Led Zeppelin: The Song Remains the Same (1976)

For Led Zeppelin fanatics, this 1976 feature The Song Remains the Same is a treasure of searing live performances, particularly welcome in light of the sad scarcity of such visual material from the band's great decade. Despite the group's road weariness after a long tour, their final, three-night stand at Madison Square Garden in 1973 was full of the old power. Performances of "No Quarter," "Whole Lotta Love," "Black Dog," "Dazed and Confused," and "Stairway to Heaven" underscore Zep's charisma. Trouble is, you don't get an unbroken performance here. Viewers have to wade through a mishmash of documentary insight into the lives of Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones, as well as fantasy sequences supposedly inspired by the thoughts and fantasies of the band's individual members. It's mostly garish and silly, but there are some nice elements, especially insights into the late Bonham's life. The DVD doesn't offer much in the way of add-ons (a theatrical trailer is about it), but there is also enhanced viewing for 16 x 9 televisions. --Tom Keogh Amazon.com

Classic Midnight Movie cleaned up nicely

I got to see this on the big screen as part of the DVD promotion. If you want to see why LZ was a great live band, get the self titled DVD.

For years, the only live Zeppelin you could get were either bootlegs or this movie, but since Page opened the vault, you've had the "BBC Sessions" and "How The West Was Won" (also the beginning of the "Houses of the Holy" tour, TSRTS was the end of the tour), both of which decimated the original soundtrack. Until the rerelease. So do get the soundtrack CD even though you might think owning the movie alone is fine. It sounds great and you can throw those old copies away.

But the DVD is meant to be played loud on a surround system. The original film was shown in some theaters in Quadrophonic, so it was always intended to be heard that way. Bonham's drums, Page's guitars are all put to good effect in surround. But what you will notice is how clean the movie print looks, a lot more colorful and brighter than probably when it was originally shown in the mid 70s.

I thought they were going to add the outtakes into the movie, but they left it as bonus footage. And it would have been a nice option if they were able to set it up where fans could watch the concert itself instead of the "fantasy" sequences and the theft which annoyingly cuts into a great song.

Warning - the "PG" rating needs to be revised, because the other copies of the home video have the part with manager Peter Grant going off on MSG staff censored. On this DVD, there is no mistaking the 4 letter words. Not once, not twice, but 17 times. It would have been great to hear some commentary from the band and the director, looking back at it.

There are better concert films and there are some really ridiculous scenes in this,and the lack of continuity of what they're wearing is pretty hilarious, but the point of the film was to capture a band in its prime on a big screen and escape for a couple of hours. It's by far not their best performance captured on film or tape, but there are some great moments on stage where you're definitely feeling like you missed out on a great show.

I had seen this movie maybe 10 times, and I think this sorely needed remastered version will renew your interest in it for the first time in years. July 9, 2008

Good but Flawed movie with poor packaging

Let me start off by saying the 2 Stars I've given to this are not for the movie content, but rather the very poor packaging for what is supposed to be deluxe LTD Edition. Similar packages by the Dylan, The Doors, U2 and others all have top quality content in both music & packaging with hard case boxes, this set on the other hand is made of the most flimsy box they could find & is basically not what you'd expect from Zep who supposedly pride themselves on quality. So the Verdict is save money & buy the standard edition which I award 4 stars, the Ltd Edition packaging on the other hand gets 1 star. May 25, 2008

Still Remains the Same...

With out a doubt Zeppelin in their prime was the best band that ever rocked the stage. Zeppelin themselves said that "The Song Reamains the Same" was the worlds most expensive home video and they themselves were not too happy with it. All this new version is really is the same thing that they are selling all over again but with todays advancement features a bit more so than anything new.
Would have been always really cool if they would have made this with just the jams on stage through out the soloing as opposed to their fantasy impressions. Many of us Musicians always wanted to see Bonzo do the whole drum solo rather than Level a pool table or drive a dragster. Or see Jimmy Page do all of the guitar work instead of climbing that rocky hill with his climbing shoes on.
But at least there is more of that within "How the west was won".
For me the real difference within the new version of "The Song remains the same" is really nothing but a few features.
But it is still really cool in that sense and it is nice to go back to the 70's to the midnight movies and rock! April 21, 2008

best film zep experience.....

Where to begin? This is FILM. If you can't tell video from film, you need to do some homework. This film shows peter grant, roy harper, the bands' families, many people whom have passed away, divorced, or just disappeared. If you don't know zep well, this won't help, but if you understand aleister crowley, the arts, the seventies, and magic, this will click unlike the VIDEO TAPE of later shows. Younger fans will probably not understand, but for those of us who were there, nothing like the real thing. May you find the occulted experience and humor in this film rewarding, it's there, IF you have the eyes/ears for it. April 10, 2008

Should be called "The Dong Remains The Same"

I never liked this film. Plainly and simply put, it's terrible. Zep was never much of a live band, their best work was from the studio and Jimmy Page's technical genius. March 25, 2008

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