Reviews - Led Zeppelin: The Biography

Led Zeppelin: The Biography by Bob Spitz

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Quick and dirty recap of the brief run of Led Zeppelin. Bob Spitz tells the tale from the guys first bands, to first meetings, to being the biggest, baddest band on the planet, all the way to the last show.
I always forget how short the run of Led Zeppelin was. They burned brighter than the sun for a short while, but the afterglow is still pretty bright.

thetarantulalounge's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark informative slow-paced

The Ringer’s Ryen Russillo recently interviewed musician and journalist Bob Spitz’ Led Zeppelin: The Biopgraphy. If Spitz’ name sounds familiar, you may have read his biography on the The Beatles, Ronald Reagan, Julia Child, or Bob Dylan. The writer’s credibility from past books as well as his musicianship seems to have contributed to his ability to get access to Led Zeppelin’s inside circle, including surviving band members. What results is a (relatively) objective look at one of the most revered and at times disgusting popular music acts of the last 50 years.

Spitz chooses to begin before the beginning; he explains how American blues made its way to England and why it resonated with the youth at the time. Jimmy Page (guitar) and John Paul Jones (bass/keys, BTW not his real name) grew up in bands and notably as studio session musicians. Page found his way into the Yardbirds before deciding to start a group of his own. Through word of mouth, he found an amazing young singer and drummer from England’s Midlands region – Robert Plant and John Bonham (“Bonzo”). The four men never quite seemed to be friends, but their musical alchemy was undeniable.

While they created something musically powerful, Led Zeppelin itself seems to have destroyed many lives and brought out the worst in several of the group’s members. Jimmy Page, due to his Aleister Crowley-influenced worldview, developed a penchant for pedophilia (he liked middle schoolers) and heroin. Bonzo drank himself to death. Plant and John Paul Jones seemed the most well-adjusted. However, when looking back on Bonzo’s death, Jones admits that any one of them could’ve been the one to die early. Spitz also moves to the side of state for a lengthy look at Peter Grant, the band’s thuggish manager.

After reading about the band’s deplorable behavior, it’s hard to respect the band. (To the band members’ credit, I think at least Plant and Jones would agree. In the Russillo podcast, Spitz observed that Plant looks truly miserable at any kind of public event in which the band is honored; and that Plant can’t bring himself to say Jimmy Page’s name out loud.) As has been the case often in the last decade; it’s difficult to know how, or whether, we can separate art from the artists. Personally, I think art has its own ontological value beyond its creator. Therefore it is possible and even routine to appreciate a piece beyond any thoughts of its creator. That may be a justification to allow me to keep enjoying my old records, but I do believe it’s true.

Recommended reading for any fan of the band. If you’re a Led Zeppelin novice and you don’t know where to start, I recommend the Mothership collection. The surviving band members picked their own favorites from their albums and compiled them on that album. Also give a listen to Celebration Day. That’sa live album from the band’s 2007 reunion show to honor the head of Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun. Even at AARP age, the band brings it for two strai ght hours. (Bonzo’s son is on drums.) Undeniable.

eternan's review against another edition

3.75

dark informative reflective tense slow-paced

morgan_blackledge's review

5.0

One thing I am completely aware of.

Is that nobody wants to hear a middle aged man wax on about how much he loves Led Zeppelin.

So I will exercise restraint.

But I can’t write an honest review of this book without at least mentioning how important their music is to me.

Led Zeppelin, probably more than any other rock band, have been the soundtrack of my life.

Somehow, I never got tired of them.

I have very eclectic taste musically.

I’m always experimenting and searching for new sounds.

But I still listen to Zeppelin all the time.

They just fucking rock.

After all this time.

And after literally tens-of-thousands of listens.

They still just fucking rock.

I honestly don’t know how their music is so durable for me.

But it is.

FM radio in the 70’s and 80’s was like Zeppelin every other song.

Yet somehow, Zeppelin still sound alive.

They stayed relevant during my hardcore, thrash metal and hip hop phases, through my (extremely pretentious) jazz and folk college days, all the way through the 90’s, to the present.

I should be so over it.

Zeppelin have been so ubiquitous, for so long, we should all be so over it.

Yet, somehow, it’s still so fresh and vital.

It’s literally black magic.

They hit a vein.

Now that I’m in my 50’s, learning about how the music got made is almost as interesting as the actual music.

This book seriously scratched that itch.

Few other bands have been more shrouded in mystery, folklore, and urban legend than Led Zeppelin.

The book brought a lot of that down to earth.

The honest coverage of the INSANE drug use, the fucking AWFUL sexual abuse, the money, the CRAZY as fuck life style, the all around VILE misbehavior, the burnout, and the tragedy of Bonham’s untimely death, all of it was eye opening to say the least.

The book also humanized these mythic figures for me.

Which is a good thing.

After all, they’re just people like you and me right?

Well…

Part of me still regarded Page, Plant, Bonham and Jones as god like. Or at least super human. Particularly Bonham for some reason. His playing was so unique, and still unsurpassed, at least to my untrained ears.

Anyway.

Reading about how frankly awful their behavior was, particularly Bonham, even for the time, was quite grounding, for better or for worse.

Learning about the rivalry within the Beatles kind of ruined their music for me.

Not totally.

But I just can’t get over how much they hated each other, and how much they hated some of their own music.

Peter Jackson’s revelatory Get Back has helped me get over that a little. But the tarnish remains.

I’m not sure if this book will ultimately have a chilling effect for me with Led Zeppelin.

So far, not so much.

Quite the opposite actually.

But it has given me a lot to think about.

And I enjoyed it immensely.

Plus.

Learning the back story of each song and album, and dropping the book to listen to the music, going back and forth like that, it was really fun.

I caught COVID-19 right after I started this thing, and the experience of mixing this book and music with that awful experience was a (very grown up) psychedelic fever dream.

That being said.

I honestly can’t think of a better way to recover.

5/5 super stars and double necked guitars ⭐️

sbr's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional informative medium-paced

44henry's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

Led Zeppelin has maintained a deliberate air of mystery for more than 50 years, and the members have not deigned to participate in an authorized biography beyond releasing the Led Zeppelin photo book a few years ago.

That has not stopped many an author from writing biographies of the band or of the individual members. Each new release, and they seem to come every few years, purport to be THE definitive biography. These authors aren't stupid, they know the name Led Zeppelin will sell a book.

"Led Zeppelin: The Biography" by Bob Spitz, packaged as some sort of highbrow tome, contains nothing new. There are a lot of inaccuracies, and the same old tired sources make their regularly-scheduled appearances in the latest Zeppelin book. Bob Spitz seems to have intentionally written an unflattering portrait of the group. In seeking to capitalize on the "me too" era, Spitz is only dredging up material from previously published books, so nothing here is a revelation. But the marketing of the book and the timing of the release was shrewd; the author and publisher were sure to draw in some curious new readers who may never have picked up a Zeppelin book before.

Each individual reader must decide if he or she is going to believe what is printed in a book. The barrage of Zeppelin books began with "Hammer of the Gods" by Stephen Davis, which has been highly discredited, yet stories in that book from the band's disgraced and fired road manager are now repeated as gospel truth. It should be realized that many sources who participate in these kinds of books - whether "Hammer" or this most recent book by Spitz - have their own agendas. Foremost, many sources won't spill without being paid for it, and they aren't going to get paid for a boring story, so perhaps some embellishment occurs. Perhaps a source is happy to participate and tell an unflattering story due to a perceived sleight by the band or its associates back in the day. Perhaps someone sees an opportunity for self-recognition, with participation in a book a springboard to repeating the tale again, and another payday, maybe from a British tabloid. Why not, eh?

Here is what Spitz said about the members of Led Zeppelin in an interview with Spin Magazine: "No, I don’t know them. They were prepared to speak with me when #MeToo landed, and suddenly they weren’t talking to anyone anymore. But I’ve always felt that the musicians, who live in a bubble, are the most unreliable narrators. I left it to everyone else, those who were with them every step of the way, to fill in the details. Of course, I was despondent over losing the band members, but was reading a copy of David McCullough’s John Adams bio when I realized he never spoke to Adams!"

In the same breath, Spitz states that the band members were going to speak with him (highly doubtful) but then calls musicians "unreliable narrators." And to compare his inability to speak to the band members to that of a biographer who was unable to speak to a president who died in 1826 is comparing apples and oranges.

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