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When Giants Walked The Earth: A Biography Of Led Zeppelin
Sunday, February 08, 2009
'Wall’s book gives us the story of a groundbreaking band in its prime, which, in the end, is how Led Zeppelin are best remembered,' says Des Cowley.
It truly was a time when dinosaurs ruled the earth, when the juggernaut that was Led Zeppelin lumbered its way back and forth across America, year after year, conquering all before it. Though founded by Page in 1968, it’s been said that Led Zeppelin was the first band of the seventies – they ushered in the era of stadium shows, the era of excess, the era of the rock star as god. Releasing an unbroken series of masterpieces from their self-titled debut album through to 1975’s Physical Graffiti, they scaled unimaginable heights before punk, bad luck, and the premature death of drummer John Bonham put paid to it all. By 1980, the dream was over.
Veteran music writer Mick Wall has interviewed surviving members of the band on many occasions, both as friend and journalist, and his thoroughly researched account supercedes Steve Davis’s increasingly outdated Hammer of the Gods. Wall takes us back to the very beginnings when Jimmy Page, already a veteran session musician and fresh from the Yardbirds, began putting together his ideal band to play the music and riffs he’d been cataloguing in his head. He’d watched as Clapton, Hendrix, Jeff Beck and others found fame, and now it was his turn. When Page, Plant, Jones and Bonham first jammed together as the New Yardbirds, on 19 August 1968, they were all astounded at the results, with Page later describing it as “a thunderbolt, a lightening flash”.
The year 1968 would prove to be a stellar year in rock history, with significant albums by the Beatles, Cream, Hendrix, Dylan, Fleetwood Mac, Traffic, the Band, Pink Floyd, and the Doors all taking their place in the pantheon. But even amongst such illustrious company, Led Zeppelin I was groundbreaking stuff. It single-handedly pioneered an entire genre of heavy metal, while at the same time staying true to Page’s love of English folk and blues. The band was unafraid to experiment, and each of the early albums, coming in quick succession, explored new ground, oft times, as with the acoustically-oriented Led Zeppelin III, confounding the expectations of fans.
Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant, the subject of an earlier 2003 biography by Chris Welch, plays a critical role in the story, so much so that he can almost be considered a fifth member of the band. It was Grant who secured the massive cash advance from Ahmet Ertegun when the latter secured Led Zeppelin for Atlantic in the wake of Cream’s demise. It was Grant who foresaw the financial riches to be made from touring America, and his aggressive business practices, on behalf of the band, ensured they would become wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. It would lead to the road to excess, as the band lapped up the booze, drugs, groupies, and all the trappings offered to them as the biggest band on the planet.
Wall’s account details the monster US tours, the recordings, the bad behavior, and no doubt some of these stories will be familiar to readers from previous books. He includes a somewhat unnecessary series of brief imaginary flashbacks told from the point of view of each of the band members – but these can be skipped over without loss. More interestingly, he documents Page’s growing interest in the occult, and the writings of Aleister Crowley, hinting at the possible bad juju that came out of all this. Directly after the band’s five-night sold-out run of gigs at Earl’s Court in London in 1975, the wheels started to come off. Plant was injured in a car accident that forced the band to temporarily cease touring. A few years later, his eldest son, Karac, died suddenly from a stomach virus, forcing the band to abandon another US tour midway. At the same time, Zeppelin increasingly became an easy target for younger musicians, who saw in their bloated and indulgent live performances everything that was the antithesis of Punk. Then there was the uncalled for bashing of one of promoter Bill Graham’s staff at Oakland Coliseum in California that led to the arrest of Grant and Bonham. Increasingly, the band was running out of music and ideas, and the evidence was there for all to see on the band’s final albums. Bonham’s behavior became increasingly erratic, yet no-one was prepared for his sudden death, at age 32, after a heavy bout of drinking. With that, the shutters came down.
Despite the band’s demise in 1980, the later parts of Wall’s book make fascinating reading – and he takes the story right up to the December 2007 reunion gig at London’s O2 arena, as well as Page’s somewhat bizarre appearance at the Beijing Olympics closing ceremony playing ‘Whole Lotta Love’, with X Factor winner Leona Lewis, atop a London red bus. With the CD revolution in the late eighties, Led Zeppelin’s music was marketed to a new generation of fans. But as Plant carved out a solo career, Page instead retreated into himself, spending much of the intervening years overseeing the re-mastering program of the music, compiling live albums and DVDs, staying true to Zeppelin’s music. Page and Plant re-united briefly for the No Quarter album in 1994, and there have been several half-hearted attempts to perform live with Bonham’s son, Jason, in the drum chair. But Page’s inability to let go of Zeppelin makes for sad reading. Particularly given he is faced with ample evidence that Plant has moved on, having found recent success with solo albums, and his recordings and tours with Alison Krauss. To see Plant and Krauss performing ‘Battle of Evermore’ is to be reminded that it’s Plant, not Page, who is perhaps the real keeper of the flame, as he re-interprets the music and songs for another age. In truth, his schedule is just too damn busy for him to fit in a Zeppelin re-union tour. Late last year, Page announced plans to find a new singer for the band, but as recently as last week, Page’s manager confirmed that they’d failed, and that ‘the whole thing is completely over now’. Only time will tell, but for now, Page’s dream of a reformed Led Zeppelin seems buried, and perhaps that’s as it should be. Wall’s book gives us the story of a groundbreaking band in its prime, which, in the end, is how Led Zeppelin are best remembered.
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