''The Song Remains the Same'' is the live soundtrack album of the concert film of the same name by the English rock band

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...

. The soundtrack was recorded 27–29 July 1973 and released on 28 September 1976 on Swan Song Records.

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 North American tour. All songs were recorded by

Eddie Kramer Edwin H. Kramer (born 19 April 1942) is a British recording producer and engineer. He has collaborated with several artists now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, including Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin ...

using the

Wally Heider Wally Heider (''né'' Wallace Beck Heider; 20 May 1922 Sheridan, Oregon – 22 March 1989) was an American recording engineer and recording studio owner who refined and advanced the art of studio and remote recording and was instrumental in recor ...

Mobile Studio truck, and later mixed at

Electric Lady Studios Electric Lady Studios is a recording studio in Greenwich Village, New York City. It was commissioned by rock musician Jimi Hendrix in 1968 and designed by architect John Storyk and audio engineer Eddie Kramer by 1970. Hendrix spent only ten we ...

in New York and

Trident Studios Trident Studios was a British recording facility, located at 17 St Anne's Court in London's Soho district between 1968 and 1981. It was constructed in 1967 by Norman Sheffield, drummer of the 1960s group the Hunters, and his brother Barry. ...

in London. The sleeve design depicts a dilapidated movie house on

Old Street Old Street is a street in inner north-east Central London that runs west to east from Goswell Road in Clerkenwell, in the London Borough of Islington, via St Luke's and Old Street Roundabout, to the crossroads where it meets Shoreditch High ...

film studios in London, where the group rehearsed for their 1973 tour. Until the album and the film were remastered and re-released in 2007, they featured slightly different track lists: *The soundtrack album included " Celebration Day", which did not appear in the film. The album did not include several songs featured in the film, including " Black Dog", "

Since I've Been Loving You "Since I've Been Loving You" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released in 1970 on the album ''Led Zeppelin III''. Overview "Since I've Been Loving You" was one of the first songs prepared for the ''Led Zeppelin III'' album. The s ...

", " Heartbreaker", the instrumental "

Bron-Yr-Aur Bron-Yr-Aur (Welsh for "breast of the gold", or by extension, "hill of the gold" or "golden hill"; ) is a privately owned 18th-century cottage, on the outskirts of Machynlleth, in Montgomeryshire, mid-Wales, best known for its association with ...

" (which appeared on '' Physical Graffiti''), and a

hurdy-gurdy The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a vi ...

piece called "Autumn Lake". In addition, some of the recordings featured on the album were of different performances from those in the film. Some tracks recorded at Madison Square Garden were omitted from both the film and the soundtrack album: " Over the Hills and Far Away", "

Misty Mountain Hop "Misty Mountain Hop" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin, released in 1971 by Atlantic Records. The song appears on the band's untitled fourth album, and was released as the B-side to the single " Black Dog" and performed in most of the ...

", " The Ocean", and "

Thank You "''Thank you''" (often expanded to ''thank you very much'' or ''thanks a lot'', or informally abbreviated to ''thanks'' or alternately as ''many thanks''Geoffrey Leech, ''The Pragmatics of Politeness'' (2014), p. 200.) is a common expression of ...

2007 reissue

The surviving band members oversaw the remixing and remastering of the original release, and ''The Song Remains the Same'' soundtrack album was reissued on CD on 20 November 2007. This coincided with the re-issue of the film, released on HD-DVD, Blu-ray and DVD. The new version of the soundtrack included six songs that were not on the original album release: " Black Dog", " Over the Hills and Far Away", "

", "

", " The Ocean" and " Heartbreaker", plus new liner notes by Cameron Crowe. With the 2007 re-release of both the album and film, the songs were synchronised so that the full set-list from the concerts was available on both, with each song mixed the same way.

Kevin Shirley Kevin Shirley (born 29 June 1960), also known as The Caveman, is a South African music producer, engineer and mixer for many artists,Spencer et al, (2007Shirley, Kevinentry. Retrieved 4 February 2010. such as the bands Journey, Iron Maiden, ...

, who worked on '' How The West Was Won'', was involved in the mixing. Due to legal complications, the band decided not to change the video portion of the original movie for the re-release.Liner notes by

Cameron Crowe Cameron Bruce Crowe (born July 13, 1957) is an American journalist, author, writer, producer, director, actor, lyricist, and playwright. Before moving into the film industry, Crowe was a contributing editor at '' Rolling Stone'' magazine, for w ...

for ''The Song Remains the Same'', reissued version, 2007. 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 was nearly identical to the soundtrack of the new DVD release. One difference was that the songs included on the CDs that were not featured in the original movie were included as bonus tracks on the DVD. The audio mixes also differed from those found on the 2003 ''

Led Zeppelin DVD ''Led Zeppelin DVD'' is a double DVD set by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released in the United Kingdom on 26 May 2003, and the United States on 27 May 2003. It contains live concert footage of the band spanning the years 1969 to 1979. The D ...

''. The most obvious example is that "Black Dog" was two minutes longer on the 2003 DVD than on the 2007 releases, two of the four verses being cut from the song. On 29 July 2008, a four-LP edition of the 2007 re-issue, on 180 gram audiophile vinyl, was released. It was presented in a deluxe archival two-piece box with foil-stamping. It includes a 12-page oversized full-color booklet with dozens of previously unpublished stills from the film, as well as four individual jackets with new and unique artwork. A special white vinyl edition was also printed in very limited numbers. Just 200 were produced, with only 100 being made available to the public from Led Zeppelin's official website.

2018 reissue

On 7 September 2018, a newly remastered edition of ''The Song Remains the Same'' was issued in multiple formats, including a multi-disc, super deluxe boxed set, Blu-ray audio with a hi-resolution stereo and new 5.1 surround mix, 180-gram vinyl, CD, streaming and downloads, including 24-bit/96k hi-res audio files for the first time. This is based on the 2007 version of the soundtrack album and concludes the campaign of reissues of their live albums and deluxe editions of their studio albums that started in 2014.

Critical reception

Upon its initial release in 1976, the album received some mixed reviews, with a number of critics considering it to be over-produced and lumbering.Chris Welch (1994) ''Led Zeppelin'', London: Orion Books. , p. 68. Indeed, the band's members themselves have since expressed a lack of fondness for the recording. Page has admitted that the end product was not the best representation of Led Zeppelin as a live band.Dave Lewis and Simon Pallett (1997) ''Led Zeppelin: The Concert File'', London: Omnibus Press. , p. 116.Liner notes by

for '' The Complete Studio Recordings''. In contrast, the 2007 reissued version received generally much more positive reviews. In a review published in '' Mojo'' magazine in December 2007 James McNair gave the album four out of five stars,McNair, James, "Vanity Fair!", ''

Mojo magazine ''Mojo'' is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom, initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer. Following the success of the magazine '' Q'', publishers Emap were looking for a title that would cater for the bur ...

'', December 2007, p. 83. as did David Cavanagh in ''

Uncut Uncut may refer to: * ''Uncut'' (film), a 1997 Canadian docudrama film by John Greyson about censorship * ''Uncut'' (magazine), a monthly British magazine with a focus on music, which began publishing in May 1997 * '' BET: Uncut'', a Black Enter ...

'' magazine, who wrote:

Track listing

Original release

2007 reissue

*Track 3 features " Bring It On Home" intro Notes * (*) Not on original soundtrack release * (#) Shorter than the original soundtrack release * (+) Longer than the original soundtrack release

Personnel

Led Zeppelin * Robert Plant – vocals * Jimmy Page – guitars,

Theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...

John Paul Jones John Paul Jones (born John Paul; July 6, 1747 July 18, 1792) was a Scottish-American naval captain who was the United States' first well-known naval commander in the American Revolutionary War. He made many friends among U.S political elites ( ...

– bass guitar, Fender Rhodes, Mellotron *

John Bonham John Henry Bonham (31 May 1948 – 25 September 1980) was an English musician, best known as the drummer for the rock band Led Zeppelin. Esteemed for his speed, power, fast single-footed kick drumming, distinctive sound, and feel for groove ...

– drums, percussion, backing vocals Production *Barry Diament – mastering (original Compact Disc release) * Peter Grant – executive producer *

–

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

, mixing * Bob Ludwig – remastering (2007 edition) *Jimmy Page – production *

– remixing (2007 edition) Packaging *

– liner notes * George Hardie – record sleeve *

Hipgnosis Hipgnosis were an English art design group based in London, that specialised in creating album cover artwork for rock musicians and bands. Their commissions included work for Pink Floyd, T. Rex, the Pretty Things, Black Sabbath, UFO, 10c ...

– record sleeve

Charts

Certifications

References

External links

*
The Garden Tapes
nbsp;– a study of sources of the live material and the edits for release on this album. {{DEFAULTSORT:Song Remains The Same, The Albums produced by Jimmy Page Albums with cover art by Hipgnosis Led Zeppelin live albums 1976 live albums 1976 soundtrack albums Concert film soundtracks Swan Song Records live albums Swan Song Records soundtracks Albums recorded at Madison Square Garden Albums recorded at Trident Studios Albums recorded at Electric Lady Studios Hard rock soundtracks Heavy metal soundtracks