THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME (FILM)

With Led Zeppelin already having achieved almost mythical status, their 1973 gigs in New York were filmed as the basis for this movie. This was well before the days of the home video recorder, so the resulting film was granted a cinema run in 1976. For many fans, this was likely to be the only way they would ever see the band perform live. The advent of home video led to a release in that format in 1990, and eventually to DVD in 1999.

While the band have been bootlegged many times, this and the accompanying LP/CD soundtrack were the only officially available live releases by Led Zeppelin up until the late 1990s. The tour was intended to promote the then current album, "Houses of the holy", but the set list covers a broad selection of their work up until this point.

The actual music in both the film and the soundtrack album is broadly the same, the film having some additional songs plus some behind the scenes footage and fantasy sequences. These sequences, one for each of the four band members, now seem somewhat humorous and are very much of their time. Robert Plant for example portrays himself as a sort of knight in shining armour rescuing a young maiden.

The live performances themselves see the band in pretty much top form, and playing band standards such as "Stairway to heaven", "Whole lotta love" and "Black dog". There's also a highly indulgent version of "Dazed and confused", a song which grew longer and longer with every tour.

As a document of Led Zeppelin's halcyon days, "The song remains the same" is adequate if slightly disappointing. While it does largely serve to capture them as they were then, it tends to remove the surrounding mythology rather than enhance it. An essential document for fans of the band though.

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