LED ZEPPELIN: NEW YORK & ENGLAND 6 OF 7

LED ZEPPELIN: NEW YORK & ENGLAND PART 6 OF 7

DVD Two, where we open with a 1972 rendition of Led Zeppelin III’s “Immigrant Song”. An odd combination of sources, this one features visuals from an early 1972 show in Sydney while the audio emanates from a summer 1972 performance in Los Angeles. The song rocks and sounds great, but the visual presentation bites. The footage looks crude and cheap, and it’s cut so quickly and abruptly that it just looks like a random mishmash. I’m glad the tune made it just because it works well, but this is one to turn off the TV and just listen to the music alone.

More than two decades after they dissolved as a band, Led Zeppelin remain intensely popular, and this DVD set shows why they earned such a broad and loyal audience. Led Zeppelin presents 30 song performances over its two discs, and these offer an excellent overview of the band’s strengths as well as some of their weaknesses. Mostly the set hits the highs, and it seems like a solid package. Picture quality appears surprisingly positive, and the audio also works quite well despite a defect that affects the Dolby Digital mix on DVD One. In addition, the set offers a smattering of cool supplements. A generous helping of hard-core rock, Led Zeppelin isn’t my favorite music DVD, but it’s one of the best releases in the genre, and it earns my firm recommendation.