The documentary footage is more normal and not bothersome, unlike the fantasy footage which seemed to me when I first saw it like different members' hallucinations. Led Zeppelin gives puzzlement with The Song Remains the Same by adding footage in between the concert videos of documentary footage and insights into the groups' minds. Whatever happened after this time is a moot point this is how Led Zeppelin should and will be remembered. But in this time, their 1971-1975 period, Led Zeppelin were the biggest band in the world, and their power is captured with brilliant clarity on this film. Post-1975, Led Zeppelin's work became gradually lower in quality and as Punk revolutionised the music scene, they became dinosaurs at the end of the decade. As an audience we are able to see "The Song Remains The Same" for what it is: a timepiece. Led Zeppelin it seems were better live than on record, which would be unheard of today. Watching the band at work you get a distinct feeling that the musicians of today really aren't as proficient as they were twenty or thirty years ago. The way in which Led Zeppelin embrace and play on the Tolkien-like world of mystical fantasy is truly refreshing in these over-stylised days, where musicians are more concerned with the amount of gel in their hair than the music they produce. As the band plays there are more fantasy scenes, the best of which includes Robert Plant as some kind of Arthurian hero. Page's guitar playing belies belief and John Bonham's twenty minute drum solo is awe inspiring. The band run through some of their absolute classics, including 'Whole Lotta Love', 'Stairway to Heaven', 'Heartbreaker' and a massive version of 'Dazed and Confused'. Once Led Zeppelin take the stage at New York's Madison Square Garden, the action really begins. They each receive a letter informing them that they are to tour the next day. We see drummer John Bonham ploughing his fields in a tractor, bassist John Paul Jones reading nursery rhymes to his children, singer Robert Plant playing with his wife and children in an English country lake (the scene resembles the cover of Led Zeppelin's 1973 album 'Houses of the Holy'), while guitarist Jimmy Page is introduced next to a riverside. Each individual band member is introduced. From there the film takes an interesting turn. Who knows, but it certainly makes for an interesting start to the film. Whatever meaning this scene is meant to represent is not clear, however it has been suggested that the faceless mobsters are the British press, who had vilified Led Zeppelin through their entire career. The film opens with an odd gangster-style sequence, where faceless mobsters are mowed down by what would appear to be rival gangsters. While this section of the movie leaves a little to be desired, the concert footage is truly breathtaking, capturing the greatest hard rock band in history at their apogee. "The Song Remains The Same" is essentially a film of a concert, yet thanks to the drug and ego-addled personalities of Led Zeppelin in the mid-1970s, the footage is fleshed out to include weird 'fantasy' sequences involving each of the four band members.
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