When Giants Walked The Earth

When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin by Mick Wall
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Written by Mick Wall, "When Giants Walked The Earth: A Biography Of Led Zeppelin" is the culmination of several years of research, and is written by someone who has known guitarist Jimmy Page for over two decades. Its material is based on interviews the journalist has conducted with every member of the band over the years, as well as those who knew and worked alongside them. I have been a fan of Led Zeppelin for 45 years and I thoroughly enjoyed this momentous opus, running to 534 pages. It is therefore beyond my comprehension how anyone on Goodreads could rate this with One Star having read just 30 pages and giving up on the book. Rather like rating a movie after watching just the opening credits. I would qualify my Five Star rating by stating that this is for fans of Led Zeppelin. I doubt that you would enjoy it so much if you weren’t.

Mick Wall said in 2009 that he just felt there had never been a really serious book written about Zeppelin. Hammer Of The Gods is great but its 25 years old and not really built on any genuine research or interviews with the band. He thought it was time for something seriously heavyweight. And heavyweight it is, requiring considerable stamina to complete. It has taken me a couple of weeks to read, giving myself time to reflect on the content of each comprehensive chapter.

From 1969 to 1975, Led Zeppelin were arguably at the peak of their powers. The book covers all that in detail. But Zep 'II' (1969) and 'IV' (1971) would be the peak of their success. Many, like me, still love 'Houses of the Holy' (1973), and many parts of the others. Following the release of 1975's critically acclaimed 'Physical Graffiti', Led Zeppelin arguably went into a creative decline, attributed to drugs, alcohol abuse and self-immolation. And without drummer John ‘Bonzo’ Bonham, who was the best rock drummer ever, who died at a shocking young age, choked on his own vomit, Led Zeppelin were no more. Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones developed solo careers - Plant the most successful.

There is much more to this book that my brief resumé covers. Wall said: "My book came about because Jimmy simply refused to do a book of his own." I for one am glad that it did. Highly recommended for fans.

The song remains the same....


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Robert Plant: A Life

Robert Plant: A Life: The Biography by Paul Rees
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Robert Plant: A Life

I have been a lifelong fan of the rock band Led Zeppelin and in particular the lead singer, Robert Plant. The Viking rock god as he liked to be known and a magnet to thousands of groupies and wayward women.

The 67 year old Robert Plant is surrounded by mystique and Paul Rees attempts to find a balance between the man, the myth, the music, and the darkness in this unauthorised biography. Perhaps one day Plant will write his own definitive version, although I doubt it.

Rees is the one-time editor of Kerrang! and Q magazines and has in my opinion conducted his research in exemplary fashion from other books and articles, as well as his own previous conversations with Plant and many of Plant's former classmates, band mates, and tour mates, some of whom were not afraid to speak candidly and critically. Nonetheless, for me this is a comprehensive record of Plant’s life from his early school years, through his early bands before being recruited by Jimmy Page to form Led Zeppelin with John Bonham and John Paul Jones. The band’s meteoric rise to stardom and idolization by so many music fans resulted in studio albums that I play to this day. Their seminal studio work: Led Zeppelin IV sold 25 million copies within months of being released in 1971. It contains their finest rock aria, Stairway to Heaven.

Groupies, drugs, and tragedy followed as Zeppelin's legend grew and the band dissolved after drummer John Bonham's death in 1980, choked on his own vomit after another mammoth drinking session. Plant reemerged as an ever-evolving solo artist who kept his distance from Zeppelin, rarely reuniting with his former band mates.

I have enjoyed most of Plant’s solo efforts, in particular his album Raising Sand with Alison Krauss. As Rees reports in detail, Led Zeppelin did finally reunite for one last concert in December 2007 at the O2 Arena. 20,000 fans were overawed with the performance, Plant and Page showing none of their on/off friction. Oh to have been there (I was one of millions of fans chasing down just 20,000 tickets without success).

This book is as good if not better than anything else I have read about Robert Plant. It provides insight into Plant as a man and a musician. I recommend it to any Led Zeppelin fan.

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