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

Jul 11, 2009 Tosh rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mick Wall has the annoying habit of writing first-person narratives in a biography. But beyond that, this is an interesting biography on one of my NOT favorite bands. If the mood hits me correctly, I usually hate Led Zeppelin. But nevertheless a fascinating band as a subject matter.

Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones were great session players during the British Invasion years. We're talking Herman's Hermits, Lulu, and lots of Mickie Most productions. And right away I have to tell you I love that ty...more Mick Wall has the annoying habit of writing first-person narratives in a biography. But beyond that, this is an interesting biography on one of my NOT favorite bands. If the mood hits me correctly, I usually hate Led Zeppelin. But nevertheless a fascinating band as a subject matter.

Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones were great session players during the British Invasion years. We're talking Herman's Hermits, Lulu, and lots of Mickie Most productions. And right away I have to tell you I love that type of music more than the Zeppelin. But to give credit, Page (and Jones) are remarkable arrangers. And the production of Zeppelin records are great. What they are not is songwriters. They steal songs like a boy or girl stealing an apple from a neighbor's apple tree. Listen to Jakes Homes original version of Dazed and Confused! Page stole that song. He did a great arrangement of the song, but nevertheless it is surely not a song by "Jimmy Page' as it is credited on the label.

One of the interesting things about Wall is that he writes about Page's fascination with Crowley - who everyone knows is one of Page's passions. He has a huge collection of Crowley editions as well as paintings, etc. And it is pretty certain that Page is one of the top figures in the Crowley group. Which is interesting when you mix Led Zeppelin sounds with the image of the occult. But on the other hand you have these terrible lyrics by Robert Plant ....well, I don't want to go there.

So what makes this book depressing is how Page sort of ends up as a sad guy who sort of lost his creation due to his relationship problems with his lead singer Plant and a series of early deaths - Plant's son and their drummer. The decadence part is also an enjoyable read, but that too turns into dark muck, when all of sudden the management became violent and ugly. Their manager Peter Grant is a fascinating character, due that he was the first figure to actually challenge everyday music world practices. It was pretty 'my way and nothing for you.'

But later on it became an ugly brutish method in dealing with road crews and especially to groupies. Led Zeppelin wrote the book with respect to Groupie culture. But what was once fun became a really ugly scene. So the book is about having the ultimate power and fame, and then what? And that is the sad part of the book. Plant and Jones had no problem after Zeppelin, but Page one feels, had his moment and is really trying to get that moment back. But it's gone. (less)

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May 03, 2009 Elaine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's a big improvement on Hammer of the Gods, and I dithered over whether to give it three or four stars. I agree with the reviews here there and everywhere that are calling it the "definitive biography". It boasts thorough research, in depth knowledge both personal and research-based, good writing, and a fantastic book jacket. I would have given it four stars if it were not for the following two problems.

Issue One is the italicized second-person detours that are meant to take you "into the head...more It's a big improvement on Hammer of the Gods, and I dithered over whether to give it three or four stars. I agree with the reviews here there and everywhere that are calling it the "definitive biography". It boasts thorough research, in depth knowledge both personal and research-based, good writing, and a fantastic book jacket. I would have given it four stars if it were not for the following two problems.

Issue One is the italicized second-person detours that are meant to take you "into the head" of various members of Led Zeppelin, Peter Grant, and associates. This awkward literary device is an overly forced way of trying to get you to imagine what it must have been like to have been, say, a young flaxen-haired hippie lad from the Black Country who gets the opportunity of a lifetime. Personally, I don't need italics and the second person to help me imagine that, especially given the richness of the descriptions given elsewhere, in the non-italicized bits. An additional annoying characteristic of the second-person segments is that they are sometimes randomly placed or out of sync, chronology-wise, with the story, and Wall never identifies whose head you're meant to be inside (saying, "You are Robert Plant. You are a young flaxen-haired hippie lad from the Black Country" would be more dorky than it already is), so sometimes you're not entirely sure where you are.

Issue Two is a sometimes laughably credulous attitude towards the teachings of Aleister Crowley and the O.T.O., which Wall describes at one point as a "great world religion." Now, I'm not saying anything about whether the great world religions are more or less bonkers than O.T.O., but I would hesitate to classify the O.T.O. in such a manner. Why is it necessary to devote so many pages to this topic? Is it because occultism was *really* such an influence on Led Zep's music that it's necessary to discuss it at this level of earnestness? Is Wall trying to legitimize and respect Jimmy Page as a Smart Guy who wouldn't believe in claptrap? Or does Mick Wall - and this is a hypothesis that I was leaning towards as I read on (and on, and on) - have an undeclared bias, i.e., that he is an O.T.O. member himself?

Whatever the reason for the massive word count given over to this topic, all I know is that I often longed to get back to the story of the band and its music and got pretty bloody sick of seeing magic capitalized and spelled with a "K".

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Nov 24, 2009 David Bales rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 52-books-in-52-weeks

This is a long one, and rather too detailed about the history of Led Zeppelin. Mick Wall has a slightly annoying style where he adopts the "thoughts" of main subject characters and tries to recreate their dialogue. I hate that technique. Still, this book was interesting about the birth and career of Led Zeppelin, and how the group came out of the Yardbirds, where Jimmy Page was playing half-heartedly in 1968 and decided to put together a super-group of mostly largely unknown musicians, including...more

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Apr 07, 2013 Barbara Hynes rated it 5 of 5 stars

I downloaded this audio book from my library, and listened to it while driving and also while working in my studio. The audio book is unabridged, so at over 500 pages, it was a long book, and it went on for many hours. However, it was fascinating in places, and I learned new things I didn't know about Led Zeppelin and its individual members. I agree with other reviewers that the author's literary device of speaking for the characters *as* themselves, as if he had insight into their thoughts, was...more

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Feb 26, 2013 Carl Martinez rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: biographies

I never was really crazy about Led Zeppelin. One of the greatest rock bands ever I agree, but they are so over-played on classic rock stations that I am just so sick of them...I haven't listened to Led Zeppelin II in a quarter century. I love vanilla ice cream but if I had to eat it everyday I'd eventually want something else. So I got this book free and didn't plan on reading it, but I picked it up and just read little bit of the introduction not intending to read the book...and I finished the...more

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Nov 25, 2012 DJ Yossarian rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: music, the-glorious-or-not-so-glorious-70s, sixties

To be honest I couldn't get past about page 30 of this thing -- the writing style grated on me that much. The actual factual historical stuff was insightful enough, but I just can't abide by the particular conceit employed here by the author, of having these multi-page italicized interludes that are supposed to be some kind of interior monologue by the protagonists (but in second person), e.g.

You are Peter Grant. It is the summer of 1968, you are thirty-three and sick and tired of earning mone

...more

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Sep 12, 2012 Josh Lovvorn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Like probably most readers of this book, I fell into this book thanks to my love of the band Led Zeppelin. As a teenager, I discovered classic rock thanks to my father and my interest in impressing a girl who I was trying to date at the time. Though I spent a long time on the punk rock and ska vibe, I always came back to classics like Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, and of course, Led Zeppelin. I was then quite interested in learning more about he band than the random quips I learned from internet ba...more Like probably most readers of this book, I fell into this book thanks to my love of the band Led Zeppelin. As a teenager, I discovered classic rock thanks to my father and my interest in impressing a girl who I was trying to date at the time. Though I spent a long time on the punk rock and ska vibe, I always came back to classics like Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, and of course, Led Zeppelin. I was then quite interested in learning more about he band than the random quips I learned from internet babble and various magazines.

The book was set up in an interesting format. It started with the time of Jimmy Page in the Yardbirds and his struggle to bring together an "album-centered" band through every obstacle. The book began, and was intermittently interspersed with apparent 2nd-person accounts of all of the members of the band and their manager Peter Grant. At first, these "asides" were nice. It was a way to step back in one sense, and in another sense to get a more personal account of the band's history. However, as the book progressed from album to album, the asides continued to delve into each members' past experiences in the music industry and pub scene. By the end of the book, the asides were more a nuisance than anything.

I enjoyed how the book was chronicled nonetheless. Mick Wall takes us on a timeline with the major road signs being the albums themselves. At times I grew a little weary with the amount of time spent on the occult interests of Jimmy Page, but given how paramount he was to the band, and how paramount those interests really were, I cannot really fault Wall for his time spent on the subject. I was also very interested in the comings and goings of Peter Grant, the infamous manager who bludgeoned his way through the American music scene, and Richard Cole, the road man and eternal partner in chaos to John Bonham.

The book was fantastic, and I found myself having to pause to pull out my vinyl copies of Led Zeppelin I, III, and Physical Graffiti to listen to them as they should be heard. I also pulled out the DVD, paying great attention to every member of the band in turn to get a good feeling of what the book was describing. I became especially engrossed with Bonzo, listening as closely as I could the drums in each song, finding myself experiencing Led Zeppelin totally differently, and more completely now.

I recommend this book to any fan of Zeppelin, and anyone interested in rock and roll in general. It is a good flowing read and primes you to fully appreciate the band and their enormous accomplishments.

As an aside, I found myself completely distracted with the asides in the book. I was listening to the audiobook, as read by Simon Vance. He really is a great reader of audiobooks, but these asides were read in the same cant and accent that he reads Duncan Idaho of the Dune novels (which I have on my iTunes and listen to at least a couple of times a year). This bears nothing to the actual book, but if you are an audiobook listener, it's worth a mention.(less)

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Mar 02, 2012 Mankey rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was surprised by this book. Having read everything "Led Zeppelin" under the sun I didn't think there was anything new to dig up on the band, but I was wrong. Wall does a surprisingly good job of detailing the problems and tensions that plagued Led Zeppelin the last five or so years of their original run together. He actually writes about John Paul Jones!!! What a concept!

Wall also comes across as someone who knows at least a little bit about the occult. After countless references to Aleister C...more

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Apr 30, 2011 Tim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

Just to get it out on the table, I love all sorts of music, and I think that Zeppelin is top-tier. In a word, this bio make me appreciate the music of the band all the more and loathe the band members similarly. The author's use of the SECOND person, vocative case (self address, in this instance) is interesting and provides a good cut away to provide the back story of the members of the band. The technique could get old, but I think it was used well in this book.

I was born in '77 and didn't pay...more

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Jan 21, 2011 Tom Choi rated it 4 of 5 stars

A good read: "When Giants Walked the Earth" is less lascivious than the infamous "Hammer of the Gods" that I read as a wee lad. And this is a good thing, as I was quite traumatized back then from reading about the band's lurid sex practices, occult rituals, and unholy pacts of the band from that book. Well, this is all mostly true in Jimmy Page's case, but Mick Wall's biography sticks pretty closely to the facts. Yes, Jimmy Page was a notorious and quite famous follower of the occult (he was act...more

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Jan 24, 2013 Josh rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I'm a huge fan of Led Zeppelin's music, so I thought this was a good choice as part of my decision to read more non-fiction and work in more biographies.

Unfortunately, it's just not really up to snuff.

The positive first: it's certainly comprehensive, having a great deal of detail about the band coming together, personal lives, and activity. Mick Wall shies away from nothing, detailing every wanton sexual encounter, the drugs, the violence throughout the touring & recording years. There's a l...more I'm a huge fan of Led Zeppelin's music, so I thought this was a good choice as part of my decision to read more non-fiction and work in more biographies.

Unfortunately, it's just not really up to snuff.

The positive first: it's certainly comprehensive, having a great deal of detail about the band coming together, personal lives, and activity. Mick Wall shies away from nothing, detailing every wanton sexual encounter, the drugs, the violence throughout the touring & recording years. There's a lot of good bits about how manager Peter Grant changed the way bands did business, and fascinating stuff about how the band put together the early records on the run.

The negative: the collection of italicized "flashback" sections that pop up repeatedly throughout the book as an attempt to climb inside the heads of various members of the group, told supposedly as if it were really members of the band thinking or talking. It's a horribly misguided decision, no matter how well the author thinks he knows his subjects. They're amazingly speculative, increasingly tedious, and become very easy to skip through. (this might have been more acceptable if Wall actually knew the band during those days, but he didn't even meet any of them until after the band had broken up) There's also surprisingly little analysis of the actual recordings or the live performances. Additionally, there's probably more time spent on Jimmy's Page's interest in the occult and explanation of the history of much of the teachings and figures involved in that than musical analysis. It's just not as interesting as Wall thinks it is and ventures too far afield.

Wall is interestingly non-judgmental for most of the book, reporting the rampant drug consumption, sexual exploits, and destruction of property with little fanfare. It's not until the tail end of the book does Page's drug addiction or Bonham's alcoholism come under any real criticism.

I have a few other quibbles: despite being remarked upon at the outset how John Paul Jones is the neglected member of the band historically...Wall really does the same to him. Page is clearly the subject that Wall knows best and considers the most important, and Plant gets a close second billing especially as the book goes on. Bonham is clearly third, as his antics and personal destruction is either more interesting (arguable) or easier to write about (definitely). Wall also pans the last Zeppelin album (In Through the Out Door) while giving a pass to the previous effort Presence, for reasons that aren't very clear. He clearly doesn't respect Jones' expanded direction on ITtOD, but Presence is often considered a much weaker album today.

Lots of great touring stories here, and tales of the early relationships and battles to get respect are good stuff. And the book is certainly a comprehensive look at the band and all its members, bringing things forward all the way to the last couple of years. (weirdly, no mention of the fate of Richard Cole is made, despite the Zeppelin roadie/tour manager/running buddy being a core character through the book) But it's too distracted with attempts to climb inside the heads of everyone and adding psychological motivations, and too removed from the actual music which was the most important thing (probably the one thing all surviving band members could agree on).(less)

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Jan 05, 2013 Linda rated it 3 of 5 stars

A mostly well-written and certainly thorough history of Led Zeppelin by a writer who does his research and clearly has connections to plenty of insiders happy to relate their experiences with the band. I didn't mind the second-person narratives as much as some readers here. They do flesh out the band members' personalities more than straight third-person narrative though I was mildly irritated by the chronological inconsistency toward the end.

I also disagree that Wall spends too much of the book...more A mostly well-written and certainly thorough history of Led Zeppelin by a writer who does his research and clearly has connections to plenty of insiders happy to relate their experiences with the band. I didn't mind the second-person narratives as much as some readers here. They do flesh out the band members' personalities more than straight third-person narrative though I was mildly irritated by the chronological inconsistency toward the end.

I also disagree that Wall spends too much of the book discussing the occult. Having read some reviews prior to reading, I actually expected it to be a much more central topic. Given how large a part the Crowley story plays in Page's mythology, it would be a sin of omission to skirt the issue. I appreciate that he took on the subject and I did learn some new things from it though I'm not entirely convinced Wall got it all right in the end. It was great to hear some specific stories about Boleskine House after all of Jimmy's oblique references over the years to strange occurrences there.

Wall failed to convince me that John Bonham's behavior in his later years should be excused because he was so torn up inside from missing his wife and children. If he missed them so much that it turned him into a completely deplorable asshole, why didn't he just take them along with him? He could easily afford it. One can't help but wonder if his family weren't a tad relieved when he went on the road.

At the same time, I did come away from this book with a greater appreciation for Bonham's (and Plant's and Page's and Jones') talent. It actually helped me hear the music in a whole new way - listening to each individual's contributions more closely, appreciating the care that went into arrangements, etc.

Overall, this is a solid history of the band - as good as I've read though I haven't read them all - and fans (over anyone even mildly interested in the heyday of rock excess) will find a lot to appreciate here. Definitely worth reading.(less)

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May 05, 2013 Ru rated it 4 of 5 stars

Tremendous biography of arguably the most acclaimed rock band in history. Having read "Hammer of the Gods" by Stephen Davis many years ago, and being absolutely in awe of just how brilliant a rock bio that is, "When Giants Walked the Earth" had its work cut out for itself, in my view. Mick Wall definitely earned his stripes with me with "Enter Night", the Metallica biography, so I knew at minimum this would be a decent offering. This is much, much more than that. I will likely never get over my...more Tremendous biography of arguably the most acclaimed rock band in history. Having read "Hammer of the Gods" by Stephen Davis many years ago, and being absolutely in awe of just how brilliant a rock bio that is, "When Giants Walked the Earth" had its work cut out for itself, in my view. Mick Wall definitely earned his stripes with me with "Enter Night", the Metallica biography, so I knew at minimum this would be a decent offering. This is much, much more than that. I will likely never get over my love for "Hammer of the Gods", but this is every bit as good and an excellent companion piece, actually.

It would appear that it is virtually impossible to write about Led Zeppelin without complete and utter reverence, understandably so. "Giants" does a great job of individualizing the members and humanizing them as well, without sacrificing their god-like personas. I really enjoyed the depth to which Mick Wall discusses their roots as "The New Yardbirds" and how that name shackled the band to some extent, though providing some success nevertheless. Once Led Zep was born, though, it was like the portal opening to a world you never knew existed. There are great stories here about (but of course not limited to) album covers, management, Elvis, Page's obsession with the occult (which is particularly amazing), Plant's tragedies and reticence in recent years, the rise and sad loss of Bonham, The Who, and of course, no Led Zep bio can be complete without a retelling of "the shark incident." ;)

I love rock bios because there's a bit of a "Wizard of Oz" quality to them; they take you to places you'd never normally get to go, and you get to pull the curtain back just a bit. If you're lucky, the mystique of who you're reading about remains. Led Zeppelin has more mystique than perhaps any band in history, and even reading about virtually every aspect of them and their membership doesn't dispel any illusions, thankfully. They are and always will be deities beyond compare.(less)

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Jan 09, 2013 Nate rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I started reading this book after being completely immersed in Mark Blake's "Comfortably Numb: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd". I love the music of the 70's, and was eager to learn more about the era as well as the stories of the people who shaped it. Naturally, I felt that taking on an account of another one of the greatest rock bands of that time was the next step. This led me to pick up "When Giants Walked the Earth", an exhaustive biography of Led Zeppelin by Mick Wall. Soon after starting i...more I started reading this book after being completely immersed in Mark Blake's "Comfortably Numb: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd". I love the music of the 70's, and was eager to learn more about the era as well as the stories of the people who shaped it. Naturally, I felt that taking on an account of another one of the greatest rock bands of that time was the next step. This led me to pick up "When Giants Walked the Earth", an exhaustive biography of Led Zeppelin by Mick Wall. Soon after starting it, however, my enthusiasm turned to a feeling of literary malaise.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad book by any measure. It is incredibly thorough and packed with information, and as far as I know, is the most comprehensive account of the legendary rock band ever produced. The problem is, it may be too comprehensive. While at moments the biography is inspired and fascinating, it is equally bogged down by detail that slows the flow of the read to a glacial pace. I admire Wall's meticulous effort, but found myself looking forward to the next page turn; not because I was on the edge of my seat curious to see what would come next, but because I was ready to get through that segment in hopes that the next part would be more interesting.

Enter Jimmy Page's obsession with Aleister Crowley, the notorious and polarizing occultist prominent in the early 20th century. Maybe it's just my lack of interest in such matters, but the second half of the book focused heavily on Crowley's influence on Page and his work. And I understand that at this time, Zeppelin was Page's baby, but attention to the rest of the band and other goings on was sparse. It became primarily a documentation of Jimmy Page and his obsession rather than an account of a juggernaut band collapsing internally as well as fighting for relevance.

I feel that I walked away after reading this book with all the information I could have ever desired to know about Led Zeppelin, but also burdened with so much more detail than I felt was necessary. Do I blame Wall for this? No. He set out to create a work that is unparalleled in its scope and that was certainly accomplished. I just found it to be long winded and incredibly difficult to stay focused upon.(less)

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Jun 08, 2011 Chip'sBookBinge rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As with KISS And Make-Up, I never really had a desire to read the history of Led Zeppelin because I pretty much knew all the stories from various sources over the years, be it from on-camera interviews with members of the band or interviews from magazines and such. As far as When Giants Walked The Earth, I was even less inclined to read it for the simple fact that it was written by someone other than a member from Led Zeppelin.

This isn't a knock against the author Mick Wall. The dude did his res...more As with KISS And Make-Up, I never really had a desire to read the history of Led Zeppelin because I pretty much knew all the stories from various sources over the years, be it from on-camera interviews with members of the band or interviews from magazines and such. As far as When Giants Walked The Earth, I was even less inclined to read it for the simple fact that it was written by someone other than a member from Led Zeppelin.

This isn't a knock against the author Mick Wall. The dude did his research, albeit flawed and then some, with extensive interviews with people in and out of the band. But for me as a reader, it always loses something in the translation when another person writes about something as big as Led Zeppelin. What we are left with is the author's interpretation of what happened.

The book itself is a decent read when it's talking about the band in present day, reflecting on all the stories and myths synonymous with Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham. I actually couldn't put the book down reading it from page to page when it's all about the Zeppelin mystique and it's place in Rock history. But there were a couple of things that I absolutely did not like or even think was needed in the book.

Whatever momentum I was getting reading the present day stuff, always came to a screeching halt when the book shifts to a narrated flashback as Mick Wall sees it. His words, not mine. Suddenly the book is now reading like a screenplay for a potential movie. This works fine if it were formatted as a screenplay. But for me, this just became unbearable after awhile. Whenever I could see that another flashback was about to rear it's ugly head, I started dreading having to read it.

This is a pretty fat book at 467 pages. So there were a lot of instances where I was beyond frustrated regarding the flashbacks. Sure, some people can and will argue that it's there simply to further flesh out that person's character and where they came from. But for me, it just doesn't work in a book/novel format. For you other readers, you may enjoy it. I for one do not.

The other thing that I found unnecessary was the amount of time spent on Aleister Crowley. It was just way too much and took me even further away from Led Zeppelin and all the crazy stories that went down on their Tours over the years. Sure, once again other readers will say that it belongs in the book because of the profound influence he had on Jimmy Page and his music regarding all that "Black Magic" crap. For me, I could care less. I get it. But I don't need to read page after page of what Crowley was like as a child and growing up to become this wizard and all that. It was totally unnecessary and a waste of time.

And do we really need to know that Jimmy bought such and such castle and how he decided to give all the rooms it's own different theme? No. Stuff like this should have been cut out to make it tighter and more precise (i.e. a better read).

I was also curious as to just how far and how much of the Led Zeppelin legacy was going to be addressed in the book. It's all here from it's humble beginnings as The New Yardbirds all the way to Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' Raising Sand, which by the way is the sole reason why there is no reunion as of 2011. Yes, even the reunions of Live Aid, Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary and O2 are dissected here.

I'm a huge fan of the band and thought I knew it all. But there were very few things that were new to me in this book. Overall, the book simply retells everything that even a minor fan of the band already knows. So, I would only recommend the book to those that have to have everything with the name Led Zeppelin plastered on it. Personally, I would never read this one again.(less)

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Apr 12, 2012 Gary rated it 4 of 5 stars

I might be a lone voice, but I thought the imagined reminiscences of the band members (and Peter Grant) were very effective. Although written in the second-person, these passages sought to portray the thoughts and feelings of the subject, and I found them quite convincing and enlightening.

There were two bigger problems for me. First, although the book is generally well written, there's a slight tendency to overdo the literary flourishes and not quite do them well enough; as if the author was try...more

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Jul 22, 2012 Bobby rated it 3 of 5 stars

An illuminating look into the seeds of, the formation of, the career of, and the demise of one of the great rock bands of all time. I felt like the introduction to Page's fascination with the occult was a bit overly long and I was not impressed with some of the author's biases. Namely, his need to keep comparing Page to Jeff Beck, always making it clear that Page was obviously superior, an opinion I would contest. Beck was never as huge as Page & Zeppelin commercially but is the superior gui...more An illuminating look into the seeds of, the formation of, the career of, and the demise of one of the great rock bands of all time. I felt like the introduction to Page's fascination with the occult was a bit overly long and I was not impressed with some of the author's biases. Namely, his need to keep comparing Page to Jeff Beck, always making it clear that Page was obviously superior, an opinion I would contest. Beck was never as huge as Page & Zeppelin commercially but is the superior guitar player (hey, Beck's better than Clapton, too, so that's nothing to be ashamed of!) and has put himself in a position where he still has a career and the freedom to do whatever he wants. (In contrast, Page is obviously largely trapped by Zep and hasn't really done anything of great significance since then.)

I find it kind of ironic that the author slagged Beck because he's not the great composer that Page was since another issue I have with Wall's book is the offhand way he brushes off issues of authorship of songs. Ever heard Muddy Waters' "You Need Love"? If you have, there can be no doubt that Zeppelin borrowed very heavily from it or, perhaps, you could almost call "Whole Lotta Love" a cover of it! Should the original writer be credited alongside Zeppelin on this and so many other "Zep songs" (c.f. "When The Levee Breaks," "You Shook Me," and many more)? Absolutely, even if they did rework them to great effect.

I also tired of the author's perspective that, basically, Plant has the audacity to block a true Zeppelin reunion from happening. "Poor Jimmy Page can't go back to Zep again because of inconsiderate Robert Plant," he seems to be saying. But after reading his book I find I appreciate Plant's perspective more than ever - if you're successfully reinventing yourself and having a blast doing it, why would you want to do a (possibly half-assed?) reunion, other than the 1 show in London 5 years ago? The author seemed to imply that Plant practically owed it to Page & Jones to stop blocking this much desired reunion. That's rubbish!

In the end though, I feel like this book probably well represented the arc of Led Zeppelin so that the reader had a sense of their accomplishments and the sadness of the end, as well as the futility of trying to recreate it.(less)

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Dec 01, 2011 Jacob rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library-books

Not a great book - like most other rock biographies, it falls apart around the same time the band in question does - but still, if you're a Zeppelin fan, it's essential reading. I never read Hammer of the Gods, so I can't compare the two, but I will say this is a very even-handed reading of Zep's history and impact on music and popular culture. To the point, I learned more about Aleister Crowley than I did before, and to the author's credit, he does a good job giving a level account of how Jimmy...more

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Jul 27, 2010 Jae rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010-books

It's a little strange to read a book like this, a VERY detailed biography, about a band you aren't really a fan of and don't really know anything about. I definitely could recognize Stairway to Heaven if I heard it on the radio, oh, and Going to California, and then after that there's a sharp drop-off. But I've been reading a bunch about Laurel Canyon and bands in the 60s & 70s lately, for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, and there have been a couple mentions of LZ and rui...more

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Jun 20, 2011 Philippa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In many ways this was an absolutely brilliant book to read, even if when one considers the material and author combined it may have been inevitable that the outcome would work as well as it did. That being said the final two chapters and epilogue were absolutely grueling to get through. Once Mick Wall reached the tragically premature death of drummer John Bonham the book itself lost its footing. All material afterwards seemed to be a blur of the public and media demanding a painfully nostalgic r...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Karl Gunnar rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: music

In it's heyday, Led Zeppelin was hugely un-popular with the Music Press. This has proved a challenge for everyone who has tried to write a coherent history of the band. Being a teenager myself during the time when the dinosaurs ruled, I found this book very enlightening compared to the rumors that overflowed the music press at the time and a great improvement compared to other band-boigraphies, that were content to print the legend. Of course Wall is on the verge of falling into that other ditch...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Mattias rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think that Led Zeppelin are one of the most overrated bands ever. Yes they are good but much of their music are tired blues numbers in a new costume.

But with that said they had an really interesting career and I love reading biographies so I gave this one a try and I liked it. I have read Hammer of the Gods before and that was mostly about the groupies, sex and drugs. This one is more balanced with every aspect taken into account. But the first person narrative sections are really annoying and...more

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Dec 06, 2012 Carl rated it 4 of 5 stars

I would have given this book five stars if ti were not for a series of imagined pieces where the author decides to take us into the heads (as he sees them) of Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant John Bonham and Manager Peter Grant. At First these invented interludes add to the regular text and flow of the main narrative but as the book continues they become more and more pointless and redundant. Also he makes some odd "critical appraisals of their albums and performances- the most bizarre...more

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Mar 04, 2013 Tom Huguelet rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: musicians-music-history

Great Zeppelin Bio, a balanced in treatment of history, cultural roots and impact, musical legacy, mysticism, greed, and debauchery.

I thought this was very well written and well conceived. The only slight criticism would be the author's semi-apologist views of Page's plagiarism. It's clear he's a huge fan of Page's but he also does describe Page's flaws and mistakes. Robert Plant does not receive the same apologist's hall pass.

The flash-back dialogues are fanciful, but add a real-ness (although...more

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Aug 09, 2011 Worth added it · review of another edition

About those second person flashbacks... Ultimately had to skip those, but otherwise, this was an engrossing read. Hadn't read a bio of LZ since Hammer of the Gods. Not that I remember much beyond the first page of that one (I must have been 14 or 15 when I read it), this one has to be better. More or less a pro-Page take on everything and by the end somewhat ambivalent about Plant. Regardless, ...in the days of my youth... I loved these guys; it's still hard to quell the imagination when it come...more

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Jan 08, 2010 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

A couple years ago when I read the insipid Hammer of the Gods, I could not believe that there didn't exist any better Led Zeppelin biography. Finally, it seems, there does.

When Giants Walked the Earth has a number of advantages over the older Zep bio, not the least of which is that its author is a half-decent writer. He actually manages to give a sense of the personalities of the different bandmembers, and paints an interesting picture of their pasts and their evolution throughout the band's his...more

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Jun 25, 2012 Paul Lyons rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Thorough, well-researched, and fundamentally flawed, WHEN GIANTS WALKED THE EARTH tells the Led Zeppelin story from beginning to end...from its earliest origins in the seminal mid-60's guitar band, The Yardbirds, to the band's formation in the late summer of 1968, to million-selling albums and sold-out tours throughout the 1970's...through highest highs, and darkest tragedies...to comebacks...and cancellations...leading up to Led Zeppelin's abrupt and shocking end in 1980. Wall discusses it all....more Thorough, well-researched, and fundamentally flawed, WHEN GIANTS WALKED THE EARTH tells the Led Zeppelin story from beginning to end...from its earliest origins in the seminal mid-60's guitar band, The Yardbirds, to the band's formation in the late summer of 1968, to million-selling albums and sold-out tours throughout the 1970's...through highest highs, and darkest tragedies...to comebacks...and cancellations...leading up to Led Zeppelin's abrupt and shocking end in 1980. Wall discusses it all...and beyond...

Rather than a write a straight narrative, Mick Wall chooses to deviate from the story every now and then with an unusual technique. In order to capture the essence of the individual players involved (namely Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, John Bonham and Zeppelin manager Peter Grant), and their respective stories...Mick Wall breaks off into long, italicized passages where he pretends to have an imaginary conversation with each person. For example, at the start of the book he writes "You are Jimmy Page. It is the summer of 1968 and you are one of the best-known guitarists in London - and one of its least famous. Even the past two years in the Yardbirds haven't brought you the recognition you know you deserve." Then later on "At least you know where you stand. Self-confident, well-off, used to being on your own, you've always been someone who knew exactly where you stood, even as a kid playing on sessions for old timers like Val Doonican..." Anyway, you get the idea. Through this process...we get to learn a bit about each person's background and personality...and also take an educated guess as to what their mind-set was back in the day. At first, I found these derivations annoying...as it brought the on-going, chronological story of Led Zeppelin to a halt each time. Then, I began to appreciate the process and felt I was able to get a better deeper sense of who each player was. The problem is, Wall goes too far, and yet not far enough. The increased frequency of italicized passages got old after a while...and I became sick of them. Worse, despite a flurry of events throughout the 1970's, and 1980....Wall refuses to incorporate, nor even reference anything newer than the 1969 in his italicized prose. For example, Wall could be discussing the detail later on in the book about the ill-fated 1977 Zeppelin US tour, then stop and jump into a second or third round of italicized paragraphs about Peter Grant's life and mindset circa 1964. This just killed the momentum of the overall story, and was just plain frustrating to get through. It's a shame, as the idea was good...yet Wall just puts into overkill.

Also frustrating, Wall takes liberties with the facts...as the book is filled with various errors, which dismayed me. How hard is it to check dates...particularly an important one? Wall mentions May 25, 1969 as a day that Led Zeppelin played a music festival with Jimi Hendrix...WRONG! Not only is that date wrong, what actually happened that day was an important part of early Zeppelin history. At the Merriweather Post Pavillion in Columbia, Maryland that evening...Led Zeppelin played on a double-bill...serving as the opening act to none-other then The Who! This was the one and only time this ever happened...the two most powerful live British bands together at the same place at the same time. Who guitarist Pete Townshend marked the event by insulting Led Zeppelin on stage. It was quite the evening, and would've provided interesting commentary and comparison between the two legendary band...Yet Mick Wall missed it, or didn't know, or care about it somehow...

What he DOES care about is one of the book's major weaknesses...the occult. Because Jimmy Page has dabbled, studied, collected, and practiced teachings in the occult, Mick Wall is insistent upon discussing the occult as much as possible in the book....going so far as to devote an entire chapter to infamous occult practitioner Aleister Crowley. He quotes Crowley through the book, and looks for Crowley and other occult references in all of Led Zeppelin's music...particularly their 1971 masterpiece "Stairway to Heaven." Perhaps he feels the occult is at the heart of Led Zeppelin...yet still, valuable paragraphs and pages are spent on all sorts of details and history of the occult...including lengthy passages about Jimmy Page's houses...and their connection to the occult. It gets to the point where Wall even overshadows his own book...letting occult stories and facts upstage the story and music of Led Zeppelin.

Another point of note: Wall is unjustly dismissive about Led Zeppelin's final years (and final album)...insisting that the band was already on a heavy downward spiral before the untimely death of John Bonham in September 1980. Wall characterizes the end of Led Zeppelin as inevitable...as if the death of the band happened just when it was supposed to. He backs his ridiculous claim with painting the final three years as weak, with poor musical output, and lackluster concerts. Anyone who was there. Anyone who has seen the videos, heard the bootlegs...Anyone who loves the 1979 Zeppelin album In Through The Out Door, as well as the music from the 1982 leftovers album Coda, will wholeheartedly beg to differ...

Don't get me wrong, WHEN GIANTS WALKED THE EARTH: A BIOGRAPHY OF LED ZEPPELIN is not all bad. At times the book is a very enjoyable read...a real page-turner. I did learn a few things about the making of a number of Led Zeppelin's records...and appreciated the insight into the life and times of Peter Grant, as well as Jimmy Page. I never knew, for example, that Page was friendly with the late Brian Jones (of The Rolling Stones), and had a brief relationship with 60's singer/songwriter Jackie DeShannon. I also appreciated candid interviews with peripheral players in the Zeppelin story... such as concert promoter Freddy Bannister, and legendary manager Don Arden. I liked the fact that Mick Wall would sometimes use quotes directly from the source...having personally interviewed Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones over the years. Yet Wall keeps getting in the way of himself...

For example, at the end of the book, Wall insists upon continuing the Zeppelin story past the band's demise...including any and all reunions, as well as solo albums. This wouldn't be so bad, except the post-Zeppelin pages stay well beyond their welcome. It's get to the point where the author goes on and on and on incessantly about current Led Zeppelin reunion rumors, and focusing on the interpretation of coy quips from Robert Plant. The book finally ends with no ending...just one final, desperate attempt to guess what Robert Plant is thinking, and when Led Zeppelin will reunite again.

By the time I finished reading WHEN GIANTS WALKED THE EARTH: A BIOGRAPHY OF LED ZEPPELIN, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. There's much to like in Mick Wall's writing, yet the book's unbalanced nature throws the whole thing off. It certainly was much better than that shameful Stephen Davis' LZ -'75 pamphlet I read...yet still suffered from its own set of errors and issues. I am afraid that The Great Led Zeppelin chronicle has yet to be written. No matter...the real story of Led Zeppelin is all in their music...great songs that go way beyond the prose of ambitious, yet misguided biographers. Listen to their music, and you'll learn everything you wanted to know about Led Zeppelin... (less)

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Feb 20, 2013 Dave Ward rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: drugs, music, non-fiction, rock-and-roll, biography

When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin by Mick Wall (St. Martin's Press 2008)(780.92)is a tell-all book about the band's ten-year run as the giants of rock and roll. They wrote the book on excess, if the author is to be believed. Life on tour for this band was a neverending debauch, and Mick Wall doesn't leave out a single story. John "Bonzo" Bonham, the drummer, apparently made Keith Moon look like a piker. Although I was never a fan of Led Zep during the band's run, this boo...more

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Jan 30, 2013 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

The title might not hold much meaning for you at first. It didn't for me. I always loved Led Zeppelin but I didn't grow up with them - I'd only heard them on Classic Rock stations. By the end of the book, you know that the members of Led Zepp (and their retinue) were truly Giants.

This book made me feel like I had experienced the era. I "feel" the 70s much differently now. I'd always heard how great John Bonham was but this book really gets into detail about just how great a dummer he was. For in...more

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Mar 13, 2013 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: recentlyread

There's a whole lotta lame things about this book, beginning with its title, but what are you going to do with an already over-mythologized band who made some great music for a half-dozen years, were true assholes much of that time, and then imploded, not in one Hindenburg-like fireball but in a series of them, of which John "Bonzo" Bonham's pathetic death was only the final detonation? What Mick Wall does makes pretty compelling reading, especially the first half of the book, which covers Led Z...more

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