Led Zeppelin gives puzzlement with The Song Remains the Same by adding footage in between the concert videos of documentary footage and insights into the groups' minds. The documentary footage is more normal and not bothersome, unlike the fantasy footage which seemed to me when I first saw it like different members' hallucinations. Interesting, maybe, but why intersect with concert footage?

It is in the concert footage the film does it's best, however, by giving Zeppelin fans (and possibly even non-Zeppelin fans) a treat of a motion picture with some of their best played and famous songs- The film's title song (my favorite of the concert), No Quarter (2nd), Stairway to Heaven (still awesome the 100th time you've heard it), Moby Dick (to anybody wanting to learn how to play good rock drumming), Dazed and Confused, extended 20 minutes longer than usual by the way, among others. Rock fans in general should also take a look, or possibly just watch the scenes on DVD that make more sense. My Grade: A-

I'm no dyed-in-the-wool Zep fan, but I've been listening to them a bit lately and decided to watch this concert film with its unusual added features of both fly-on-the-wall footage and highly stylised fantasy sequences, the latter focusing on the individual group members' own flights of fancy.

It starts off oddly with the group's "don't mess with me" manager Peter Grant getting to play out his own imagined scenario, re-enacting a gangland shoot-out of a bunch of ghoulish individuals before we see the group themselves en-route to their Madison Square Garden concert series in New York. There they deliver a heavyweight set of barely ten songs some stretched to almost interminable limits with extended soloing which if you're a committed fan, you'll no doubt love, but if a casual acquaintance like me, find simply interminable.

The individual segments are pretty weird too, usually inserted into the middle of one of the expanded songs, and see bassist Jones chase his wife through a dark forest on horseback wearing a fright mask, singer Plant act out a mediaeval play-let, guitarist Page climb up a never-ending hill to meet a white-shrouded ancient version of himself and drummer Bonham's more down-to-earth depictions of himself downing pints, tending his farm or racing a dragster. Make of these what you will, I personally struggled with them, with none of the four pulling off a "Ringo" between them.

Otherwise there was an obvious mis-match between the actual concert footage itself and studio close-ups filmed later on a sound stage (Jones's changing outfits are a giveaway), with elsewhere lots of flashy camera tricks conjured up to no doubt jazz up proceedings.

As I understand it, the group wasn't entirely happy with their own performances and you can certainly hear Plant for one running his voice in on the early numbers, purposely avoiding the high notes until he's well into the gig. Regarding the music itself, some of it was okay, but I just wanted the never-ending versions of "Dazed and Confused" and "Moby Dick" to just, well, end.

Strange also for the movie to be released three years after the concerts themselves, especially as by that time they'd made two further albums, including my favourite the double album "Physical Graffiti". Anyway, it is what it is, a bloated, over-pretentious movie by the biggest band in the world at the time with only some good musical moments. One thing I did enjoy was seeing the original Madison Square Garden venue in its glory, that and John Paul Jones wearing his mum's hair-do throughout!

"The Song Remains The Same" is essentially a film of a concert, yet thanks to the drug and ego-addled personalities of Led Zeppelin in the mid-1970s, the footage is fleshed out to include weird 'fantasy' sequences involving each of the four band members. While this section of the movie leaves a little to be desired, the concert footage is truly breathtaking, capturing the greatest hard rock band in history at their apogee.

The film opens with an odd gangster-style sequence, where faceless mobsters are mowed down by what would appear to be rival gangsters. Whatever meaning this scene is meant to represent is not clear, however it has been suggested that the faceless mobsters are the British press, who had vilified Led Zeppelin through their entire career. Who knows, but it certainly makes for an interesting start to the film.

From there the film takes an interesting turn. Each individual band member is introduced. We see drummer John Bonham ploughing his fields in a tractor, bassist John Paul Jones reading nursery rhymes to his children, singer Robert Plant playing with his wife and children in an English country lake (the scene resembles the cover of Led Zeppelin's 1973 album 'Houses of the Holy'), while guitarist Jimmy Page is introduced next to a riverside. They each receive a letter informing them that they are to tour the next day.

Once Led Zeppelin take the stage at New York's Madison Square Garden, the action really begins. The band run through some of their absolute classics, including 'Whole Lotta Love', 'Stairway to Heaven', 'Heartbreaker' and a massive version of 'Dazed and Confused'. The quality of musicianship is amazing. Page's guitar playing belies belief and John Bonham's twenty minute drum solo is awe inspiring. As the band plays there are more fantasy scenes, the best of which includes Robert Plant as some kind of Arthurian hero. The way in which Led Zeppelin embrace and play on the Tolkien-like world of mystical fantasy is truly refreshing in these over-stylised days, where musicians are more concerned with the amount of gel in their hair than the music they produce.

Watching the band at work you get a distinct feeling that the musicians of today really aren't as proficient as they were twenty or thirty years ago. Led Zeppelin it seems were better live than on record, which would be unheard of today.

As an audience we are able to see "The Song Remains The Same" for what it is: a timepiece. Post-1975, Led Zeppelin's work became gradually lower in quality and as Punk revolutionised the music scene, they became dinosaurs at the end of the decade. But in this time, their 1971-1975 period, Led Zeppelin were the biggest band in the world, and their power is captured with brilliant clarity on this film. Whatever happened after this time is a moot point; this is how Led Zeppelin should and will be remembered. A must for any serious music fan.