Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains the Same (1976)

Truly Dreadful Film

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Absolutely Fantastic

From Led Zeppelin's 1973 concert tour to promote their album Houses of the Holy, footage from their Madison Square Garden concerts. Interspersed with this is footage of the band on tour, their private lives and dramatised images of what the songs mean to them. Songs include: Rock 'n Roll, Black Dog, Since I've Been Loving You, No Quarter, The Song Remains the Same, The Rain Song, Dazed and Confused, Stairway to Heaven, Moby Dick, Heartbreaker, Whole Lotta Love.The greatest band in the history of music, and certainly the greatest ever live band, captured at their peak and in their element. The live footage shows a superbly talented band in full flight, playing with incredible power and cohesion, and highly confident in their abilities and popularity. There's a mystique to the performance - it transcends mere music.However, reducing the impact of live music is some of the non- musical stuff. The behind the scenes of a touring band and home lives stuff is fine, and gives a good indication of what it must be like to be the world's greatest band. No, it's the dramatisations and symbolic imagery that take the edge off what was otherwise a fantastic movie. They just seem so cheesy and unnecessary.

I wasn't a Led Zeppelin fan before this film, and I still am not, but the first time I saw it, it blew my mind. Forty years on and having heard all the great rock guitarists, including seeing a handful in the flesh, I am not so easily impressed, but this performance by especially the amazing Jimmy Page still has the capacity to impress an old man the way it did a teen. Actually, as it was released on Guy Fawke's Night 1976, I was not quite a teenager, but you get my drift.At school I got into Elton John before anyone else, but the first heavy metal band I sought out was Deep Purple - one of the big three, the other being Black Sabbath. At least a couple of kids in my year were into Zeppelin, but apart from "Whole Lotta Love" - the theme music for "Top Of The Pops" - and of course "Stairway To Heaven", I hadn't really heard them. I went to see the film with a touch of cynicism. Immediately afterwards I bought the double album on tape. For me the outstanding track is the epic "Dazed And Confused", Page making wonderful noises with that bow. I was even more impressed later when I got into Al Stewart and realised he'd played on the "Love Chronicles" album, but here he is in his element, arrogant and nonchalant in equal measure, like a real guitar hero should be. Awesome stuff.

Despite having been a fan of Led Zeppelin (owning all of their studio albums on CD) for the past 13 years and having had this film on VHS for years, it is only now on the occasion of Robert Plant's concert in Malta that I decided to give it a spin. Its somewhat maligned reputation and substantial length is mainly what kept me away for so long but, now that I've seen it, while certainly not the best rock concert movie, it is not worthless either. The band's stage performance itself (filmed at the Madison Square Garden) was generally held as being subpar and rumor has it that, for a time, they tried to block this film's release but, again, I'd say their live act is, at the very least, above-average.The movie takes its name from the opening track on the band's then-current 1973 album, "Houses Of The Holy" which I myself found disappointing at first and decidedly anti-climactic after their majestic untitled fourth album…but I eventually warmed up to the album on subsequent listens. The film contains 10 songs from their first 5 albums – including the band's signature tunes "Whole Lotta Love" and "Stairway To Heaven" and an overblown nearly half-hour rendition of "Dazed And Confused"! – which is occasionally accompanied by fantasy footage of the band members in mythical attire; I'm not too sure what the idea behind this was but the effect is more distracting than inspiring and, in any case, the best fantasy sequence is at the film's very start with their late drummer John Bonham and their bear-like manager Peter Grant dressed up as mobsters and taking out a rival clan in their hide-out in an outrageously bloody fashion! P.S. I can't post this review without making a few comments on the Robert Plant concert I attended later on: the 59-year old Plant, understandably no longer the bare-chested Adonis of THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME, took to the stage at around 22:40 and proceeded for the next 90 minutes to belt out several tracks from his latest acclaimed solo album, "Mighty Rearranger", a surprising cover of Love's "7 And 7 Is" and, naturally, a handful of Led Zeppelin classics which, tinged with his now-trademark World Music rhythms were all but unrecognizable at first! Curiously enough, he did not elect to sing the band's anthem, "Stairway To Heaven", or any songs off of my favorite Led Zeppelin record, the 1975 double-album "Physical Graffiti". Having been preceded by a mini-performance by John Bonham's sister Deborah (who was quite impressive herself, in a Janis Joplin-way), I was half-expecting Plant to duet with her on one of my favorite Led Zeppelin tunes, "The Battle Of Evermore" but, alas, this did not come to pass, either. Amusingly, an hour into the performance, Plant stunned the audience with an abrupt "Goodbye Malta" after which he and his backing band quit the stage…only to return a couple of moments later for an encore consisting of among others "Whole Lotta Love" which really brought the house down. Finally, an unexpected personal thrill I had during the concert was getting to meet, indirectly, John Bonham's mother – who was there to support her daughter and, despite being in her late seventies (I guess), could be seen to mildly headbang and sway to the music all through her set!!

The Song Remains the Same is a conglomeration of 3 concerts recorded at MSG in 1973. Parts of each concert were mixed together, overdubs recorded, and some fancy studio magic was applied to these tapes to produce the fantastic album and movie soundtrack(s).Detailed listening will reveal that there are differences between the album and movie versions of the music.A full explanation of what parts came from where is found below: http://www.simplyled.net/thegardentapes.htmlAlso found on the website is info about How the West was Won and the Led Zeppelin DVD sets.