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

4.0

Wow this was....pretty intense. Not going to be a long review, but what a ride. The book does a near flawless job in telling the roots to rockers history of the band, through all their albums. And everything...and I mean everything in between. I’ll say this, if you love Led Zeppelin, but are fragile to sensitive topics, and don’t want their image ‘tarnished’... or any bad or negative thoughts of them...I’d steer clear. While there’s nothing in here that is on the level of murder or anything like that... The band in the 70’s delves into the world of excess and depravity pretty heavily. My opinions on John Bonham have changed... I love the guy but it can not be mistake that he was a brute. The Spitz keeps the tone of the book as straight as possible, but definitely tells it as it is. They had problems... and the band burned themselves out in ten years. It was fascinating listening to how they went from show to show, feeding off of the vibe. Interestingly the critical reception was always luke warm to negative. Of course the audience and fans notwithstanding. How they were received, is very interesting. From their early days, being associated with music for ‘niggers’ to hard rock. I guess the one complaint I have about the book is that it gets a tad repetitive with the constant concert, hotel bash, think about new album...concert...hotel bash ...etc... that loop is very present towards the middle of the book but for good reason....it’s how it happened. Reading about the death of so many close to them was harrowing and the tragic final day of Bonham’s life... Devastating. Seeing how resolute and certain the band was that Led Zeppelin had to be disbanded was amazing... Like a pact with a higher power, it was just over. And seeing them languish afterwards...really hard to read at times.

I loved the book. It’s tough, it slaps you in the face with some really disgusting acts, it mortalizes these ‘gods’ of mine and makes them very much human, fallible and not perfect models. They made so many mistakes and seemed to lose themselves in the often over the top life style. If you’re Zeppelin fan who’s a realist.... and doesn’t shy away from the depravity and just want the truth...look no further.,