Led Zeppelin

Starred review from August 23, 2021
Music biographer Spitz (The Beatles) calls on his supreme research and analytical skills to deliver the definitive story of one of the greatest rock groups of the 1970s. While this isn’t the first (or second) telling of the Zeppelin saga, it reigns superior to its predecessors with an exhaustive history that never flags in momentum or spirit. To start, Spitz provides a fascinating look at each band member’s evolution and their common love of American blues, detailing how the British electric blues boom of the late ’60s “laid the groundwork for a musical upheaval” and how guitarist Jimmy Page used the form—and the power of vocalist Robert Plant and bassist John Paul Jones—“as a springboard to something bigger and more dynamic.” He gives new insights into each of Zeppelin’s eight main recordings, as well as their dynamic live performances, which, he writes, were “comparable with how jazz combos performed, with loose arrangements that depended on synchronicity and intuition.” At the same time, he takes an unsparing look at how the band’s massive success snowballed into a “heedless hedonism” that led to their decline and disbanding after the alcohol-fueled death of drummer John Bonham. For all the excess and cruelty Spitz recounts, his passion for the band’s musical genius will captivate rock enthusiasts. Agent: Sloan Harris, ICM.

October 1, 2021
A doorstop biography befitting the premier rock band of the 1970s. For those who haven't read any of the numerous books on Led Zeppelin, rest assured that Spitz has--the extensive bibliography and voluminous footnotes prove it. The author is skillful at conjuring scenes from the past and doing his best to get inside the heads of people he hasn't met (no one in the band and few in their inner circle consented to interviews). He also has a flair for interweaving quotes given to other writers into his narrative, as if the speaker were talking directly to him. Spitz, who has written biographies of the Beatles and Bob Dylan, writes with oracular authority--"The blues had laid the groundwork for a musical upheaval that would draw on innovation, technology, and volume, incredible volume. [Jimmy] Page had a cleareyed idea about the blues; to him, it functioned as a springboard to something bigger and more dynamic. And he knew exactly where he was taking it"--and his passion for the music is clear. However, the long slog of the narrative ultimately proves as exhausting as it is exhaustive, like sitting through an endless John Bonham drum solo that shows no signs of ending. The author diligently chronicles the procession of albums, tours, groupies, alcohol, drugs, and infighting, and it all becomes too much. Rather than emphasizing the sleazy aspects of the band's history, he treats them as matters of fact, yet readers know that none of it would end well. Little of the information in this book is new, and Spitz's dedicated research fails to provide much fresh illumination of well-tread ground. Of course, Zeppelin die-hards (of which there are millions worldwide) will be interested, as will devotees of 1970s rock and all the excess that came along with it. The song remains the same, making this one for the fans.

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September 1, 2021

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