“This is a number off an album that comes out in about three weeks time.” – Robert Plant says at the beginning of this recording.  The album he is referring to is Led Zeppelin, the definitive heavy metal blues band’s first ever album release.

This “new” recording dates back to December 30, 1968, when Led Zeppelin was opening for Vanilla Fudge at Gonzaga University, and is the earliest known live recording of the band.  The band was such an afterthought, at the time  that the advertisements for the show billed them “Len Zefflin”.  Luckily for us not everyone in the crowd underestimated the band.  A couple of Yardbirds fans knew what they were getting into, and came to the show armed with tape recorders.

The resulting sound quality is surprisingly clear for a bootleg made in the 1960′s, and is certainly worth a listen.  While this recording has been available to hardcore Led Zep fans in various bootleg versions, this YouTube video marks the first time it has been made available to the masses.  Check out the video below to listen to “Dazed and Confused”, or click on the rapidshare links below that to download the whole performance.

Download Links: (not quite as good of sound quality as video)

Part 1

Part 2