"The Song Remains The Same" seems to get a long of undue praise...mainly from Zeppelin fans who should really know better. True, for years -decades, really- it was the only real visual artifact of LZ's incredible twelve year reign, but you have to keep in mind that even the band practically disowned the project, and regarded it, at best, as a make-work kind of thing after Robert Plant's 1975 car smash that forced them off the road for two years. So "The Song Remains The Same" was as close to an actual Led Zeppelin concert as people were going to get, for the time being.
Having said that, the film is really more of an approximation of the Led Zeppelin concert experience (and, for what it's worth, in my not-so-humble opinion, they were the best live band in the business, and, from a musical standpoint, probably the best BAND of all time...I mean, the Beatles and Stones are great, but you can hardly call them bands, in any real sense...look at the Stones; Mick and Keith still treat Ron Wood like a sideman even after thirty years!). I say "approximation" because, as with any sort of "concert" project, "TSRTS" has its share of overdubs and re-takes. If you care, see the "Garden Tapes" website to find out exactly what kind of post-production Jimmy Page carried out on the film (and soundtrack album).
As for the performance, as a bit of a live Zeppelin connoisseur, I can honestly say, considering "TSRTS" comes from the end of the '73 tour, that it indeed sounds like the end of the tour. They're tired (stimulants or not), Robert Plant is not in the best of voice (hence the overdubs) and, considering Page was just beginning to dabble in heroin, he is a bit sloppy (to their credit, John Paul Jones and John Bonham, however, rarely EVER seemed to disappoint onstage.) And the songs! For a band that seemed to epitomize the term "self-indulgent", some of these renditions are very tedious to sit through. I mean, c'mon, Jimmy...do we really need half an hour of "Dazed And Confused"? Mind you, the '73 tour was not as bad as, say, the '77 tour (where both "No Quarter" and "Moby Dick" tended to push the half hour mark most every night!) but at the same time the fans couldn't say they weren't getting value for their money. Understand: a garden variety Led Zeppelin concert was the exact opposite of The Beatles being on and off the stage in less time than it takes to actually watch the "Dazed And Confused" performance on "TSRTS". Anything less than three hours was practically unheard of (until the 'back to basics' 1980 European tour...Zeppelin's last, sadly.) And the "fantasy sequences"! I think "TSRTS" gets a lot of its sardonic chuckles from detractors not because of Zeppelin's stage costumes, but because of these sequences, all of which are completely unnecessary and, for me, at least, definitely take away from the "concert experience". If they had followed Pink Floyd's example and had them playing on a back projector whilst performing the songs, that would be one thing, but in the film they are just ridiculous...even John Bonham's "Gentleman Farmer" bit. Though it is mildly amusing to watch Peter Grant and Richard Cole -Zeppelin's management- acting out their perceived personas at the start of the film...the first time you see it.
All told, I'd say skip "The Song Remains The Same" and pick up Zeppelin's 2 "DVD" set, which was clearly the labour of love for Jimmy Page that this film was not. Better performances too. "The Song Remains The Same" should be considered "for die-hards only", but I'm sure even the die hards know better...
Having said that, the film is really more of an approximation of the Led Zeppelin concert experience (and, for what it's worth, in my not-so-humble opinion, they were the best live band in the business, and, from a musical standpoint, probably the best BAND of all time...I mean, the Beatles and Stones are great, but you can hardly call them bands, in any real sense...look at the Stones; Mick and Keith still treat Ron Wood like a sideman even after thirty years!). I say "approximation" because, as with any sort of "concert" project, "TSRTS" has its share of overdubs and re-takes. If you care, see the "Garden Tapes" website to find out exactly what kind of post-production Jimmy Page carried out on the film (and soundtrack album).
As for the performance, as a bit of a live Zeppelin connoisseur, I can honestly say, considering "TSRTS" comes from the end of the '73 tour, that it indeed sounds like the end of the tour. They're tired (stimulants or not), Robert Plant is not in the best of voice (hence the overdubs) and, considering Page was just beginning to dabble in heroin, he is a bit sloppy (to their credit, John Paul Jones and John Bonham, however, rarely EVER seemed to disappoint onstage.) And the songs! For a band that seemed to epitomize the term "self-indulgent", some of these renditions are very tedious to sit through. I mean, c'mon, Jimmy...do we really need half an hour of "Dazed And Confused"? Mind you, the '73 tour was not as bad as, say, the '77 tour (where both "No Quarter" and "Moby Dick" tended to push the half hour mark most every night!) but at the same time the fans couldn't say they weren't getting value for their money. Understand: a garden variety Led Zeppelin concert was the exact opposite of The Beatles being on and off the stage in less time than it takes to actually watch the "Dazed And Confused" performance on "TSRTS". Anything less than three hours was practically unheard of (until the 'back to basics' 1980 European tour...Zeppelin's last, sadly.) And the "fantasy sequences"! I think "TSRTS" gets a lot of its sardonic chuckles from detractors not because of Zeppelin's stage costumes, but because of these sequences, all of which are completely unnecessary and, for me, at least, definitely take away from the "concert experience". If they had followed Pink Floyd's example and had them playing on a back projector whilst performing the songs, that would be one thing, but in the film they are just ridiculous...even John Bonham's "Gentleman Farmer" bit. Though it is mildly amusing to watch Peter Grant and Richard Cole -Zeppelin's management- acting out their perceived personas at the start of the film...the first time you see it.
All told, I'd say skip "The Song Remains The Same" and pick up Zeppelin's 2 "DVD" set, which was clearly the labour of love for Jimmy Page that this film was not. Better performances too. "The Song Remains The Same" should be considered "for die-hards only", but I'm sure even the die hards know better...