The Song Remains the Same: Two-Disc Special Edition
Directed By: Peter Clifton, Joe Massot
Starring: John Bonham, John-Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Peter Grant
Studio: Warner Brothers
Year: 1976
Rated: PG
Film Length: 138 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Release Date: November 20, 2007
The Film
Promoted as "Led Zeppelin: In Concert and Beyond...", The Song Remains the Same combines concert footage from the band's three 1973 shows at New York's Madison Square Garden with a mish mash of fantasy and documentary footage. This includes staged sequences of the band members at home learning about the gig, fantasy sequences in the middle of songs dreamed up by the band members, backstage footage from various US gigs, news footage concerning a robbery of the band's money from a safe deposit box at a Manhattan Hotel, and a few other odds and ends. Songs performed in the film are "Rock and 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", and "Whole Lotta Love".
For what was arguably the biggest band of the 1970s, there is surprisingly little film and video footage of Led Zeppelin in their prime. After breaking through with their debut album, Led Zeppelin eschewed television appearances for more or less the rest of their life as a band. While this may have been partly intended to maintain their mystique and increase interest in their live shows, it was also driven by the fact that the band and their larger than life manager, Peter Grant, believed that the audio and video limitations of television prevented the medium from conveying the scope and energy of their live performances. In 2003, a video compilation of live Led Zeppelin performances was released on a 2-DVD set that included a performance that was filmed in 16mm at the Royal Albert Hall in 1970. This was shot for use as part of a BBC documentary and was reportedly considered for a theatrical presentation. At the time, the documentary never came to pass and the footage was deemed unacceptable for theatrical release due to lighting issues. The rest of the footage on the DVD was a combination of footage shot for "Jumbotron"-type screens at live gigs at Earls Court in 1975 and Knebworth in 1979, some bootleg and news footage, and footage from their second attempt at capturing a concert for theatrical release: the 1973 Madison Square Garden gigs that formed the basis of "The Song Remains the Same".
While a straight concert film drawn from the best performances of the three Madison Square Garden shows would have satisfied most fans, the band apparently had other ideas. They filmed a series of fantasy sequences, one for each band member and one for manager Peter Grant that are, quite frankly, amateurish and silly to the point of embarrassment. In the Grant sequence which serves as the film's prologue, he plays a 1930s-style gangster who leads a drive-by hit on another gang consisting of members that look like a menagerie of Dick Tracy villains and Universal Monsters. John Paul Jones' sequence during the song "No Quarter" features him in Victorian costume playing the organ followed by some footage of a woman being threatened by a masked Jack the Ripper-type figure. Plant's sequence spans "The Song Remains the Same" and "The Rain Song" and casts him as some kind of medieval knight making a long journey and rescuing a maiden after some unconvincing sword fights. Page's mercifully short sequence during an interminably long version of "Dazed and Confused" consists of him climbing a hill only to reach the top and find a hooded figure who turns out to be a version of himself (I will go out on a limb and not put spoiler tags on that revelation). Bonhams' sequence during his extended solo on "Moby Dick" departs somewhat from the others as it consist of various shots of him with a number of fast cars and motorcycles intercut with occasional glimpses of his home life. Speaking of their home lives, the other fictional footage shot for the film to follow the Grant gangster prologue and precede the actual concert footage was a series of staged vignettes of the band members at their real homes supposedly getting telegrams and phone calls that they have a show to do at Madison Square Garden "tomorrow". Only John Paul Jones actually hazards any dialog during these sequences, and it does not turn out well.
Despite all of this silliness, the core of the film remains the concert sequences. By 1973, Led Zeppelin were the biggest concert draw in the world, regularly breaking attendance records at whatever venues they were playing. During this same US tour, they played a show at Tampa Stadium that broke the all-time attendance record for a rock concert set seven years previously by The Beatles at Shea Stadium. Were Led Zeppelin the kind of guys to let success go to their heads? All signs point to yes. Setting aside the conceits of the film itself, the concert sequences show the band becoming self-indulgent, extending instrumental breaks on "Dazed and Confused" and "Whole Lotta Love" with diversions and sidetracks to the point of excess. The former goes on for so long that it literally takes up 20% of the film's running time.
On the other hand, the band was still functioning as a tight unit as evidenced by their ability to follow each other through the various twists and turns of these protracted tangents and still land together at the right place. Bonham and Jones were a formidable rhythm section with a style that mixed heavy driving rhythms with surprisingly melodic undertones that was not only ideal as a foundation for the bowdlerized blues riffs that were the band's bread and butter, but also for creating a big enough sound to work in a large arena setting. Some of my favorite shots in the film include Bonham and Jones framed together, smiling and attentively watching each other as well as Page and Plant for cues as to where they were going next. Page had a reputation for being meticulous in the recording studio, but in a live setting free of the luxury of multiple layers of "guitarchitecture" overdubs, it is impressive how much of the sound of their studio recordings they are able to capture. Jones' skills with bass pedals help by making them sound like a four piece band on the numbers where he plays keyboards. Plant's trademark, seemingly contradictory, mix of over the top machismo, extremely high register vocals, and blues-meets-hippie lyrics, creates the perfect conterpart to Page's aggressive guitar attack. This is illustrated explicitly during the call and response exchanges during some of the lengthier numbers.
Interstitial backstage documentary footage, shot at venues other than Madison Square Garden, appears between some of the songs, including a somewhat famous sequence of Peter Grant verbally lambasting an arena official for letting someone sell bootleg posters on their premises. Due to the explicit profanity employed by Grant, the studio insisted that the offending words be bleeped out on the soundtrack to secure a PG rating. This was done for the wide release optical audio track prints. The four track stereo prints were apparently left uncensored, as is the remixed track on this DVD.
The production of the film was somewhat tumultuous with the band managing to release two studio albums, one of them a double, and mount another major tour between the time the concert was shot and the film was released. Original director Joe Massot was dismissed almost a year into the project, resulting in a lawsuit which further delayed things until it was settled and Peter Clifton was brought on to finish the film. Clifton apparently planned to capture additional footage from their 1975 tour, but these plans were abandoned when Robert Plant was injured in a car accident that ended the tour prematurely.
The film is certainly a product of its time with its overuse of split-screen and other optical effects, gratuitous fantasy sequences with enough Freudian imagery (guns, swords, walking sticks between legs, fast cars and motorcycles, female assault fantasies, etc.) to make one lament the absence of a Camille Paglia commentary, and fashions and indulgent musical moments without which Spinal Tap could never have existed. That being said, the kids know what it is all about, and as the closest approximation modern viewers are likely ever to see to a full length Led Zeppelin concert from the band at the height of their popularity, this is a film that fans of hard rock will be inclined to forgive almost any excess. Being the band that more or less epitomized the sex, drugs, and rock and roll attitude of 1970s rock, one could argue that excess is in many ways one of the major points of the whole enterprise.
The Video
The film is presented in a transfer that fills the entire 16:9 enhanced frame. The image quality seems constrained by the quality of the source film, which is often very grainy, sometimes looking more like it was sourced from 16mm footage rather than 35 mm. This can probably be chalked up to the way it was photographed and lit. A number of sequences with split screen and other optical effects show almost no degradation in image quality suggesting that the filmmakers were at least meticulous in their post-production efforts. A noticeable improvement in image quality is evident compared to the previously available DVD, particularly in the various backstage documentary sequences. Video related artifacts are few and far between, with relatively minor compression issues given the large amount of film grain and refreshing lack of image filtering/smoothing.
The Audio
The audio is available as a 448 Kbps DD 5.1 track, a 754 Kbps DTS 5.1 track, or a 48 kHz 16 bit PCM 2.0 stereo track, all of which are selectable from the setup menu or switchable on the fly. Both the 5.1 and the two-channel stereo mixes were newly created for this release by Kevin Shirley in collaboration with Jimmy Page. Shirley was responsible for the mixing on the 2003 Led Zeppelin DVD as well as the "How the West Was Won" live CD and DVD-Audio releases. The basic philosophy of the mixes place Page's guitar on the right side of the stereo spectrum and Jones' keyboards on the left consistent with their stage locations. Vocals, drums, and bass are typically more centered. For the 5.1 mix, the surround channels are used very aggressively, which can be effective when crowd noise, reverb effects, or bursts of Page's bowed guitar and theremin noodlings are highlighted, but can be distracting when vocals and guitars are mixed into the surrounds at fairly high levels, creating a "sidewall" effect more than a concert hall or arena ambience.
Compared to the Dolby Digital 2.0 Pro-Logic track from the previous DVD release, the new mixes sound a bit more dynamically compressed, and the guitar parts are noticeably more forward. Some dynamic headroom in the low bass content of the 5.1 tracks is preserved via the near constant activity of the LFE channel.
I listened to the DTS 5.1 track and PCM stereo track for the film's entire running time, after which I went back and spot checked the DTS versus the Dolby Digital. After levels are matched, I did not detect a significant difference between the two. The PCM 2.0 stereo track featured noticeably improved audio fidelity versus either of the surround tracks. Even though it did not reproduce the nifty surround effects of certain sequences, it was my preferred listening option.
Fans hoping to hear a surround remix of the studio version of "Stairway to Heaven", which is used as the film's exit music, will be disappointed to learn that it is simply the widely available stereo mix with some very light reverb added to the rear channels.
The Extras
All of the extras are available on the second disc. As with the film, the extras are available with subtitles in English, French, and Spanish. Also as with the film, song lyrics are not subtitled, but between song banter and spoken asides are. All of the extras are presented with 16 bit 48kHz PCM 2.0 sound except for the outtake musical numbers which have the same DTS/Dolby Digital/PCM surround and stereo options as the film itself.
Tampa News Report runs three minutes and 26 seconds and is presented cropped to fill a 16:9 enhanced frame. This consists of excerpts from a local news report on Led Zeppelin's record setting attendance at their gig at Tampa Stadium in 1973. It includes footage of the band arriving via their private jet at the Tampa International Airport. Humorously, there is an error in an on-screen graphic comparing their attendance to the Beatles' previous record.
Over the Hills and far Away runs six minutes and twenty seconds and is presented in 16:9 enhanced video. This is a previously unavailable outtake musical number from the Madison Square Garden concerts used for the film.
Boating Down the Thames runs eight minutes and 21 seconds and is presented in 4:3 video. This is a BBC Interview with Peter Grant and Robert Plant from 1976. They discuss the film, the non-concert sequences, and why Led Zeppelin eschewed television appearances. The interviewer asks some pointed but fair questions, mostly relating to the neither fish nor fowl nature of the film's mix of fantasy and documentary footage, and seems unintimidated by the large wooden stick that looks like a cross between a shillelagh and a pipe being casually wielded by Grant.
Celebration Day (Cutting Copy) runs three minutes and 41 seconds and is presented in 16:9 enhanced video. This is another outtake musical number from the Madison Square Garden shows. This song had previously appeared on the original soundtrack album, but not in the film itself. I am not sure what is meant by "Cutting Copy".
The Robbery runs five minutes and four seconds and is presented in 4:3 video. This consists of complete footage of a news report and a Peter Grant press conference concerning the over $200,000 that was stolen from the band from a safe deposit box in the Drake Hotel in New York in 1973. Some of this footage was used in the midst of the "Heartbreaker" number in the film, which was the only musical number interrupted by documentary footage.
Misty Mountain Hop runs four minutes and 52 seconds and is presented in 16:9 enhanced video. This is another outtake musical number from the Madison Square Garden shows. This was previously released on the 2003 "Led Zeppelin" DVD set (but not 16:9 enhanced), and the 35mm footage is supplemented by a small amount of windowboxed 4:3 bootleg footage.
Original Film Trailer runs exactly one minute and is presented in 16:9 enhanced video. The very serious sounding narrator lets us know what it is all about: "For the first time on film: The Musical Mind of Led Zeppelin". He also characterizes the film as "A journey out of the ordinary into the fantastic". I cannot explain it, but I always get a kick out of this kind of hyperbole.
The Ocean runs four minutes and 42 seconds and is presented in 16:9 enhanced video. Like "Misty Mountain Hop", this outtake musical number was also previously available on the 2003 "Led Zeppelin" DVD set.
Radio Profile Spotlight by Cameron Crowe (1976) is an audio only feature that runs exactly fifteen minutes accompanied by a still photo of a theater marquee promoting a Led Zeppelin appearance. Crowe, who at the time was a contributor to Rolling Stone magazine, gushes like a fanboy about the band and the film and then offers up some brief notes on the band's early history through their first four albums. There are occasionally incorrect reductionist comments along the lines of "Page, who writes the music...". For those interested in comparison with the new remixes, I believe many of the musical clips are from the original soundtrack album mixes of the songs ("Rock and Roll", "The Song Remains the Same", "Whole Lotta Love", "Stairway to Heaven", and "Dazed and Confused"). There are also clips of The Kinks' "You Really Got Me" when discussing Jimmy Page's early studio musician work as well as studio album clips of "Communication Breakdown", "Black Mountain Side", and "The Immigrant Song". It ends with the intentionally amusingly obvious sign-off: "This is Cameron Crowe, and I guess what I've been trying to say is: I like Led Zeppelin."
Packaging
The DVDs come in a standard sized Amaray-style case with a hinged tray allowing it to accommodate both discs. This release is also available in a Collector's Edition box set with deluxe packaging and a bunch of physical gew-gaws including a t-shirt, postcards, replica concert tickets, and that sort of thing.
Summary
Thanks to aggressive remixes in either 5.1 surround or stereo, the song does not remain exactly the same, but Led Zeppelin fans will likely be pleased with the remixed and remastered audio/video presentation of the band's 1976 "in concert and beyond" feature film. While the fantasy sequences remain as gratuitous and ridiculous as ever, no one seems to take them particularly seriously except for the guy who narrates the film's trailer. While a number of the songs go off on equally gratuitous tangents, this seems as much a part of the whole 70s rock scene the film documents as the long hair and excessively tight pants. Heck, I am 39 years old, and this film still has moments that make me feel like a thirteen year old boy gearing up for a lifetime of tinnitus.
Regards,
