THE SOUNDTRACK FROM THE FILM - THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME

This review will be a bit common with Zep's recent archive DVD. Unlike their movie The Song Remains The Same, which I thought built a myth; that DVD (what a stooopid name too) is deconstructing the myth that the movie built. 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 filmed fantasy adventures, 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 it was always a bit ambiguous with those filmed fantasies as they were driving the movie forward but also were giving the musicians 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.

Compared to the movie, the many different partial concert film footages of the recent DVD are showing the band often more inspired and less subdued than on TSRTS, but somehow as good as this release is, it somehow destroys unconsciously what TSRTS movie tried to do.

If Zep never was a progressive band per se, they certainly shared similar aspects, among which the fantasy elements present on a good part of their music was plainly obvious. And present on this movie is a good deal of Zep's proggier tracks, which could always make it a good intro to the group. I would recommend finding the movie rather than the soundtrack of the movie, though.