Original subtitles

- My name is Cameron Crowe.

I'm a contributing editor and interviewer for "Rolling Stone" magazine

and it's my job to listen to and write about all kinds of music.

Over the past few years,

one band I've written quite a bit about has been Led Zeppelin,

not just because they're the single most popular band in existence,

but because at what they do, they are the masters.

♪ (Rock And Roll)

♪ Ooh, yeah

♪ It's been a long time since I rock and rolled

♪ It's been a long time since I did the stroll

♪ Ooh, baby, let me get back, let me get back

♪ Let me get back, baby, where I come from ♪

Led Zeppelin - Jimmy Page, Robert Plant,

John Paul Jones and John Bonham -

are a rock'n'roll institution.

Their seven albums are all platinum,

meaning well over a million copies have been sold of each one.

The guitarist and leader, Jimmy Page,

once told me that he stopped thinking about their amazing popularity long ago.

"It's too unbelievable," he said.

"I don't even wanna know. I'm much better off just playing the music."

♪ Open your arms, open your arms

♪ Open your arms

♪ Baby, let my love come running in

♪ It's been a long time, been a long time

♪ A lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely ♪

As easy as it might've been to coast on record success alone,

Zeppelin has never turned their backs on performing live.

It's questionable whether their fans would let them.

Because, in concert, Led Zeppelin has an indisputable reputation

for rock'n'roll driven to its most exciting peaks.

It's no wonder that tickets to their appearances

usually disappear months before the show is even announced.

The extreme effort it takes to be one of those lucky few with tickets,

has been as frustrating to the band as it has been to their following.

So, to satisfy a desire they've held for quite a long time,

Led Zeppelin has made a feature film starring themselves.

It's called "The Song Remains The Same".

♪ I had a dream

♪ Oh, now

♪ Crazy dream

♪ Oh-oh

♪ Anything ♪ wanted to know

♪ Any place ♪ needed to go

♪ Hear my song

♪ People, won't you listen now

♪ And sing along, yeah

♪ You don't know what you're missing now

♪ Any little song that you know

♪ Everything that's small has to grow

♪ And it always grows!

♪ Push, push, yeah

Ohhh

But it's much more than just a film of a concert.

"The Song Remains The Same" is a look at the entire phenomenon.

The harsh awakening of having to leave home life behind for the road,

the backstage dramas, the onstage fantasies,

the anticlimax of being shoved into a silent limousine

just seconds after leaving 20,000 screaming fans.

It's a musician's life

and it's been written about in song and in books,

but rarely has the complete picture been portrayed so vividly on film.

Each of the band members even takes the opportunity

to bring their offstage lives to the screen,

in the form of four intimate sequences

filmed at their homes around Europe.

Never has Led Zeppelin let anyone this close for a glimpse,

and "The Song Remains The Same"

is not only a classic Zeppelin concert seen from the second row,

but it's a fascinating education too.

"There's so much more to see," says Jimmy Page,

"than you might think." And he's right.

♪ Come on, come on, come on, come on!

♪ Do it, do it, do it, do it!

♪ Push

♪ Push, push ♪

Led Zeppelin, for all of their basic rock'n'roll energy,

are a quartet of musician's musicians.

They grew out of one of rock's most important and formative bands,

The Yardbirds.

The Yardbirds, at one time or another,

has as its members such premier guitarists as Jeff Beck,

Eric Clapton, and, of course, Jimmy Page.

♪ (The Kinks: You Really Got Me)

When the group fell apart in 1968,

Page was free to form a band of his own, and everyone was watching.

In his pre-Yardbirds days,

Page had been the leading session guitarist

for most bands in England.

Mostly uncredited, he was the guitarist

on everything from Burt Bacharach singles

to Them's "Gloria" and The Kinks' "You Really Got Me".

♪ Oh, yeah, you really got me now

♪ You got me so I can't sleep at night

♪ You really got me

♪ You really got me

♪ You really got me ♪

In forming Zeppelin, Page turned first to Robert Plant.

Plant was then the lead singer

in a raucous group from Birmingham, England,

called The Band Of Joy.

His voice, recalls Page, was too great to be undiscovered.

♪ (Communication Breakdown)

♪ Hey, girl, stop what you're doin'

♪ Hey, girl, you'll drive me to ruin

♪ I don't know what it is I like about you but I like your love

♪ Won't you let me hold you, let me feel your lovin' charms

♪ Communication breakdown ♪

"All I had to do from there was find a bassist and a drummer.

"The drummer came easily enough. Plant suggested John Bonham,

"the drummer he'd worked with in The Band Of Joy."

A classified ad in the British music journal "Melody Maker"

drew the last of the quartet.

Bassist and keyboard player, John Paul Jones.

By all accounts, Led Zeppelin's first rehearsal

was nothing short of magic.

Says Plant, "We found out in our first hour-and-a-half of playing

"that we had our own identity."

♪ I'm never gonna let you go

♪ Cos I like your charms

♪ Communication breakdown

♪ It's always the same

♪ Having a nervous breakdown

♪ Drive me insane

♪ Oh, sock it ♪

Their first album was made in just three weeks,

and it was an immediate breakthrough hit just as quickly.

It was blistering, double-fisted rock'n'roll

but with a virtuoso's touch.

Even gentler, acoustic music had its place in the band's repertoire.

♪ Black Mountain Side ♪

Their second album, "Led Zeppelin ll", made it official.

The band was a certified supergroup,

touring the country and astounding audiences with their onstage energy.

Their first single, "Whole Lotta Love", shot to number one.

In "The Song Remains The Same", it is their powerhouse encore.

(Cheering)

♪ (Whole Lotta Love)

♪ You need coolin'

♪ Woman, I ain't foolin'

♪ I'm gonna send you

♪ Back to schoolin'

♪ Way down inside

♪ Woman, you need love

♪ I'm gonna give you my love

♪ Gonna give you my love

JOh

♪ Wanna whole lotta love

♪ Wanna whole lotta love

♪ Wanna whole lotta love

♪ Wanna whole lotta love ♪

"I've been a very, very fortunate man,"

said Page at the time of their next album, "Led Zeppelin lll",

"because it appears that people like to hear the music that I like to play.

"How much more fortunate can a musician be?" Page asked.

"I just hope people will grow with us,

"because we're always changing."

And Led Zeppelin were changing.

Their music began to show sophisticated influences

from folk to Indian to even ragtime,

but there was always a powerful base that the band never strayed from.

♪ Immigrant Song ♪

♪ Ah-ah-ah-ah

♪ Ah-ah-ah-ah

♪ We come from the land of the ice and snow

♪ From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow

♪ Hammer of the gods

♪ Will drive our ships to new lands

♪ To fight the horde, singing and crying

♪ Valhalla, I am coming ♪

It would take Led Zeppelin another two years

to complete their fourth album

but it was a wait most of their followers forgot when they finally heard the album.

In many ways, it was an absolute crystallisation

of everything they'd attempted on record.

There was first-rate rock in the grand Zeppelin tradition,

but there was also a timeless piece that will remain Led Zeppelin's staple

for many, many years to come.

The song - "Stairway To Heaven".

♪ There's a lady who's sure

♪ All that glitters is gold

♪ And she's buying a stairway to heaven

♪ And when she gets there she knows

♪ If the stores are all closed

♪ With a word she can get what she came for ♪

There have been three more Zeppelin albums since then.

"Houses Of The Holy", "Physical Graffiti" and "Presence",

all of them accomplished and hugely popular works.

Page, who writes the music, has fond recollections of all of them,

but understandably, he still reserves his warmest memories

for "Stairway To Heaven".

"It was a milestone," he said on tour last year.

"Every musician wants to do something of lasting quality,

"something that'll hold up for a long time.

"Townshend and The Who probably feel they got it with "Tommy".

"We reached it with "Stairway",

"and whether Zeppelin can do it again remains to be seen.

"The band does feel confident."

♪ And I think you can see that ♪

The film performance of "Stairway To Heaven"

may well be the most moving moment of "The Song Remains The Same",

but just as riveting is a lengthy, ethereal version

of Page's epic guitar piece, "Dazed And Confused".

♪ (Dazed And Confused)

Watching the film brings several things to mind.

Not only has Zeppelin succeeded

in bringing their music to cinematic life,

they've also managed another milestone

in a career full of peaks.

"The Song Remains The Same" is worth anybody's time.

It's the world's biggest and probably best rock'n'roll band,

on stage and far beyond.

Jimmy Page, Robert Plant,

John Paul Jones and John Bonham can rest assured,

they've done it again with their first film.

This is Cameron Crowe,

and I guess what I've been trying to say is

I like Led Zeppelin.

♪ Ohh! ♪

(Cheering)