In the studio, Led Zeppelin were masters of their own domain.
\nUnder the production hand of guitarist Jimmy Page, the band created
\nglorious noises and layers of sound that gave even the trained ear
\nan incredible workout.<\/p>\n
Live, however, Led Zeppelin was a hit-or-miss act. Page was
\ngloriously sloppy as a guitarist, and the only other true frontman,
\nRobert Plant, was busy preening for the audience when he wasn’t
\nsinging. The remaining backbone, John Paul Jones and John Bonham,
\nwere given rare moments to shine. (In fact, two bootlegs I have
\nfrom the band’s final tour are some of the best performances I’ve
\never heard Led Zeppelin give.)<\/p>\n
That brings us to today’s subject, the 1976 soundtrack release
\nThe Song Remains The Same<\/i>. I know it’s heresy punishable by
\ndeath to speak ill of the great Zep, but this album shows not only
\nthe limitations the band had in concert, but also how difficult it
\ntruly is to make a live album.<\/p>\n
Originally recorded in 1973 at Madison Square Garden, this album
\nfeatures a mere nine songs through the two discs (never mind that
\nfive of the songs stretch well past ten minutes). With only
\nmaterial up to
\nHouses Of The Holy<\/i> to draw upon, the band carefully – if not
\noften predictably – selects their performances.<\/p>\n
The main problem comes up if you’ve seen the accompanying movie.
\nNot only were a lot of performances not included – I would have
\nenjoyed hearing “Since I’ve Been Loving You” or “Black Dog” – but
\nsome have been edited to fit the vinyl slab. A good chunk of “Dazed
\nAnd Confused” has been taken out of the album – and you can hear
\nwhere the cut took place.<\/p>\n
In fact, the movie spoils the album. Once you get a look at the
\nvisual images accompanying the songs, listening to the album just
\nisn’t the same. (One image I could have lived without was that of
\nPlant’s son playing with himself in a stream.) It’s one thing to
\nhear Page play the guitar with a violin bow or sculpt the air with
\na Theremin, it’s another to see him wailing on his Les Paul or
\nnoodling with the Theremin, creating some unearthly sounds.<\/p>\n
All this said, whether you’re watching the film or kicking back
\nwith the double-album soundtrack, you can’t get past the fact that
\nthis is incredibly boring. There’s only so much I can stand of a
\nBonham drum solo or Jones’s diddling around with the keyboards.
\n(Page, on the other hand, at least keeps his guitar solo fresh
\nthroughout on “Dazed And Confused.”) The band seems to be grasping
\nfor straws in the ending bridge of “Whole Lotta Love.” On the other
\nhand, the performance of “The Rain Song” adds a whole new dimension
\nto the work.<\/p>\n
And then, there’s the song that Led Zeppelin will always be
\nknown best for: “Stairway To Heaven.” Color me extremely biased on
\nthis one, but there is no substitute for the original studio
\nversion. They try admirably to capture the same magic that they did
\nin 1971, but that kind of power is only harnessed once. Not that I
\nmind hearing it performed, it’s just that one needs to take any
\nversion other than the original with a grain of salt.<\/p>\n
\nThe Song Remains The Same<\/i> offers proof that Led Zeppelin
\nwere more comfortable in the studio. Live, they have only each man
\nand the instruments he played. There was one shot, on one
\ninstrument at a time; overdubs were impossible (and thank God they
\nchose not to use a tape loop). Plant’s voice is beginning to show
\nsigns of wear here; he’s not always able to maintain levels on the
\nhigh notes. Page is downright messy at times in his playing, though
\nhe is always able to recover and return to the track at hand. In
\nJones’s case, there is only so much one can do with keyboards
\nbefore it becomes so much whacking off on the ivories. And Bonham –
\nthere is no doubt in my mind he was one of rock’s greatest
\ndrummers. Nonetheless, his solo is boring – and even the film
\ndoesn’t save it.<\/p>\n
Is this album Led Zeppelin’s fault? I don’t think so – there are
\nthose who are still unhappy with the subpar performance in the film
\n(remember, it took three years from date of filming to release for
\nthis to see the light of day). But rather than blame the
\nfilmmakers, I just see this as another example of the difficulty
\nbands have in trying to harness the power of their live show into a
\nformat where one is neither close to the band nor able to see them.
\n(A better example of a good live cut, ironically, is a soundcheck
\nversion of “I Can’t Quit You, Baby” on the closet-cleaner release
\nCoda<\/i>.)<\/p>\n
Die-hard Zeppelin fans are undoubtedly forming lynching parties
\nin my honor, but the sad fact still remains: almost 25 years since
\nthis performance was first captured,
\nThe Song Remains The Same<\/i> is a poor example of Led
\nZeppelin’s power on stage… and it has not held up well with
\nage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5700],"rating":[11205],"class_list":["post-35684","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-led-zeppelin","rating-rating-d-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35684"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35684"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}