Editor Reviews:

Description:
Experience the lightning of Led Zeppelin's 1973 Madison Square Garden concert-and enter the dreams and backstage lives of one of rock's all-time best-selling bands! Year: 1976 Director: Peter Clifton, Joe Massot Starring: Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Bonham, John Paul Jones

Amazon.com:
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

Rating : - 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.