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.
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