Led Zeppelin DVD Review

Warning: this review may Ramble On a little bit.

The seventies had just ended, and being that I was a newly crowned teenager, I was just beginning to formulate my musical tastes. The old
standbys on my turntable, such as Kiss, Aerosmith, and Ted Nugent, found themselves being replaced by more "deeper" bands such as Led Zeppelin, Rush, and Kansas. I remember hearing the entire Led Zeppelin II album, for the first time, during a hockey team party at the captain's house. He had the ultimate stereo system, with the giant floor standing speakers, and when that powerful opening guitar riff from "Heartbreaker" shook the room, this was all it took for me. Zeppelin was now my religion.

When my hometown movie theater showed the just-released The Song Remains The Same concert movie, my best friend and I were the first ones in line. By then, we were already wanna-be guitarists and Jimmy Page disciples, so we were dizzy with anticipation to see our heroes on the big screen. The Song Remains The Same was shown in the "art" movie theater in town, which only had one giant screen and an awesome sound system. When the mighty Zeppelin stormed the Madison Square Garden stage that night, we were completely blown away. We were simply entranced by Jimmy Page's coolness. The black magic wizard suite, the Gibson Les Paul slung down to his knees, the violin bow playing, the ZOSO symbol-- the man was a God. We left that movie so spellbound that we both ran out and bought our first cheap electric guitars, the very next day. Mine was a used Les Paul knock-off, so I could play like Jimmy of course. I still have that guitar.

That was almost a quarter century ago and Led Zeppelin has remained one of my favorite bands. Their demise in 1979, because of John Bonham's untimely death, was a tragedy. Oh, the things that could have been. As the only official document of the Led Zeppelin concert experience,
at the time, The Song Remains The Same was a "must-have" for every fan, but was always somewhat unsatisfying.
The Song Remains The Same concerts were not some of Zeppelin's best performances, the song selections were not the best (and too few), and the concert footage was interrupted with annoying behind the scenes footage and fantasy sequences. I was resigned to the probability that this video was all we would ever get from Led Zeppelin, until a few years ago when the rumors of the new DVD project started to spread throughout the world. Lo-and-behold, the Led Zeppelin DVD was finally born, and thankfully it has exceeded most of our expectations.

Article Author: Paul Roy

Paul Roy is a network administrator by day and amateur music DVD critic by night. When not attending as many live concerts as he possibly can, Paul likes nothing more than to kick back with a good concert DVD and rattle some walls. …

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