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The Song Remains the Same (album)

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The Song Remains the Same is the soundtrack album of the concert film of the same name by the English rock band Led Zeppelin.

Overview

The recording of the album and the film took place during three nights of concerts at New York's Madison Square Garden, during the band's 1973 concert tour of the United States. All songs were recorded by Eddie Kramer using the Wally Heider Mobile Studio truck, and later mixed at Electric Lady Studios in New York and Trident Studios in London.

The album was released on September 28, 1976, by Swan Song Records. The sleeve design depicted a dilapidated movie house based on Old Street film studios in London, used by the group for rehearsals prior to their 1973 tour. Jimmy Page has admitted that the end product was hardly the best representation of Led Zeppelin as a live band:

Obviously we were committed to putting this album out, although it wasn't necessarily the best live stuff we have. I don't look upon it as a live album...it's essentially a soundtrack.[1]

Until both the album and the film were remastered and re-released in 2007, there were significant differences between the two in terms of the songs included on each. These differences were as follows:

Of the songs that both the album and the film had in common, some of the recordings featured on the album were of different performances from those in the film. Other tracks which were recorded, but omitted from both the film and the soundtrack album, included "The Ocean" and "Misty Mountain Hop". A comprehensive study of the sources of the original album and the edits is available at The Garden Tapes.

2007 reissue

The Song Remains The Same soundtrack album was reissued on November 20, 2007, with the surviving band members having overseen the remixing and remastering of the original release. This coincided with the reissue of the film, available on DVD. The new version of the soundtrack includes six songs that were not on the original album release: "Black Dog", "Over the Hills and Far Away", "Misty Mountain Hop", "Since I've Been Loving You", "The Ocean" and "Heartbreaker", plus new liner notes by Cameron Crowe[2]

Thus, with the 2007 re-release of both the album and film, the songs were synchronized so that the full set-list from the concerts is available on both, with each song mixed the same way (with the exceptions of "Bron-Yr-Aur" and "Autumn Lake", both of which continue to be absent from the album).

Jimmy Page has stated:

We have revisited The Song Remains The Same and can now offer the complete set as played at Madison Square Garden. This differs substantially from the original soundtrack released in 1976, and highlights the technical prowess of Kevin Shirley, who worked with us on How The West Was Won[3]

Due to legal complications, the band decided not to change the video portion of the original movie for the rerelease. Instead, Shirley created an entirely new mix of the three 1973 Madison Square Garden concerts so that the audio portion of the film would better match the on-screen visuals. The audio on the new CD release is nearly identical to the soundtrack of the new DVD release. One difference is that the songs included on the CDs that were not featured in the original movie are included as bonus tracks on the DVD.[4]

The audio mixes also differ from those found on the 2003 Led Zeppelin DVD. The most obvious example is that "Black Dog" is two minutes longer on the 2003 DVD than on the 2007 releases.

Track listing

Original release

Side One

  1. "Rock and Roll" (John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant) – 4:03
  2. "Celebration Day" (Jones, Page, Plant) – 3:49
  3. "The Song Remains the Same" (Page, Plant) – 6:00
  4. "Rain Song" (Page, Plant) – 8:25

Side Two

  1. "Dazed and Confused" (Page) – 26:53

Side Three

  1. "No Quarter" (Jones, Page, Plant) – 12:30
  2. "Stairway to Heaven" (Page, Plant) – 10:58

Side Four

  1. "Moby Dick" (Bonham, Jones, Page) – 12:47
  2. "Whole Lotta Love" (Bonham, Willie Dixon, Jones, Page, Plant) – 14:25

2007 reissue

Disc one

  1. "Rock and Roll" – 3:56
  2. "Celebration Day" – 3:37
  3. "Black Dog" (with "Bring It On Home" intro) – 3:46*
  4. "Over the Hills and Far Away" – 6:11*
  5. "Misty Mountain Hop" – 4:43*
  6. "Since I've Been Loving You" – 8:23*
  7. "No Quarter" – 10:38
  8. "The Song Remains the Same" – 5:39
  9. "Rain Song" – 8:20
  10. "The Ocean" – 5:13*

Disc two

  1. "Dazed and Confused" – 29:18
  2. "Stairway to Heaven" – 10:52
  3. "Moby Dick" – 11:02
  4. "Heartbreaker" – 6:19*
  5. "Whole Lotta Love" – 13:51

(* Not on original soundtrack release)

Personnel

Additional personnel

The album was not included in the 1990 George Marino, Jimmy Page remasters series. The album was mixed at Electric Lady Studios, New York.

Charts

Album

Year Chart Position
1976 Billboard Pop Albums (Billboard 200) 2

Certifications

Certifier Certification Sales
RIAA (U.S.) 4x Platinum 4,000,000

See also

  • The Garden Tapes - a study of sources of the live material and the edits for release on this album.

References

  1. ^ Dave Lewis and Simon Pallett (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4, p. 116.
  2. ^ Cameron Crowe writes liner notes.
  3. ^ Page on the re-release
  4. ^ http://www.modernguitars.com/archives/003887.html
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