Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains the Same (1976)

Why so much hype?

Great Film overall

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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 just had the pleasure of watching and listening to this again ! Not saying I,m old ... I saw it in 1976 in the local theatre !! Since then I have the VHS and DVD ... This time was the first in hi def ! And it was on TV !! (HollywoodSuite70s)Since I could put it on my PVR , Rewinding to review is very useful to check out some favourite bits . I would have given anything to be one of those lucky fans that took in the legendary shows !! I wore out my first LP , so I do know the music quite well !! It is still amazing to see the unique style of John Bonham and to see him even chatting it up with John Paul Jones a couple of times ! Even with all the edits , differences and time in between since last seeing it ... I still get happy watching this classic Led Zeppelin masterpiece !! No one will ever perform the same :-) :-)

This movie is mostly a chronicle of the probably the greatest rock band EVER in concert together with a combination of some music video type fantasy sequences and a bit of 1970s documentary to boot. It is true that the non-concert fantasy sequences of this movie are on the self-indulgent side, but this film was made during (and contributed to) the "invention" of the idea of the music video. That alone is pretty impressive, and its really inconceivable that one of the first attempts at an entirely original genre would end up being the best ever made. Top that off with the fact that the musicians themselves were in charge of these parts of the movie, its probably a miracle that they didn't ruin the film together.Another thing that makes this movie special for the fan is how notoriously "anti-TV" the band was during its career and thus how much less exposure they had during their prime. Speaking of which, I do NOT agree with a previous reviewer that 1973 was their artistic height, "Physical Graffiti" and "Presence" are both groundbreaking rock albums that took the genre to another level. Obviously their last all new album, "In Through the Out Door" is considered by most to be an experiment that surprised everyone and did not impress many. I just watched the 2007 remastered version film and second disc of extras. Their manager, Peter Grant, explains in a 1976 interview from the BBC why they were not dying to get on TV at every opportunity like most other bands. He says that TV has a tiny picture and crappy sound so it is just not a proper way to experience the band (which I think was both very true and an extremely gutsy opinion) and that is why the avoided TV at every turn. There is also 1973 news footage about the safe deposit box robbery in NY, of course it would've been nice for them to at least put up a one page graphic stating that this crime is still totally unsolved after almost 25 years, something that I think most people would naturally be left wondering at the end of the piece. There is also four additional songs from the 1973 Madison Square Garden shows that were used to create the film on the bonus disc, which again is great for fans but does validate that they did pick the best songs for the movie itself. There is also a (unintentially) funny time capsule extended news piece from Tampa in 1973 about the concert there, its like the inspiration for Ron Burgundy in the movie Anchorman, how did that EVER get saved all this time? The original movie trailer is included as is an audio only piece done in 1976 by Cameron Crowe about the band. I have a pet peeve about Crowe that (for me) he has a special talent to make something that SHOULD be very interesting extremely boring, like his real life experiences with Zeppelin and other bands turned into a sappy lovesick puppy snorefest about some groupie (Almost Famous.) Its a "Zeppelin primer" of a mix of him talking together with song segments through the release of the album "Presence" and the only person who might find it interesting is someone who has no idea of the history of the band.One nice touch is that the menu system is actually pretty cool, someone spent a lot of time making the menus actually somewhat original and interesting, even the song selection menus show three songs at a time each with a completely different layout.The remaster of the movie is very well done, especially the inclusion of both Dolby Digital and DTS remastered soundtracks. They really open up the sound much better than the original soundtrack, although I haven't done extensive scientific side-by-side listening sessions. At proper concert volume it sounds spectacular.I will always wish that I could've seen one of the greatest bands of all time live, but this is definitely as close as you can get now, I will be forever grateful that this movie was made for that reason alone. Final words: original version - AWESOME; 2007 version - turns it up to ELEVEN.

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!!