Led Zeppelin: Dazed & Confused

What's in "Led Zeppelin: Dazed and Confused" is worthwhile, especially the Peter Grant interviews. It's what's missing that dooms this failure.

It starts off wonderfully, with a decent analysis of the Yardbirds-to-Zeppelin transition, then mostly glosses over the band's history while leaving out the kind of detail that is necessary for this to work. More time is spent on hotel-room destruction -- and, the film's highlight, the myths surrounding that -- than on any particular album nor the details that go into the music that the band created.

Then we get a hugely insufficient roundup of the band members' post-Zep activities, and,voila, we're done.

Any doc on Zep is watchable, but this isn't the one you're looking for.

I believe, to avoid paying licensing fees, the makers of this documentary removed any audio of actual Led Zeppelin songs. There are some interesting interviews and old footage but the background music is horrible. The most surreal moment comes when you're watching footage of Led Zeppelin and the riff for Pink Floyd's "Run Like Hell" starts playing (but it's not actually Pink Floyd either.) There are a few drunk cover band quality clips of Led Zeppelin songs. A very odd viewing experience. There are a number of moments when if feels like you're watching a St. Sanders "Led Zeppelin Shreds" video. A very strange viewing experience.

Poorly produced, much of the same stock footage is used for b-roll, and they obviously were unable to secure many music rights (imitation, karaoke versions of songs are used for soundtrack instead). A few golden nuggets with Peter Grant clips I hadn't seen before, but otherwise you could get the same info from a 10-minute bio read on Allmusic or Wiki.

Good documentary but what's up with the music ? The Zep catalog of music is at your disposal but you choose to use How many more times, Dazed and confused and Kashmir over and over again ?? Don't get me wrong, those are great compositions but how about mixing in some of their other outstanding material. Halfway through watching I was like " please... the Rain Song ? Or Stairway solo live from The song remains the same ?" I don't get it.

Overall, a really insightful look into the band. Always good to hear these anecdotes right from band members. I've been into them for 30+ years now & even I walked away with some new info. The only negative for me- the absence of actual LZ music within. & I get why; $$£. But it would've made it that much better. It was frustrating seeing all this amazing footage of them with generic Zepp riffs playing in the background minus any vocals.

Definitely recommended for any LZ fan, but a great entry level intro for the newbie.