The Soundtrack from the film The Song Remains the Same

Atlantic/Rhino

Led Zeppelin was one of rock’s all-time greatest live bands, period. But you’d never know it from listening to their only official live album, The Song Remains the Same, recorded during three nights at Madison Square Garden in 1973. The original Song LP served as the nominal soundtrack of the same-named film—both were released in ‘76—but the band quickly disowned both the movie (which wove inane fantasy sequences among the concert footage) and its vinyl counterpart, considering them unworthy of their reputation.

It’s not difficult to understand how Song happened. By that stage of their career, Zeppelin could seemingly do no wrong. Robert Plant’s onstage peacock strutting, Jimmy Page’s guitar pyrotechnics and the hyper-sonic rhythm section of bassist John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham had come to define arena rock. But they also defined arena rock’s excesses: While there was no denying Zeppelin’s superior musicianship and charisma, they’d gotten carried away with their own legend, not knowing when to rein in the flashy bombast and let the music speak for itself. Every rock fan knew that Page could crank out the wickedest of solos, but how much could he say in the near half-hour of the soundtrack’s “Dazed and Confused” that he didn’t say in the six-and-a-half-minute original?

The new reissue attempts to redress the mess by presenting the MSG show in its entirety, and in the correct running order. The original nine tracks concentrated on classic-rock stalwarts like “Whole Lotta Love,” “Stairway to Heaven” and the interminable “Moby Dick.” The new remaster, on two CDs, adds six songs, deflating the bloat somewhat but ultimately failing to redeem this fatally misguided affair.

It gets off to a breathless start, with the triple threat of “Rock and Roll,” “Celebration Day” and the newly added “Black Dog,” which expose Zeppelin’s blues roots and ability to craft lean, mean rockers. But other new additions like “Over the Hills and Far Away” and “Misty Mountain Hop” weigh the show down early on, and the band never recovers throughout this soul-less run-through. It’s no wonder back-to-basics punk was around the corner: this fatuous song couldn’t remain the same much longer.

Powered by AkoComment 2.0!