LED ZEPPELIN

I am not one of those that appreciate this DVD like the other fans, but I will recognize its utility. Unlike their movie The Song Remains The Same, which I thought built a myth; this DVD (what a stooopid name too) is deconstructing the myth. I will spend a good deal of this review comparing the merits of both, but I will always prefer the historical piece to the (however great it may be) archives drawer.

A lot of people complained about the original movie (which I probably saw in second-run theatres around 20 times) and its soundtrack. Among the critics, the fantasies, the muddy sound and the obscure presentation along with the double wax soundtrack not presenting all of the songs on the movie. A good deal of those critics were justified, but TSRTS had the merit to exist and served as the only live testimony officially available for over 20 years (first the BBC sessions than the HTWWW Cds) for the fans. And I was always a bit ambiguous with those filmed fantasies as they were driving the movie forward but also were giving them a cartoon-like cult-hero aura, which I felt uncomfortable with. But overall, TSRTS was building something, a myth, a fantasy world, even if the inter-song footage could be brutal.

On with this DVD. Filled with superb archives material from all eras of their career, from their obscure and early TV showings (Swedish and French TVs if memory serves >> I am winging this review as with all my Zep reviews) and the many different partial concert film footages showing the band often more inspired and less subdued than on TSRTS, but somehow as good as this release is, it somehow destroys what that movie tried to do. It seems to be talking away the foursome's demi-god status and bring them all back down to earth. Which is of course a good thing, since I generally do not appreciate the overdone or recycled stories gradually transformed into myths. But this mythic group became so in 71 with their fourth album, so that very notion of myth did seem deserved for them.

So myth or no myth? I think the decision is yours and it is of course not forbidden to have both of them. But I think the movie is more essential.