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Elly Roberts reviews
Atlantic/Warner
2*CD: 
DVD:
Blu-Ray:
HD-DVD:
- November 2007
- Rating: 10/10+
With Percy and co. set to play the mother of all reunions on December 10, Led Zeppelin frenzy is reaching fever pitch all over again.
Coinciding with this event at the O2 Arena, now December 10, Jimmy Page hasgiven it a whole lotta love and dusted down the original music from TheSong Remains The Same film soundtrack.
Released originally in November 1976, it came three years after the actualconcert (the last of three nights) in Madison Square Garden NY on July 29, 1973.The vinyl album was their penultimate number one in the UK, one of eight. Thisversion now has 6 extra tracks (see tracklisting *).
As longstanding curator of the band, Page said, “We have revisited The SongRemains The Same and can now offer the complete set as played at Madison SquareGarden. This differs substantially from the original soundtrack released in 1976,and highlights the technical prowess of Kevin Shirley, who worked with us onHow The West Was Won.When it comes to The Song Remains The Same, the expansion of the DVD andsoundtrack are as good as it gets on the Led Zeppelin wish list.”
What this recording does, is to show what an awesome live band they were.Secondly, it allowed them to occassionally break free from the album formats,with more space to explore when they felt like it, like the mid-section ofWhole Lotta Love, including some dazzling old fashioned call andresponse between Plant and Page. It also let Page show-boat his fantastictechnical ability, way beyond Hendrix skills.
Some of this music on the DVD is masked by their individual fantasy sequences,and now dated filming techniques, so we dont get distracted on the CD.
Having seen Zep at Earls Court on 23 May 1975, in a four hour extravaganza,that included a 45 minute encore, I know exactly what Zep can do. Doing atrack by track seems pointless; its been done before. Just put it on, andenjoy the greatest band of all-time.
How The West Was Won is the only career-spanning live collection theyhave. This was the first official one gig account apart from the BBC sessions,later released in 1997.
Above all, in addition to the music, this brings back so many memories from whenI fell in love with them in the 70s, and the night by which I measure all(live) bands. They broke the records. They broke the rules. They broke our ourhearts when they called it a day in a press statement on December 4 1980,following John Bonhams death.
Weblink:ledzeppelin.com
The full list of tracks included are :
Disc 1:
1. Rock And Roll
2. Celebration Day
3. Black Dog (including Bring It On Home) *
4. Over The Hills *
5. Misty Mountain Hop *
6. Since Ive Been Loving You *
7. No Quarter
8. The Song Remains The Same
9. Rain Song
10.The Ocean *
Disc 2:
1. Dazed And Confused
2. Stairway To Heaven
3. Moby Dick
4. Heartbreaker *
5. Whole Lotta Love
* Not included on original soundtrack release
Elly Roberts passed away in 2011, but he was a man who was so passionate about all types of music and loved meeting his musical heroes, such as Mick Hucknall at a book signing at the Trafford Centre, Manchester in 2007.
A former teacher and also a music journalist, DJ and radio presenter on local community station Calon FM, plus appearances on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Radio 2, Elly started doing reviews for DVDfever.co.uk in 2004 and he did the majority of the CD and concerts reviews on the website.
I know also that he loved getting away for the summer to Spain and I hope that wherever he is now he is enjoying the hot sunshine and, as one of his friends has said on his Facebook page, that he is interviewing his musical heroes.