https://www.amazon.co.uk/MORE-THAN-FEELING-All-Guide-Exceptional-ebook/dp/B0BGT69MVZ?crid=1RTTPB6MEK9Y7&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.aCLqQD_0x4Xc4Kd7CEKllFnbfqhZ11PdMT_72etNzX9uk4_p_dYzE7ix7BD2qIIrl8-pAv90HElKfIB-_ZesIaS7TKJ-pDCFTgEP2k9aFX6a08GeBKgOKqyKHE6gcf0WacJEY4AKfVHlvo1EyZXb-psq6hf7c8WNvfvSSQUcNdP73WQfDavTWOHn5u81XeWCHJ47XMXWJqovt2Cx2c7BHgnvhCDYy23xFnpilpsAe90.T6uf-EhIxX_KJ8LfLu5E7Pk739m39vwP0A9sw0LfGno&dib_tag=se&keywords=more+than+a+feeling+mark&qid=1717663975&sprefix=more+than+a+feeling+mark%2Caps%2C78&sr=8-4&linkCode=ll1&tag=mabasreofcdbl-21&linkId=02abe7807076077061be2311e2d581b1&language=en_GB&ref_=as_li_ss_tl
I'm gonna put a spanner in the works here and say that for me anyway (especially at the time), both 1976's single studio album "Presence" and the ludicrous indulgence of the film "The Song Remains The Same" were two nails in a very unwilling coffin. I thought the first piss-poor and the second - supposedly a representation of my most rave Rock Band in the world in their natural live habitat - a huge disappointment and frankly pretentious to the point of walk out (many of us did as I recall).
Like most Zeppelites of my age, I worshipped at the altar of all things Led. But for me, the unbelievable run of genius from "Led Zeppelin" in January 1969 to the legendary twofer "Physical Graffiti" in February 1975, stopped abruptly in 1976, first with the obvious mediocrity of "Presence" only to be compounded by "The Song Remains..." film and its underwhelming vinyl companion.
To that - I was 18 on the day of US release, Tuesday, 28 September 1976 (we would have to wait until late October in Ireland and England) and just so invested in them. But crappy sound at a mega arena and using concerts that were three years old (the end of a US tour) which featured zilch from the mighty Graffiti - wasn’t my idea of magic or brilliance. Coming after the truly lacklustre "Presence" with its garish and pointless Hipgnosis artwork – it was all too much.
But here’s the rub - having vented all that personal horror and disappointment of old – bizarrely I cannot get enough of the Extended Edition of "The Song Remains The Same" because of its new inclusions - six genuinely fantastic bonus tracks slotted into the play list rather than just tagged on at the end. They have turned Song into an entirely different beast of live burden. As well as that, the Remaster upgrade by JOHN DAVIS on the latest 2018 variant – the man who made the Mothership Remasters of 2009 sound so utterly stunning – has taken a pig's ear and whipped it into a proper peacock strutter. Let's get bare chested and shake it on down...to the details...
1. Rock And Roll
2. Celebration Day
3. Black Dog (featuring a portion of "Bring It On Home") *
4. Over The Hills And Far Away *
5. Misty Mountain Hop *
6. Since I've Been Loving You *
7. No Quarter
8. The Song Remains The Same
9. The Rain Song
10. The Ocean *
1. Dazed And Confused
2. Stairway To Heaven
3. Moby Dick
4. Heartbreaker *
5. Whole Lotta Love
Tracks 1, 2, 8 and 9 on CD1 were the original Side 1
Track 1 on CD2 (nearly 27 minutes) was the original Side 2
Tracks 7 on CD1 and 2 on CD2 were the original Side 3
Tracks 3 and 5 on CD2 were the original Side 4
* Previously Unreleased; first issued November 2007, same placing for the September 2018 re-release
The 6-panel card-sleeve for this 2018 Reissue that repro's the look and feel of the original vinyl double (mottled sleeve, raised lettering etc) is beautifully done and the 24-page booklet the same - all those colour photos and stills from the fantasy sequences in the movie. American Filmmaker CAMERON CROWE and Director/Writer helmsman of the hugely underrated "Roadies" TV Series (a massive Zep fan who has used their music in many of his films) does the gushing gussets liner notes that include reminiscences from Plant and Page too.
The opening double salvo of running IV's "Rock And Roll" into III's "Celebration Day" kicks things off well although I never really liked it. But then you're hit with a stunning double of IV's "Black Dog" and "Over The Hills And Far Away" from "Houses Of The Holy" and suddenly this is the gig I wanted to hear let alone see. Page's playing in both is fantastic and when that Rock punch kicks in for "Hills" - it's so good. It astonishes too just how these songs seem to have always been there. Next up is another IV fave - the Side 2 opener "Misty Mountain Hop" introducing Jones on keyboards whilst allowing Plant to sing his guts out. What a front man he was as he sang "...really don't know what time it was..." There is a swagger and swing to Zeppelin here that is thrilling and felt absent to me when I first bought the platter in 1976.
And again another peach, the slow Blues from Side 1 of III that is "Since I've Been Loving You" - and again you're left wondering why this winner was left off the original - another string to their bow. Plant's echoed 'drag drag drag' vocals are fantastic but it's Page's show - his playing on fire as the canvas allows him to slow-fast and back again for eight and half minutes of what is essentially one long solo. There is great Bass and play between Bonham too. We now return to one that actually appeared on the original, House's "No Quarter" stretched into 10:38 minutes of swirling keyboard from John Paul Jones and was one of the occasions where the live reinterpret outdoes the studio cut.
To sum up – this reissue is a triumph – turning an initial disappointment into a viable goer for the 00's. You probably could and should argue that if official live Zep is yer crave, then the far better thought-out triple-live-CD set "How The West Was Won" from 2003 is better - showing the power and the subtlety of the band in full flight with real aplomb and blistering audio – Rock and Acoustic sides too.
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