Once Upon a Time in the Top Spot: Led Zeppelin, The Song Remains the Same
38 years ago today, one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time topped the Billboard Top 200 with the soundtrack to one of the definitive rock ‘n’ roll concert films of all time. Yeah, that’s right, we used “of all time” twice in the same sentence, but what can you do? It’s the sort of thing that happens when you’re talking about Led Zeppelin.
Released in 1976, the performances on The Song Remains the Same were taken from a trio of performances by the band at Madison Square Garden which took place on July 27, 28, and 29 in 1973, and the resulting collection is one which the fans have long enjoyed. The gentlemen who were actually responsible for the performances, however, have never been quite as enthusiastic about it…or at least the one who plays guitar isn’t, anyway.
In Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, Jimmy Page can be found admitting that “it wasn’t necessarily the best live stuff we have,” and in the liner notes for the band’s Complete Studio Recordings collection, Page explained to Cameron Crowe a bit more about his feelings toward the material. “As far as Led Zeppelin's studio recordings went, every single one of them has a certain ambiance, certain atmospherics that made them special,” said Page. “When it came to the live shows, we were always trying to move things forward and we certainly weren't happy leaving them as they were. The songs were always in a state of change. On Song Remains the Same you can hear the urgency and not much else.”
Then again, Page can’t help but be a little close to the material, which might color his opinion a bit. That’s not to say that he’s completely wrong – you only need listen to the band’s BBC sessions or their How the West Was Won collection to really hear Led Zeppelin kick ass live. But The Song Remains the Same captures the band as they were at that particular time and place, and while it may or may not be at a time and place when they were at their best, it’s still who they were and what they sounded like at that moment…and they still sound pretty damned good to us.
