variants. (online Destroyer guides show several '82 versions, but none from '83-84.)  Obtained this particular copy in upper midwest summer 1984.