Customer Rating: Summary: The Zep tragedy? Comment: Unputdownable for any Zeppelin fan. A very detailed and compelling account of one of the great icons and creative forces of the 20th century.
There is tremendous detail and written in a manner that wants you to keep turning the pages to find out what happened next, even though most Zep fans already know. Mick Wall attempts to get you inside the character of the band members and Peter Grant, which works initially but later becomes somewhat annoying as by then you just want to get on with the story.
Basically the book is about the rise of Led Zeppelin from the pre Zep days, through 1968 and the Zep formation upto 1975 and the success of Earls Court, Physical Graffiti, SwanSong etc. After thats its downhill, and he relates everything following that as the fall of Zep, from Plants car crash in 76 to Bonhams death in 80 and the aftermath. Unfortunately he dismisses all the positives from that period, including many media reviews which were very different from those portrayed (I know...I've still got them!) Yes there was tragedy after tragedy but there was brilliance in the face of tragedy which Mick Wall dismisses. His analysis of individual pieces of music is subjective and I felt that on quite a few occasion he misses the point of the individual track he is discussing, or if he doesnt particularly like it he uses it as evidence of Zep losing their way, which simply wasnt the case musically. He also stresses the medias opinions too much as valid comment and not the millions of fans opinions which with the cult status and following of Zep would have been easy to get from so many websites, as well as very different opinions on the merits of various tracks and albums.
The book is uptodate with the O2 concert, and many of his comments are fair that this was going to be a great event whether it really was or not. It could never be Zep of the 70's. It doesnt really go into the Zep legacy, their lasting quality and how so many fans that lived through that period have found their music to mature with age.
Having said all that it is a great book for Zep fans, the detail about influences and the early days is very well related. Ultimately it leans to being a tragedy. The Led Zeppelin legacy is not a tragedy it is one of the great gifts to come out of music.
Customer Rating: Summary: Not just "Hammer of the Gods" rewritten Comment: This hefty tome follows in the footsteps of Steven Davis' all-time classic "Hammer Of The Gods" and whilst perhaps a little inevitably recycles many of the tales of gore and yore contained within that book, adds on an interesting chapter about the Page "occult" thing and gives Mick Wall's very honest opinion about the late 2007 reunion and its subsequent events. A clever angle here is to start many of the chapters with a kind of look back over the various band members' life and times, as if in an interview context - though Wall does admit that the words are his and his alone - and overall this is a great book about the greatest band of them all. Customer Rating: Summary: Excellent, Couldn't Put It Down Comment: I spotted this in the shops just before Xmas, and dropped some none too subtle hints to my wife, and hey presto I had something to read over Xmas.
It's a 400page plus heavyweight read and I have just (2nd Jan) finished it - superby written its a book you can't put down.
I have been a fan for over 30 years, and whilst there was a lot in this book I already knew, there was a whole lot more. The music is covered in detail, but it's the stuff outside the music where a lot more light is shed on the band, and its individual members far more than anything else I have read. Its an uplifting, fascinating read - truly sex, drugs and rock and roll, with the ultimate practitioners of the non-stop party.
And yet.....its also poignant and quite sad in places as everyone involved (with the exception of Jonesy) has suffered personal tragedies, and when it comes up to date you ultimately start to feel sorry for Jimmy Page as its obvious that Robert Plant has "moved on" and its Jimmy who wants to try to recreate something from 30-35 years ago.
Anyone who is even the slightest bit interested in Led Zeppelin should buy this book, and its appeal goes further than that as it reads almost like fiction at times being fast paced and the characters are very well observed - I know how it ends, but that didn't stop me wondering as I turned every page what was going to happen next! Customer Rating: Summary: Pretty good Comment: Mick Wall's new book is probably the most comprehensive study of Led Zeppelin's career yet published, including an interesting final chapter on the numerous semi-, quasi- and mini-reformations they have undertaken, especially last year's O2 concert, giving an unusually honest account of an event that was praised out of all proportion in the aftermath. Longtime Zep fans were determined it was going to be an epochal occasion, and duly pronounced it to have been so.
An unusual feature of "Giants..." is that portions are told in the second person, as Wall addresses Plant, Page, Jones, Bonham or Peter Grant(e.g "At least you know where you stand. Self-confident, well off, used to being on your own, you have always been someone who knew exactly where you stood." "You" here being Jimmy Page). This intrusive technique is not really necessary, but it's only a small part of the book.
Much attention is paid to Page's occult activities, justly so, as it influenced a good deal of the music, and there are lengthy sections on Alesteir Crowley and Kenneth Anger. Wall is seduced by the romance and mystery of these figures and their beliefs, and wildly overestimates them, calling Crowley's influence on modern culture "arguably as pervasive as that of Freud or Jung", and claiming that "serious critics" placed Anger's work in the same category as Bunuel's "Un Chien Andalou". He is generally credulous of many improbable stories related to occult matters, and loses some degree of perspective in these parts of the book.
There are qoutes from all the main players involved, but the book does not deal with the personal lives of the band, just with their activities in Led Zeppelin and as musicians, except the few events that directly affected the work of the band, like Karak Plant's death. Jimmy's wife Charlotte is only mentioned in passing, for example. There is fairly detailed analysis of the music.
I enjoyed this book, but I would not go so far as others and say that it renders other Zep books like "Hammer of the Gods" obsolete. "Hammer of the Gods" is a good read and fairly accurate, covering much of the same ground as this When Giants Walked the Earth. Either would make a good introduction to the band and I think "Hammer..." shades it in terms of readability.
Customer Rating: Summary: Disappointing Comment: I bought this book on the strength of media reviews and alas found it to be a disappointment containing little new information about the band that cannot be found in earlier books, such as Stephen Davis's "Hammer of the Gods" and Richard Cole's "Stairway to Heaven": in fact much of the content of the book is itself recycled from earlier works and magazine articles many fans would already have read. Large sections of this book are written as reflective prose i.e. "you always wanted to be a guitarist, stood in the mirror pretending you were BB King, but your mum and dad wanted you to have you hair cut..." and this is extremely tedious, and I found almost unreadable. The bulk of the book retells stories most fans will already know such as the creation of the albums and the bands rise through touring. There is a large section about Jimmy Page and Alastair Crowley and I can sadly report that it gives no new information whatsoever, admitting Jimmy wont speak about this, then going on for pages of speculative conjecture. The only significant new information I got from this was firstly that the Knebworth shows in 1979 were not as successful as people might think, and some background knowledge on the reunion in 2007. Until either one of the band members, wives or other such associates decides to tell their story I doubt there will be anything new to say... Mick Wall adds very little.
