Led Zeppelin – In For A Quick Garden (No Label)

In For A Quick Garden (No Label)

The Song Remains The Same Fan Edition, Three Nights of Concerts At Madison Square Garden In New York City 1973

DVD (137 min) Intro, Rock And Roll, Celebration Day, Black Dog, Over The Hills And Far Away, Misty Mountain Hop, Since I’ve Been Loving You, No Quarter, The Song Remains The Same, The Rain Song, Dazed And Confused, Stairway To Heaven, Moby Dick, Heartbreaker, Whole Lotta Love, The Ocean, End Credits

This new DVD from the No Label folks confirms what most have know for some time, some of the best and most interesting “releases” of collectors material in the market are produced by enterprising and talented people who are actual fans of the music. Their love and passion for their favorite artists are reflected in their craft and many fans will get a recording and clean it up or arrange it to their satisfaction and use it for their own enjoyment. Some go the extra mile and put out something very special, this is what we have here, something special.

Fans of Led Zeppelin are very familiar with The Song Remains The Same, shot over three nights in 1973, released as a movie in 1976 and while the movie has its issues it still remains as the best way to see the band in their prime. The purpose of this fan edit was to present a complete uninterrupted concert using both the official and unofficial footage available. The video sources used on this fan edit are the 2007 restored issue of the movie as well as the bonus disc, the 2003 home video, various 8mm audience footage, and the old First Cuts VHS tape. The audio is mainly sourced from the Kevin Shirley re master of the “complete” concert. All of the above was painstakingly edited for the best possible sync of music to visuals, and while there are glaring chunks of some songs not available in the live setting thanks to the dream sequences, we are treated to some different views of these sequences. Gone is the backstage ass reaming’s from Grant, the shoot em up at the beginning, the high speed car rides to the show…all gone. In its place is the live power of Led Zeppelin.

The visuals fall into the good range, when I first threw this DVD in my blue ray and put it on a 50 inch screen, the quality does not have the pixilation for the larger screen, and rightly so when one considers the use of the lower quality footage, it would have been glaring to have HD footage intertwined with amateur or cutting room floor stock. I settled in a 32 inch screen and it looks great. The audio is the star, since it comes from an official release it is stunning and the sync work is excellent. There is no menu, the DVD starts with the Warner Bros Logo to a shot of Times Square with “the object” in the center, “In for a quick garden” appears at the bottom in Zep style font and live images of the band then right into the concert. The credits from the beginning of the original film are at the end.

The packaging is simple, full color inserts beautifully made up from live shots from the 1973 tour intertwined with official Song Remains The Same graphics and the DVD has a wonderful live shot of the whole group, all house in a single jewel case. This release was intended to be made by fans for the fans and was originally “released” in 2014, it still circulates freely on the Internet and can still be obtained via several torrent sites, all the No Label folks did is to press it to a factory DVD. For those who wish to continue with the original purpose of these fan edits, find it and download it, you will not be disappointed. For those who want to own it on a real DVD, this release is a nice and affordable way to get it. Either way this work is an excellent companion to the official film.