With very few obscure music genres maybe notwithstanding, music sounds best when you can experience it live. Watching a concert from a DVD, or listening to a live album, rarely matches that magical feeling of being in the audience when a band is firing on all cylinders on stage. There are a few live recordings, however, that really make you wish you could have been there. In 1976, LED ZEPPELIN released a concert film under the title “The Song Remains the Same,” and the concert, filmed during a three-night stint at Madison Square Garden in 1973, was also released as a live album on October 22nd, 1976. The film, as well as the music album, was stitched together from these three shows in part because the band was partying too hard to nail it every night. I’m not going to comment too much on the film, because… well, time hasn’t maybe treated it particularly well, what with all those weird cutscenes showing the band cosplaying Lord of the Rings. The film was savaged by the critics at the time, and you cannot really blame them. Some of these live renditions of the band’s classic songs still kick ass, though. One particular song actually worked much better on this live album than the studio version of it. Sure, the band sounded a bit haggard here and there (too many magic potions, I presume) – vocalist Robert Plant wasn’t even attempting to reach all of those high notes, for instance – but still, the best moments showcase a flamboyant and over-the-top rock band at their most kick-ass. In 2007, the soundtrack / live album was reissued with some additional tracks that weren’t included in the original release. The CD I have is the older one, though, so this review covers that original tracklist, not the reissue. I used to have this album in vinyl format as well, back in the day, so that’s why this particular tracklist has become the one and only song order for me. Sorry, not sorry. Given how the film and its soundtrack were stitched together, it’s pointless to try to figure out the flow of the songs in the actual concert; the only viable way to approach this album is song by song. So, here goes…
The first vinyl side featured a foursome of songs: “Rock and Roll,” “Celebration Day,” “The Song Remains the Same,” and “The Rain Song.” Right from the get-go, Plant‘s frayed vocals become quite evident in the opener, but his flamboyant style is still the driving force of the band’s appeal, no doubt – it is even more evident in the concert film. Among these four songs, “The Rain Song” remains one of my favorites from the band – yes, this live version of it, especially. I guess one of the reasons why my old vinyl print of this album got totally worn out was that there were a couple of songs that I used to put on repeat – “The Rain Song” and “No Quarter.” In the vinyl era, the repeat function was a bit of a struggle in and of itself. If you know, you know… Perhaps the band’s haggard state explains why this smoother epic stands out: the song is easy enough to play even with yesternight’s whiskey still throbbing in your head.
The second vinyl side was dedicated entirely to a nearly half-hour-long version of “Dazed and Confused.” This version is not too bad, but in all honesty, it needs to be said that a slightly shorter version could have done the job just as well. I mean, for those at Madison Square Garden, this gargantuan version must have felt like a volcano erupting, but the feeling kinda gets lost in the song’s extended length when you listen to it from a recording. The band’s execution is pretty tight all the way through, but the song isn’t necessarily the best candidate in the LED ZEPPELIN songbook for being stretched-out like this. It’s a nice psychedelic blues song with some deliciously heavy parts, but it’s not exactly prog.
By the time I found this album in some shady second-hand store in my early twenties, I had already overplayed “Stairway to Heaven” to the point that I couldn’t stand listening to it anymore. “No Quarter,” on the other hand, had become my number one favorite in the band’s discography. These two epic tracks filled the third vinyl side entirely. The studio version of “No Quarter” runs for something like 7 minutes on “Houses of the Holy” (1973), whereas this live version is over 12 minutes long, but in this case, this long-form approach does justice to the song’s inherently progressive nature. This live version also showcases John Paul Jones‘ amazing musicianship: his Rhodes playing elevates the song to a league of its own. When I first heard this live rendition of the song some 30 years ago, I instantly dubbed it the definitive version of “No Quarter.” Yes, it is not only better than the studio version, but it has also remained better than any cover renditions of the song to this day. Yeah, sorry, TOOL, your live version was pretty good, but it still was no match for this beast right here.
The last vinyl side featured just two songs – “Moby Dick” and “Whole Lotta Love.” Well, I’m not sure if there is a polite way to say this, but I doubt the world really needed a 12-minute version of the first, not to mention a 14-minute version of the latter. Not in 1976, and much less now. I don’t think I ever listened to this vinyl side again after the first spin. John Bonham‘s long drum solo in “Moby Dick” has very little replay value, to be honest, and the iconic riff in “Whole Lotta Love” sounds a bit sloppy here, for some reason (booze?). The contrast between “Whole Lotta Love” and songs like “No Quarter” and “The Rain Song” is baffling. If I were to say something nice about these last two songs, well, this album gave an honest picture of what LED ZEPPELIN sounded like on a relatively good night in 1973 – bombastic, loud, and over-the-top, mostly in all the right ways. Since the band played “Since I’ve Been Loving You” during that three-night extravaganza, and the live version of this song is on that 2007 reissue, it could have replaced either of these last two songs in the original release. Just saying…
Even though every single performance in this live recording did not necessarily capture the band at its absolute best, the brightest moments did (and still do) a marvellous job of demonstrating where the band’s magical legacy came from. The band members themselves have since expressed that they aren’t exactly fond of this recording, but even with its blemishes, it is a must-have in your record collection as an honest document of the band’s imperial era, as they say. Plus, the live version of “No Quarter” alone is worth the price of the album, in my books.
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Tracklist
- Rock and Roll
- Celebration Day
- The Song Remains the Same
- Rain Song
- Dazed and Confused
- No Quarter
- Stairway to Heaven
- Moby Dick
- Whole Lotta Love
Lineup
Robert Plant – vocals
Jimmy Page – guitars, backing vocals, Theremin
John Paul Jones – bass, Rhodes, Mellotron
John Bonham – drums
Label
Swan Song
