In the summer of my 15th year, I worked as a camp counselor. My fellow counselors and I spent our lunch breaks engaged in two great debates of the era: What is the best way to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? (More jelly than peanut butter, obviously, and always spread on opposite slices of bread.) And which Led Zeppelin album was the greatest?
The second question was considerably more contentious. I was born in 1976, the year Led Zeppelin released “The Song Remains the Same,” their legendary live album and concert film recorded over three nights at Madison Square Garden in 1973. Fifty years later, this monumental document of rock ‘n’ roll history is coming roaring back to life at the Chocolate Church Arts Center.
On Nov. 6 (two days after my 50th!) at 7:30 p.m., Lez Zeppelin, the internationally acclaimed, all-female Led Zeppelin tribute band, will perform “The Song Remains the Same” in its entirety.
And here’s the kicker: Lez Zeppelin is the only Led Zeppelin tribute band to have received the personal endorsement of Jimmy Page himself. After attending their London performance in 2013, Page praised the group’s “extraordinary sensuality” and the “energy and passion” of their musicianship. That’s quite an endorsement from the man who practically invented the vocabulary of hard rock guitar.
“The Song Remains the Same” captures Zeppelin at the height of its powers. From the opening explosion of “Rock and Roll” to the epic grandeur of “Stairway to Heaven,” the psychedelic adventures of “Dazed and Confused” and the irresistible swagger of “Whole Lotta Love,” this is rock music operating on a truly mythological scale.
The expanded soundtrack also includes “Black Dog,” “Over the Hills and Far Away” and other unforgettable classics. There’s something wonderful about celebrating the 50th anniversary of this album with four women who have made this music entirely their own. It’s both a loving tribute and a reminder that great music belongs to every generation willing to pick it up and make it roar.
As most of you know, I try to bring at least one amazing tribute band a season. From the Doors to the Eagles to Tom Petty, we’ve had some amazing shows that bring us back to our favorite tunes. Lez Zeppelin fits that bill and more. Founded in 2004, these rockers are no ordinary tribute act. These four extraordinary women (Steph Paynes, Dana Athens, Joan Chew and Hillary Blaze) don’t simply impersonate Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Bonham and John Paul Jones. They inhabit the music, unleashing its thunderous riffs, blues-drenched improvisations, hypnotic rhythms and occasionally otherworldly beauty with astonishing precision and ferocity. They have an incredible stage show to boot, so at a time when we all need to blow off some steam, I am genuinely thrilled about this act.
I can’t remember which Zeppelin album won those lunchtime debates 35 years ago. I suspect we never reached a consensus. But I do remember the pleasure of arguing passionately about music that mattered to us. On Nov. 6, we can dispense with the arguments, gather together and let the music do the talking. And believe me, it’s going to rock.
Matthew Glassman is executive and artistic director of the Chocolate Church Arts Center in Bath.