LED ZEPPELIN

I'm not big on collecting music DVD's as my TV has only one audio input jack so I only get half the audio. However, lately I've been expanding my DVD and I couldn't resist nabbing this. The Led Zeppelin DVD contains previously unreleased footage culled from four concerts. The footage was painstakingly repaired and remastered to ensure the the Zeppelin live legacy remained unblemished. The result is some of the greatest footage I've seen from 70s concert videos, and this blowout could stand next to my copy of Dream Theater's Score anyday.

Disc 1 contains LZ's 1970 performance at the Royal Albert Hall and contains such gems as Dazed and Confused in all its glory. You also get to see footage of Bonham's centerpiece Moby Dick. I never really cared for the bloated live versions of this drum solo until I saw him beating the skins and cymbals with his bare hands. That is truly awe-inspiring and God knows how much that had to hurt.

Disc 2 contains the other three concerts from different points in Zep's career. Knebworth is the most interesting to me becauses it showcases how strong the band was right up to the end. I've come to appreciate more of their later material because of the superb renditions of Achilles Last Stand, Sick Again, and Nobody's Fault But Mine.

The extras are nothing to brag about but, like any film, the meat lies within the actaul product. This, coupled with the CD releases BBC Sessions and How the West Was Won have salvaged Zep's live reputaion for younger fans like myself who never gotr to see them and had only the muddy Song Remains the Same to satiate us.

This is an essential concert DVD, but the lack of progginess until the last concert bars it from five stars on this site. Still, you would do well to own this slice of heaven.