All I can say is it's about damn time. Led Zeppelin, one of the pioneers of blues & folk tinged hard rock & heavy metal, and perhaps the biggest band of the 1970's, are here in all their glory on the famous film The Song Remains the Same. Documenting a historic night in 1973 while the band played a string of headline dates at New York's Madison Square Garden, this film also wove in plenty of offbeat fantasy footage featuring each individual member of the band, adding a certain psychedelic nature to the film that delighted the LSD & marijuana crowd but pissed off the hardcore fans who just wanted to see 2 hours of live Zeppelin.
Thankfully, the film's arrival on this Special Edition 2 Disc DVD set is a splendid watch, especially if you haven't seen it in many years. Not only was the main film remastered by the band and the soundtrack remixed in Dolby 5.1 (the DVD looks and sounds absolutely splendid) but you get a second DVD with a host of bonus goodies, including footage of songs like "The Ocean", "Celebration Day", "Over the Hills and Far Away", and "Misty Mountain Hop", all of them played that night at MSG but not included in the movie. There's also some vintage TV news footage and other assorted odds and ends, but for the most part the missing songs from the concert will be of great interest to every Led Zeppelin fanatic.
As far as the main film goes, yeah, the dream sequences are somewhat cheesy and dated, but they do add a strange fantasy element to the movie that screams the 70's. The live performances are top notch as anyone who has seen the film or heard the soundtrack, highlights being Page's 30 minutes of excess on the bloated but terrifying "Dazed and Confused", Plant's emotional vocals and Page's blues solos on "Since I've Been Loving You", Bonham's drum workout on "Moby Dick", and Jones' excellent keyboard tapestries on the eerie "No Quarter".
In summary, a must have DVD set for any fan of classic hard rock. 'Nuff said.
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