I am
not really a Led Zeppelin fan but while watching this, I checked the time
elapsed thinking it was about 30-minutes and it was nearly at 2-hours. That
is a good sign, I think. I blame my ignorance of LZ on my college roommate.
I had completely missed out on rock music after 1964 when we moved overseas
for the next seven years - in a remote part of the world where there was
no radio, TV, concerts, record stores. I knew the Beatles from Ed Sullivan,
but my music education stopped with my father's albums of Peter, Paul and
Mary and The Kingston Trio. I thought they were hip. One summer my brother
visited and brought Sgt. Peppers and the Kinks Something Else - so I knew
those. My good friend and roommate Naja from Lebanon was addicted to Bowie
and Led Zeppelin. Fucking played them all the time. My main reaction to both
was this isn't the Kingston Trio. What the hell is this. Bowie, I came to
love and I send him thanks wherever he may be - but other than Stairway and
Thank You, I just couldn't get into Led Zeppelin. That was my Neil Young,
Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Carole King phase, so you can understand.
I have a lot more appreciation for them
after this documentary. There are lengthy interviews with the three living
members and they are all such nice well-spoken charming gentleman discussing
how the group came to be. And that for me was the best part of the film.
The rise to success is always more interesting than success itself and in
fact once LZ hits it big, the film loses steam. But they make a wise decision
and cut it off with the release of their second album. Before the later drugs,
alcohol, death of Bonham, trashing of hotel rooms - the focus is on the music
and how these four guys ended up in the group. Like most things it could
have gone a hundred different ways.
Page and Jones were top session players
on everybody's albums back then. Session players fascinate me whether in
London, Los Angeles or Muscle Shoals. They were among the best. Page
and his guitar though went off to join the Yardbirds - but they shortly broke
up and he decided to form his own band. He wanted a specific singer - was
told he was not available - but this singer suggested he go listen to the
singer in some now very obscure band. Robert Plant, who was homeless at the
time. Page said he had a drummer in mind, but Plant says no, I know the best
drummer in the world, John Bonham. Jones heard that a band was forming and
called up Page who he had sessioned with many times and asked if they needed
a bass player. Ya, we do. And thus was the new Yardbirds! Though not for
long.
