THE SOUNDTRACK FROM THE FILM - THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME

One of the few official Led Zeppelin live outings, and it will always have a special place within my collection, sure the sound quality isn't brilliant, but it capsures Led Zeppelin's live sound very well, and most if not all songs sound better live than on the studio albums versions (most notable Celebration day and The Song Remains The Same and of course the outspinned Dazed and Confused). There is also a concert movie with the same name, which has a slightly different set list, so I will not refer to that on this review.

The songs are not entirely live, they are cut and paste versions of the original live dates, with some studio tampering, and some other live registrations incorporated to upgrade the quality of the songs. That doesn't bother me since I'm just enjoying the music as it is presented, and I was not there when they actually played it. The recordings were from the Madison Square Garden dates of 1973 Houses Of The Holy tour. Now on with the songs.

The intro consist of The heavy "Rock and Roll" and "Celebration Day" quite an energetic heavy opening, no time to recover for "The Song Remains The Same" is next in line. "The Rain Song" provides a little ballance with beautifull orchestrated mellotron passages. Than the 27 minutes lasting "Dazed and Confused" hits the ball out of the park, sheer perfection, sudden changes, and heavy bursts in a psychedelic mixture of blues and metal. You can''t get any better than this really.

The second album starts with the organ synth beauty of "No Quarter" Jimmy Page lays low with his dominant guitars providing John Paul Jones with room for his organ woks, Plant sings every so lovely. As the song progresses it only gets better, I've heard better versions, but it still outclasses the studio version."Stairway To Heaven" follows, probably the best led Zep song, with a soft soothing guitar, augmented with JPJ's keyboards and Plant delivering great vocals, when the drums enter midway, the song becomes more heavy resulting in a metal final, the drums and piano part between 7:30 and 9:00 with some brilliant Page guitar works overhead is simply stunning, as is the final of the song.

"Moby dick" starts off the second side of the second album, and is second to none the best drum solo ever to have been played, but you have to like it to really enjoy it, for me it's a little too long, but still it's an excample of how a drum solo should evolve, and only few drummers can hold my attention throughout such a solo, Bonzo managed that, so it's good enough. The album ends with an outstretched version of "Whole Lotta Love" which incorporated a little rock and roll medley, beautifull interplay between the boys.

Fabulous album, which displays many aspects of their eclectic sound, it took almost 30 years for their next live album to arrive, but untill that moment this was their definitive piece of live work and I will treasure it's beauty for evermore.