Led Zeppelin DVD

A Garden Tapes special feature
by Eddie Edwards

The Garden Tapes » Led Zeppelin DVD » Madison Square Garden 1973 » Since I've Been Loving You


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Madison Square Garden 1973
Since I've Been Loving You

Apart from the very dodgy editing, the version of Since I've Been Loving You in The Song Remains The Same is absolutely superb. Nobody could have complained too much if DVD had featured the same sequence of parts with improved editing. But no, Pagey went out of his way to give us something quite different. Most of this version is once again from the 27th and 29th but different passages have been used and we even get a little taste of the 28th for good measure!

In total, there are eight sections sewn together. Timings are different on NTSC and PAL formats but only by about a second, so I've listed just the NTSC times for simplicity:

  1. (0:10:22-0:11:43) The segue from Misty Mountain Hop is a genuine one from the 27th. The first part of Since I've Been Loving You is instantly recognisable as being the same as in The Song Remains The Same but, instead of cutting away to the 29th after just half a minute, we stay with the 27th until the end of the opening guitar solo.
  2. (0:11:43-0:15:32) As Robert enters, we switch to the 29th, the opposite of the Song Remains version which switches from the 29th to the 27th at almost exactly the same moment! We stay with the 29th for quite some time, until the end of the central guitar solo. There's one alteration to the vocals, at 0:13:59, where "I'm about to lose" has been replaced by the same words from the 27th.
  3. (0:15:32-0:15:37) As the instrumental ends and Robert takes over, we head back to the 27th. This interlude section is constructed almost identically to the way it was done for Song Remains. However, in that earlier production, the word "crying" was replaced with a studio overdub. Here in DVD, the slightly croaky word from the original live performance has been allowed to remain in place.
  4. (0:15:37-0:15:40) As in Song Remains, three seconds from the 29th, where Bonzo rolls on the hi-hats and Robert sings, "Oh-oh, yeah".
  5. (0:15:40-0:15:55) Once again we follow the Song Remains path, heading back to the 27th for the remainder of the interlude.
  6. (0:15:55-0:16:21) The band crash back in and we pay a brief, 26-second visit to the 28th for the four bars that lead up to the third verse. This is the only section of Since I've Been Loving You from the 28th that was used either for The Song Remains The Same or for DVD.
  7. (0:16:21-0:17:25) As the third verse begins, we're back with the 29th. Some of this section matches Song Remains and some of it is different.
  8. (0:17:25-0:18:25) After "Don't let me lose my worried mind" near the end of the third verse, we make a final jump back to the 27th. This closing section is the same as Song Remains.

The edit between sections 7 and 8 is cunningly executed, the vocal track remaining with the 29th for a few moments after the rest of the band have been switched to the 27th. Manipulating the tracks individually would have been straightforward enough with the technology available and I dare say some of the other edits were smoothed out in a similar way.

A vastly more professional splicing job than the one in The Song Remains The Same. There are still some major anomalies with the matching of the visuals to the music, but I don't intend to get into that!

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