“When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin”, by Mick Wall

554 pages, St. Martin’s Griffin, ISBN-13: 978-0312590390

You are Mick Wall and boy do you have a story to tell! Nothing less than the fable of Led Zeppelin, arguably the greatest rock band ever and, unarguably, the biggest band in the world throughout the 1970s. It’s not a tale as popularly as that of the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, but what sets you apart from that dreck is that you can bring to the table an in-depth knowledge of the band’s music, for you are Mick Wall and you have a story to tell…the question is, can you get out of the way of the story long enough not to screw it up? When you think about it, you realize that the Zeppelin saga almost tells itself, with so many tales both whispered and shouted over the years of the drugs, the groupies, the mud shark (you have heard about the mud shark, right?), the Satanism (actually, the Thelemic mysticism). All you really have to do is competently address the facts…but you’ve got a better idea! Instead of the same old tired codswallop, why not try something daring? Make the reader the members of the band! Each section will begin with “You are Jimmy Page”, “You are Robert Plant”, et al. These sections will all be written in the second-person present and they will last much longer than anyone could possibly want! Yeah…that’ll show’um.

Thus is When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin which is quite possibly the most detailed biography of the men behind Led Zeppelin ever written. The most unique part of this book is one mentioned above in which Wall writes long odes to the Men of Led, as if they were in fact characters in a story and somebody – you, the reader, presumably – were speaking to them at a certain period of time but with knowledge of the future. This style of writing is definitely jarring at first and not a little pedantic, but once I became accustomed to these mini time-outs I found them to be rather enjoyable. Wall, who was editor-in-chief of Classic Rock (a British magazine dedicated to rock music) and the author of a score of biographies on several other acts, has been somewhat criticized for questionable sourcing of information in the book, but to his credit he has logged many hours with the Zeppelin members over the years; furthermore, Wall noted that there were some sources who “for reasons of privacy do not wish to be named”. Still, he says he has taken heat for the book, writing in August 2008 that “I appear to have lost the 20-year friendship of Jimmy Page (how dare I try and write a better book than the bog-awful Hammer of the Gods), Robert Plant (he’ll change his mind when he sees it) and related friends like – apparently”.

Exhaustive and all-encompassing though it may be, there are a few issues I have with When Giants Walked the Earth: Wall rather cavalierly brushes off the authorship issue of many Zeppelin songs, especially those “written” by Jimmy Page. For instance, “Whole Lotta Love” was officially credited to John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant…until, that is, about 1985 when Zep was sued and settled with one Willie Dixon, the original author of the song “You Need Love” from which “Whole Lotta Love” was stolen – er, adapted. And it doesn’t end there: “When the Levee Breaks” by Bonham, Jones, Page and Plant...oh, and Lizzie “Memphis Minnie” Douglas, or the Zeppelin song to end all Zeppelin songs “Stairway to Heaven” which, sorry folks, was obviously lifted from “Taurus” by the band Spirit (What’s that I hear you say? That the plagiarism trial came back with a not guilty verdict? Don’t forget that the jurors were not allowed to hear original recordings of the songs and instead heard an expert perform both songs in court using original sheet music). Absolutely Page acted as the “musical magpie” Wall describes him as, even if Zep did rework many of these songs to great effect…but with little or no credit to the original authors.

I also grew tired of the Wall’s (and Page’s) perspective that, basically, Plant has the audacity to block a true Zeppelin reunion from happening, but after reading his book I find I appreciate Plant’s perspective more than ever: after all, if you’ve successfully reinventing yourself as an artist (with Alison Krauss, of all people) and are having a blast doing it, why would you want to do some half-assed reunion show performing songs you have long-since grown tired of, other than the one show at the O2 Arena in 2007? Of course, the others had learned by then to cater to Plant’s wishes, since the last time a Zeppelin reunion had been seriously considered with Plant going along with it had been back about sixteen years earlier. Wall even cites a remark made in 1993 by Zeppelin manager Peter Grant to Dave Lewis: “You’ve got to realize Robert always wanted to be the boss of the band anyway. He finally got his own way”. This appears to be Wall’s thesis, that the band was, in essence, hijacked over the course of time by Robert Plant, stolen from the reins of founder Jimmy Page. To illustrate this concept, Wall starts by going to the very beginning of the story: Page as a child learning from the earliest rock ‘n’ roll in existence and wanting to be a part of it, and eventually wanting to do certain things with a band of his own. Wall, leaving no part of the story unturned, lists it all (with all of that said, I do wish that Plant would just quash any thoughts of a reunion once and for all, rather than perpetually giving open-ended or teasing quotes on the matter).

Right, what then? Wall does not glamorize the gross excess of the band’s offstage behavior (and he doesn’t sweep it under the table, either); instead he places it in the proper context of the hugely successful bands of the 70s who all (over)indulged in horrendous excess. Wall also spends considerable time addressing Page’s interest in Aleister Crowley and the occult in an objective way; while Page studied and had an interest in these matters, he was not sacrificing children or virgins and was far less “evil” in his exploits than the drunken, depraved antics and brutality that John Bonham and Richard Cole participated in when homesick or bored. Wall now depicts Page as a straight, lucid, exceedingly talented and gentle man who would like to have the grand body of work he masterminded in the 1970s stay alive. Wall depicts Plant in a similarly objective manner. Bonham and Plant were not the industry insider London musicians that Page and Jones were; however, their talents were undeniable and one is impressed with how quickly all four of these musicians were making true magic together. Plant rises in esteem and fame throughout the story, while Bonham sadly has a much harder time dealing with being away from his family and maintaining a sane existence. Wall presents Bonham as an immensely talented individual who could shift from loving family man to sick maniac in a matter of a few (copious) drinks. The book essentially ends with Bonham’s death. When Giants Walked the Earth can lay claim to being the finest Zeppelin biography to date and impossible to top – unless Page, Plant or Jones choose to pick up the pen.

“Ghosts Of The Abyss: A Journey into the Heart of the Titanic”, by Don Lynch and Ken Marschall, introduction by James Cameron

144 pages, Da Capo Press, ISBN-13: 978-0306812231

While not a very big book at just 143 pages, this is one of the nicer Titanic books I’ve seen, although it’s too much to imagine it being indispensable that one would have to own anymore (especially as it was originally published in 2003). Dedicated to both those who died during the sinking of the Titanic and those who died on September 11^th, 2001 (while the film project was underway), the first chapter gives a quick but detailed history of the Titanic followed by several chapters devoted to the exploration and filming of the shipwreck and its aftermath. The photos of the wreck as it is now were amazing (especially when compared with similar, period photos), though they seemed familiar…but maybe that’s just me; the computer graphic reconstructions were beautifully done, as well. Unfortunately, one noteworthy omission involving this collaboration is that zero new artwork from Ken Marschall is included in this edition, even though he accompanied the 2001 expedition and made a number of dives to the wreck site. What’s more is that new discoveries involving the breakup of Titanic as it was sinking have since been made during another, later expedition to the Titanic in 2005, information that is obviously not presented in this earlier work, thus making it rather pointless, no? Overall a good book to, perhaps, borrow or browse through once or twice, but not necessarily one that’s good enough to own.

“Lincoln’s Lieutenants: The High Command of the Army of the Potomac”, by Stephen W. Sears

896 pages, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, ISBN-13: 978-0618428250

Like many amateur historians of the American Civil War, amongst the first books I read were the trilogy on the Army of the Potomac written by Michigan’s own Bruce Catton: For Mr. Lincoln’s Army, Glory Road and A Stillness at Appomattox in the guise of their 1988 reissue as Bruce Catton’s Civil War, after my Dad had taken us on our first Historic Odyssey way the hell back in 1982. I’ve since read a few more volumes on this hard-luck army and its travails since then, and as far as dedicated Army of the Potomac histories go, Catton’s work has largely been superseded as serious history due to their anecdotal style and lack of footnotes, along with the utterly awful or nonexistent maps – but there has been no real replacement of impeccable quality, either. Enter Stephen W. Sears, who has written several excellent campaign histories of the American Civil War’s Eastern Theater (Antietam, Peninsula, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg), as well as much about General George Brinton McClellan. Besides being an old hand at this stuff, at this point Sears has also covered a lot of background details about the much-despised and much-maligned Army of the Potomac in his other books…how could he possibly add anything new to this endlessly rehashed subject?

Well, he dood it in Lincoln’s Lieutenants: The High Command of the Army of the Potomac, in which Sears focuses more on high command interactions, personalities of the generals and their staffs and the (often dysfunctional) institutional structure of the Army of the Potomac. This sort of material is usually the background to campaign studies, but here Sears inverts the usual approach and the campaigns are instead background to the institutional history. This may sound dull but it is not, as Sears is a graceful and highly skilled writer, and his campaign and battle descriptions are well done and, of course, occurs frequently enough to make things interesting (his descriptions of troop formations and organizational shakeups, however, are as dry as sand on toast). More significantly, Sears makes the info on the generals seem fascinating: between flamboyant characters like Dan Sickles and Phil Kearny, intriguing failures like Franz Sigel and Samuel Heintzelman, and even McClellan’s cadre of sycophants like Fitz John Porter and William Franklin, Sears has an eye for telling detail and interesting (well-documented) anecdote. Sears also ranges into interesting topics like the reasons why McClellan, a cavalry officer by training and inclination, presided over such an awful cavalry arm when he was commander in chief, and contrasts Union and Confederate handling of artillery organization. To an American Civil War reader like me who has been hearing peripherally about these matters in numerous campaign studies, it’s intriguing to finally get the full story covered with all the details illuminated. What you won’t find in Lincoln’s Lieutenants is any description of what life was like for either Billie Yank or Johnny Reb: no life in the trenches stuff, no snippets or quotes about the grunt’s eye view of battle experiences, no descriptions of suffering, hunger or homesickness. But considering the title of this book, that should come as no surprise (also missing was nay comparable descriptions of what was going on in the high command of the Army of Northern Virginia; but again, I refer you to the book’s title).

I have only one real criticism, but it’s an important one: the maps are almost, but not quite, useless: while nicely produced and full of information – I mean, damn near every town name, road, river etc., seems to be included – BUT no troop movements, starting formations, or even handy read-or-blue arrows to help you figure out what in the hell is going on. The troop movements mentioned in the texts have to be puzzled out by the reader, and if you don’t know that the Union was moving in such-and-such direction at a given battle, it can be hard to figure out what is going on. This is no minor omission, as part of Sears’ theme is that Howard was a good general because he did X at Y battle, while Keyes was not so good because he did Y at X battle, instead. If you can’t track the maneuvers on the map, it makes it tough to see Sears’ points. I assume most persons reading a 900+ page history on the Army of the Potomac are probably pretty familiar with the American Civil War to begin with, and so can probably follow along on the maps from memory or can dig out other books and use those as references.

With that said, I learned a lot from this volume and feel Sears has outdone himself here. This is his longest book by far, and his readable style, fair-minded objectivity and ability to master a huge amount of material and convey it to the reader without making the process a dull slog remain fully intact (plus, he gives hell to McClellan, and deservedly so). As mentioned, Sears is advanced in years at this point (84-years-old at time of writing) so this may be his last book. I hope not, as I always hoped for one or more Overland Campaign studies from him, but if this is indeed his swan song, he is ending his career on the highest possible note. For new readers of the American Civil War, I will say only that this is a fine book for anyone with an interest in the subject as long as they have a reasonable familiarity with the overall subject War in the East. I would not recommend coming to this large detailed volume cold, though; that is, with no prior reading done on the war. Maybe read the above-mentioned Catton books for starters. Not necessarily for newcomers, and needs better maps, but experienced readers will love this, as the story of the tragic Army of the Potomac is an utterly fascinating one. Sears is maybe the finest American Civil War writer alive at present, and he does a great job telling an important and interesting story here.

“The Politics of Memory: Looking for Germany in the New Germany”, by Jane Kramer

293 pages, Random House, ISBN-13: 978-0679448723

In The Politics of Memory: Looking for Germany in the New Germany, Jane Kramer surveys the moral and political landscape of modern-day Germany, where the reunification of East and West has brought into conflict two vastly different memories of what it means to “be” German. A series of essays rather than a coherent narrative, Kramer cuts straight to the heart of Europe’s most politically and economically influential country, covering any number of people and places, such as:

• The self-styled anarchists that destroy a filmmaker’s Berlin restaurant to protest its so-called “bourgeois” nature, but whose ruthless call for “freedom” is simply German fascism repackaged
• The young East German who escapes to the West but doesn’t know what to do with himself once he gets there, an example of the deep passivity that is perhaps the Communists’ most troubling legacy to the new Germany
• The German holocaust memorial that reveals a revisionist desire to portray the country as a victim of World War II by, in Kramer’s words, “turning the twelve dark years of Hitler into twelve years of resistance to and occupation by Hitler; an abandonment, for the sake of settling the past into ‘history’, of the very plain historical truth that Germany had chosen Hitler”.

Kramer is a wonderful storyteller and an excellent reporter, but her greatest handicap is that she is basically an outsider reporting on a country she doesn’t even live in which leads, in turn, to her overcompensating in the form of inserting an “insider’s” tone into her essays (I could pay off my student loan if I had a nickel for every time she referred to “the kids” and “the scene” – as if she really knew anything but hearsay about German kids and scenes – or for the occurrences of “a lot of people say [X]” and “so-and-so likes to say [X]”). Meanwhile, Kramer’s lack of familiarity with Berlin comes out in embarrassing goofs such as placing the KaDeWe – that would be the Kaufhaus des Westens, Department Store of the West – on the Kurfürstendamm rather than on the Tauentzienstraße, or referring to Germany’s most important literary publishing house, Suhrkamp Verlag, as Surkampf. Too bad, for there is much important social and political history gathered in these essays. The book is definitely worth reading, but its weaknesses do begin to annoy one after a while.