my go to for 1.0, 97 no coincidence on the funk, of course.

I still think this is the greatest of all 2001s, mainly for all the reasons @Dressed_In_Gray mentioned above. 2001 never really went Type II per se, as much as they found little variations and avenues to go down and such to differentiate the Big Long 2001s from each other, so it's really a matter of which one does the most interesting things within the 2001 dance machine envelope. For me, it's this one.

First of all, in 1997 I was enamored with Trey's looping. Good thing, too, because I got a lot of it. I loved hearing the rhythmic cycling as the feedback warbles worked through the beats of a measure, providing a foil to the jam, and inserting some randomness into the soundscape. This was Heaven for me as this 23 min jam has about 20 minutes of looping track.

I also loved the daring it took to throw the loop on and leave the drummer and pianist to alone carry the weight of the song for the length of Stairway To Heaven.....so you can paint! And Page was all over that task. He treated it like it was a sandwhich - something he can easily dispatch.

The thing that sucks me in every time is the last 1-2 minutes of Page and Fish jamming before Mike and Trey come back from painting. To the inattentive ear, this is just noodling, but really this section of the jam has such flow and movement. Little tesions are created/released and increased until Mike slides back into the mix and Trey hits the peak with his entrance using that one volume swell of feedback. Although it is 7 minutes into the jam, it is as though a curtain is opened and we step through into the song proper.

The ending of the first section is a continuation of the energy build that has been maintained throughout the first 11 minutes. I remember at the time, I was so excited for the next song after the first chorus, that the drop into the funk groove had me befuddled at first, thinking it was another song, lol.

By the time they locked up in that jam and Fishman started whooping and hollering, I thought I must be dreaming. No way was I seeing something this good. Although I had seen some amazing jams before, that was my introduction to The Hose, made all the more amazing/surprising by the fact that it followed the Went Gin.

What - a - show!