The Song Remains the Same (1976)

Directors:

Peter Clifton
Joe Massot

Release Date:

20 October 1976 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Music

Tagline:

In Concert And Beyond

Plot:

A Led Zeppelin concert filmed in Madison Square Garden, New York.

Plot Keywords:

Concert | Band | Cliff | Concert Footage | Mob Hit

Cast

John Bonham	...	Himself - Drummer (as Led Zeppelin)
John Paul Jones	...	Himself - Bassist & Keyboardist (as Led Zeppelin)
Jimmy Page	...	Himself - Guitarist (as Led Zeppelin)
Robert Plant	...	Himself - Lead Singer (as Led Zeppelin)
Peter Grant	...	Himself - Band Manager
Richard Cole	...	Himself
Derek Skilton	...	Himself
Colin Rigdon	...	Himself

Also Known As:

Led Zeppelin: The Song Remains the Same (UK)

Runtime:

137 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor) | Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (magnetic prints) | Dolby (optical prints)

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Australia:M (DVD rating) | Australia:PG | Netherlands:AL (DVD rating) | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:PG | Finland:K-8 (cut) | Finland:K-12

Filming Locations:

Felt Forum, Madison Square Garden - 4 Pennsylvania Plaza, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Swan Song

Trivia:

When the band convened in 1974 to view an early rough cut of the film, the band were less than pleased. John Bonham laughed out loud at Jimmy Page's pretentious fantasy sequence, and the rest of the band expressed their disapproval of the concert footage to Joe Massot. He was soon removed from the project. His famous parting comment was "They even thought it's my fault that Robert Plant has a huge cock."

Goofs:

Continuity: In the sequence where Peter Grant, the band's manager, is pretending to be a 30s gangster, two different vintage cars are used in the same sequence. This is most visible by looking at the hood ornaments.

Quotes:

Himself - Lead Singer: [prior to singing "Stairway to Heaven"] I think this is a song of hope.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Freaks and Geeks: Beers and Weirs (#1.2)" (1999)

Soundtrack:

Moby Dick

Virtuoso performance

"The Song Remains The Same" is essentially a film of a concert, yet thanks to the drug and ego-addled personalities of Led Zeppelin in the mid-1970s, the footage is fleshed out to include weird 'fantasy' sequences involving each of the four band members. While this section of the movie leaves a little to be desired, the concert footage is truly breathtaking, capturing the greatest hard rock band in history at their apogee.

The film opens with an odd gangster-style sequence, where faceless mobsters are mowed down by what would appear to be rival gangsters. Whatever meaning this scene is meant to represent is not clear, however it has been suggested that the faceless mobsters are the British press, who had vilified Led Zeppelin through their entire career. Who knows, but it certainly makes for an interesting start to the film.

From there the film takes an interesting turn. Each individual band member is introduced. We see drummer John Bonham ploughing his fields in a tractor, bassist John Paul Jones reading nursery rhymes to his children, singer Robert Plant playing with his wife and children in an English country lake (the scene resembles the cover of Led Zeppelin's 1973 album 'Houses of the Holy'), while guitarist Jimmy Page is introduced next to a riverside. They each receive a letter informing them that they are to tour the next day.

Once Led Zeppelin take the stage at New York's Madison Square Garden, the action really begins. The band run through some of their absolute classics, including 'Whole Lotta Love', 'Stairway to Heaven', 'Heartbreaker' and a massive version of 'Dazed and Confused'. The quality of musicianship is amazing. Page's guitar playing belies belief and John Bonham's twenty minute drum solo is awe inspiring. As the band plays there are more fantasy scenes, the best of which includes Robert Plant as some kind of Arthurian hero. The way in which Led Zeppelin embrace and play on the Tolkien-like world of mystical fantasy is truly refreshing in these over-stylised days, where musicians are more concerned with the amount of gel in their hair than the music they produce.

Watching the band at work you get a distinct feeling that the musicians of today really aren't as proficient as they were twenty or thirty years ago. Led Zeppelin it seems were better live than on record, which would be unheard of today.

As an audience we are able to see "The Song Remains The Same" for what it is: a timepiece. Post-1975, Led Zeppelin's work became gradually lower in quality and as Punk revolutionised the music scene, they became dinosaurs at the end of the decade. But in this time, their 1971-1975 period, Led Zeppelin were the biggest band in the world, and their power is captured with brilliant clarity on this film. Whatever happened after this time is a moot point; this is how Led Zeppelin should and will be remembered. A must for any serious music fan.