Jurassic Jumbotrons

Because most of the footage from 1975's Earl's Court concert came from video cameras used to supply images to the Jurassic-Jumbotron above the group, the material is almost all close-ups, making the transition from the letterboxed, cinematic Song Remains The Same outtakes just before it that much more jarring. The first handful of numbers feel like an early MTV Unplugged show, as the band displays surprising subtlety during their acoustic set. Page trades his Les Paul electric and plectrum for a Martin acoustic and a steel thumbpick. The Earl's Court set ends with, not surprisingly, "Stairway to Heaven", with Page on his trademark Gibson EDS-1275 doubleneck guitar. The opening is very, very similar to the version in "The Song Remains The Same", with John Paul Jones playing a nice recorder patch on his Melotron. But even as early as 1975, you get the feeling that the song was beginning to be a bit of a millstone around Zeppelin's collective neck. The band's energy perks up during Page's guitar solo, and its buildup, which contains some very tasty doublestops and on-the-spot improvising, followed by some surprisingly clean tones on his guitar's 12-string neck in the song's outro. Look closely, and you'll see Page soloing on his double neck with a broken string (the B-string, I believe), and somehow able to maneuver around the solo on the five remaining strings.

"Stairway" and the craftsmanship involved in both recording the song and pulling it off live illustrates part of Zeppelin's success. While their core elements--especially in the studio--were Page's acoustic and electric playing backed by a thundering rhythm section, and backing Plant's diverse vocal range; the DVD illustrates that Zeppelin could go anywhere: the do-whops of "The Ocean", the exotic Escher-like feeling of "Kashmir", the speed-thrash of "Communication Breakdown", the slow aching blues of "Since I've Been Loving You", etc. Some groups have one sound that they pummel you into the ground with. Zeppelin had all sorts of different ways to pummel its audience happily into submission!

Lots of Easter Eggs

As the amount of tracks available in the studio went from 8 to 16 to 24 in the 1970s, Jimmy Page took full advantage of that technology, layering subtle, almost subliminal guitar tracks, that wouldn't pop out to a listener's ears until he had heard the album at least a dozen times. Page and the DVD production team have taken a similar approach to these discs. Hidden in the DVDs are all sorts of fun "Easter eggs": rare snippets, outtakes, and home movies. For example, go to the Madison Square Garden footage from its submenu, and you'll see backstage excerpts cut out of The Song Remains The Same. Go to Earls Court from its submenu, and you'll see exterior shots of the hall in the mid-1970s, followed by a shot of Zeppelin crossing a street to the building (or perhaps the Royal Albert Hall) from about 1970.