A review by snpf
Led Zeppelin: The Biography by Bob Spitz

5.0

This book is not for tirekicker fans, so as someone who reads/listens to anything I can get my hands on about my favorite band of all time, I found this exhaustive and fascinating, clearly depicting the best and the worst of Led Zeppelin, the insane talent and the insane behaviors. I especially appreciated the deep dive into the albums, the song inspirations, the instrumentation, and all of the "inside baseball" about album creation and production. You leave this book recognizing the genius of Jimmy Page and the torture he went through when addicted to heroin; understanding the torment John Bonham felt every time he left his family and farm to tour and the abominable behavior and insane amount of alcohol he consumed to cope with the torment; the Robert Plant trajectory of being the young dude afraid to say much in the beginning to the omnipotence he felt by end as band front man and lyricist. John Paul Jones? Man I love the guy, such a great bassist, and out of all of them I think the guy you'd most be able to just sit and have a great chat and a pint, but I'm not sure he can compete with these big personalities in this book, so I'm hard pressed to think of what I learned about him other than that was a wig in The Song Remains the Same because no one explained the concept of continuity to him and he had all his hair cut off midway during production. :-D