Led Zeppelin – The Song Remains the Same [Blu-ray]

5 Comments

1. Douglas R. Gould

   October 31, 2010 at 5:01 am

   Review by Douglas R. Gould for Led Zeppelin – The Song Remains the Same [Blu-ray]
   Rating:
   For those of you writing reviews before ever viewing the dvd or knowing about its contents I am surprised. I am a Led Zeppelin fan and this dvd is not the same as its original. This is the whole concert in its entirety uncut with more than 40 minutes of added bonus material, including never-before-released performance footage not on the original release such as “Over The Hills And Far Away” and “Celebration Day”; plus performances of “Misty Mountain Hop” and “The Ocean”; a rare 1976 BBC interview with Robert Plant and Jimmy Page; vintage TV footage from the Drake Hotel robbery during the New York concert stand; and a Cameron Crowe radio show. This set also includes collectible vintage T-shirt with original album artwork design, soundtrack CD, lobby cards, reproductions of original premiere invites, tour schedule, and more. (As noted on
   

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2. Stoner Smurf

   October 31, 2010 at 4:28 am

   Review by Stoner Smurf for Led Zeppelin – The Song Remains the Same [Blu-ray]
   Rating:
   This was clearly not the best performance that they were capable of, but what the hey- where else do you get to see Jimmy Page beating on his guitar with a violin bow?Contrary to the opinions expressed by others, I sorta like the little dramatic bits inserted here and there throughout the movie. They can be cheesy at times, but the Jimmy Page / Hermit of the Tarot bit in the middle of “Dazed and Confused” is really very cool.There are, however, continuity problems that any die-hard zep fan will notice right away. Bad edits, if you will. You can clearly tell that they cut and pasted two or three performances together, which would be fine… except for the fact that they do it RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF SOME OF THE SONGS! They chopped off a huge portion of “Whole Lotta Love.” Except for the obvious problems with this film, it’s still Zeppelin… and if you’re reading this, you probably are already familiar with the movie and its contents… after all, most people considering buying this disk are probably already huge fans, and would buy it no matter how bad the film was.Buy it! It’s cheaper than the soundtrack album, and it contains many songs not on the album.

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3. Ruined

   October 31, 2010 at 3:29 am

   Review by Ruined for Led Zeppelin – The Song Remains the Same [Blu-ray]
   Rating:
   Unfortunately the Blu-ray version of this concert has a 7-second long sound dropout in the TrueHD soundtrack at timecode 1:40:45 – all copies of the Blu-ray currently available are affected. The TrueHD soundtrack of the previously released HD DVD does not suffer from this dropout (nor does the Blu-ray’s lower quality DD soundtrack), so it is clear this was an encoding goof-up on Warner’s part.

   This type of QC problem is unacceptable for a product that costs $20, yet Warner has not mentioned any intention of fixing the issue. Hopefully they get on the ball and set up a replacement program for those who buy this defective disc.

   Note that the recent re-release of this disc still suffers from the dropout problem. Maybe the third time will be the charm… :

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4. Just Bill

   October 31, 2010 at 3:20 am

   Review by Just Bill for Led Zeppelin – The Song Remains the Same [Blu-ray]
   Rating:
   I’m a Zeppelin freak. I own everything they’ve ever released. Probably twice. I bought this the minute I saw it.

   Now I wish I hadn’t.

   The T-Shirt inside is very thin and not at all an XL as it states on the tag. If it were an XL, I’d wear it with pride. As it is, my wife can wear it. (What kind of material is that, anyway — gossamer?)

   But once the T-Shirt is removed…

   That’s where the problem with the packaging comes into play.

   The T-Shirt is what held the DVDs and the extras in the box, which is a very thin cardboard to begin with. Take the T-Shirt out and you have a large space in the box. When you put back the DVDs, they rattle around in the box.

   If you take them out of the box, they’re packaged in their own little sleeve, but the cardboard of the sleeve is very thin, too. If it was a heavier slipcase-like cardboard, it would be okay. But it’s not. It barely stands up on its own. By the way, one item in the sleeve is the 2-DVD set. The other item in the sleeve holds the bonus materials. But, together, they’re only 1-1/4″ deep. The box is 2″ deep. The T-Shirt took up the remaining 3/4″ to make the box full.

   So, okay, minus the T-Shirt and despite the wafer-thin cardboard, what do we have left? What are the bonus materials?

   Again, no great shakes. There are numerous postcards (most pictures are blurry and oddly cropped) and movie promotional items, plus a couple of other pieces of colored cardboard meant to look like tickets. Big deal. Interesting, perhaps even cool. But worth another $10-$20 over the price of the 2-DVD set by itself? You be the judge.

   So, okay, minus the T-Shirt, despite the wafer-thin cardboard, and aside from the assortment of passable postcards and promotional items for the movie, what’s in the box?

   When all is said and done, what’s really in the box that I care about is the 2-DVD set of the remastered The Song Remains the Same concert (one DVD is the concert, the other DVD is bonus materials) — which, last time I looked, was only $13.99 on Amazon. So the Zep movie not only costs less, but the standard 2-DVD set of the remastered The Song Remains the Same is a traditional DVD box. In other words, it’s sturdy. It’ll stand on your shelf without falling over, getting crushed, or scuffed up. And to watch it, you don’t have to yank apart a box, fumble around for the slipcase, extract it, and then attempt to get it back in when you’re done — all without further damaging the cardboard. Sounds like a losing proposition to me.

   In short, although the remastered The Song Remains the Same movie is outstanding (and the 2-CD audio set is stunning!), this Collector’s Edition DVD set is flimsy, not well thought out and surprisingly unspectacular. I didn’t get the “Wow!” factor when I opened the box. I got the, “Gee? Now what do I do with these parts now that the T-Shirt (which served as a spacer in the box) is removed?” factor.

   I say save your money on this Collector’s Edition DVD set. Buy the remastered 2-DVD set of The Song Remains the Same instead. You’ll get what’s really important and you’ll avoid the headache of trying to figure out how to carefully store the “bonus” items without damaging them.

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5. doomsdayer520

   October 31, 2010 at 3:18 am

   Review by doomsdayer520 for Led Zeppelin – The Song Remains the Same [Blu-ray]
   Rating:
   This 1976 concert film is one Led Zeppelin item that really did deserve to be improved and expanded. In the November 2007 glut of new Zep products related to the film, this 2-DVD set is clearly the optimal purchase. (Note that this review was written after actually purchasing and consuming the item in question, which appears to be a real rarity so far.) The “Collector’s Edition” DVD set adds merchandise that will only be of value to super-diehards, and the new edition of the soundtrack album is apparently built around the new remaster of the movie itself and displays some odd editing choices. I have always felt that the purely audio soundtrack of the movie suffers from the lack of visuals – for example, all 27 minutes of “Dazed and Confused” makes more sense visually because you can watch the theatricality of Jimmy Page’s stage performance, while merely listening to the accompanying soundtrack can be tedious. To a lesser extent, the same goes for the extra lengthy “Moby Dick” because while soloing, John Bonham could be even more enjoyable to watch than to listen to. So the film itself is the apotheosis of the entire “The Song Remains the Same” project, and this 2-DVD set presents much needed improvements in audio and video quality, with some bonus items that add value for the enthusiastic fan without becoming obsessive.

   Though I’m a lifelong Zep fan, I actually hadn’t seen this movie in around 20 years. And I had forgotten how cheesy the non-concert footage truly is, with the fantasy sequences serving as little more than period vanity pieces that rarely rise above the amateurish. But who cares, because the concert sequences are stupendous, and in this DVD set they have been presented for maximum aural and visual impact (yes these two shows weren’t the band’s best, but they were still light years beyond most other rock acts). As for the DVD extras, the interviews and news segments have some curiosity value, but the true goodies are the extra concert sequences. We finally have official video for the blistering performance of “Celebration Day,” which was always my favorite from the old original soundtrack album. Other bonuses include “Misty Mountain Hop,” though the uncoordinated performance of this song deserved to be left out of the original film; plus a surprisingly heavy take on “Over the Hills and Far Away.”

   For many years the original movie and soundtrack were the only (official) live Zep documents available. For the real live goods, we now have the 2003 CD package “How the West Was Won” and the 2003 self-titled DVD set, which are considerably more hard-hitting and far-reaching than “The Song Remains the Same.” But even though it’s no longer the definitive live document, fans have long deserved an improved version of the film. For all but the most obsessive collectors, the 2-DVD set is the way to go. [~doomsdayer520~]

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