The Song Remains the Same (film)
| The Song Remains the Same | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by |
Peter Clifton Joe Massot |
| Starring |
John Bonham John Paul Jones Jimmy Page Robert Plant |
| Music by | Led Zeppelin |
| Cinematography | Ernest Day |
| Edited by | Humphrey Dixon |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Release date
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Running time
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137 minutes |
| Language | English |
The Song Remains the Same is a concert film featuring the English rock band Led Zeppelin. The filming took place during the summer of 1973, during three nights of concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York City, with additional footage shot at Shepperton Studios. The film premiered three years later on 20 October 1976 at Cinema I in New York, on 22 October 1976 at Fox Wilshire in Los Angeles, and at Warner West End Cinema in London two weeks later. It was accompanied by a soundtrack album of the same name. The DVD of the film was released on 31 December 1999.
Promotional materials stated that the film was "the band's special way of giving their millions of friends what they had been clamouring for – a personal and private tour of Led Zeppelin. For the first time the world has a front row seat on Led Zeppelin."
A reissue of the film, including previously unreleased footage as a bonus, was released on DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray Disc on 20 November 2007, by Warner Home Video.
Since late 1969, Led Zeppelin had been planning on filming one of their live performances for a projected movie documentary of the band. The group's manager, Peter Grant, believed that they would be better served by the big screen than by television, because he regarded the sound quality of the latter as unsatisfactory. The first attempt was the filming (by Peter Whitehead and Stanley Dorfman) of Led Zeppelin's Royal Albert Hall performance on 9 January 1970, but the lighting was judged to be mediocre, and the film was shelved (this footage was later remastered and featured on the 2003 release Led Zeppelin DVD).
On the morning of 20 July 1973, during the band's concert tour of the United States, Peter Grant made a contact with American-born director Joe Massot. Massot was already known to Grant as he and his wife had moved into a house in Berkshire in 1970, where they made friends with their neighbours, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and his girlfriend Charlotte Martin. Grant had previously turned down offers by Massot to make a film of the band, but with the huge success of the band's current tour, Grant changed his mind and offered him the job of director. As Grant recalled:
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