The first ‘authorised’ documentary telling the story of possibly the biggest band in the history of Rock n Roll. Led Zeppelin.
Firstly, let’s address the elephant in the room. Why am I reviewing Led Zeppelin? A quick flick through the pages of this webzine will reveal we cover grassroots and non-mainstream artists like Zion Train, Headmix and Dactyl Terra. Partly because the likes of Oasis don’t need our help, and partly because we think the likes of Oasis are shit.
If you flick through the shelves of the record collection in Peppermint Iguana HQ, you will find an abundance of albums by the likes of Maggot Slayer Overdrive, The Sniveling Shits and Foreheads in a Fishtank. It’s not a snobbery thing, I just find them more interesting. However, you will find a few big sellers on the shelves. I could probably count the megastars in my collection on one hand. But they are there. The list of my all time favourite artists changes quite regularly, but The Stone Roses and Pink Floyd are pretty much always on the list.
Last week, I visited a mate’s record shop in Croydon, Tenpin Records. One of the records I walked away with was a CD copy of Led Zeppelin Volume II. Now I’ve probably had this album in my possession longer than just about any other album. Before I had the pocket money to buy my own records, this was in my childhood home due to my big sister owning it. I’ve never got around to buying it on CD though. Yes, I’m old skool, I prefer CD to vinyl – that’s a whole other blog though.
This afternoon I went to pick up Mrs Iguana from work and we cruised down the Rhymney Valley with Volume II blasting out. As the final chords of Whole Lotta Love faded, I felt myself compelled to comment. “They may be bell-bottom wearing, patchouli oil-smelling, long haired hippies, but that there is five minutes and thirty three seconds of pure pop perfection. It doesn’t get any better than that”. Rocking in at fifty-five years old, the album sounds as fresh today as it did the day if first dropped back in 1969.
Then, as we were sat at home (yes, we do stay at home occasionally) looking for something to watch on one of those tax-dodging streaming services, I noted the new documentary ‘Becoming Led Zeppelin’ was available. It was as if the gods of rock were saying, “Oi, this is what you need to watch tonight.” And who am I to argue with the gods of rock?
This is the first time the surviving band members have participated in the making of a documentary. Obviously drummer John Bonham does not participate: he died in 1980, but there is never before heard audio used in the film,
The film goes back to their childhoods just after the Second World War and includes them talking about their earliest influences, like Little Richard, Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, Gene Krupa, Sonny Boy Williamson, and – erm – Lonnie Donegan.
Guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones got to know each other through session work. Page had cut his teeth playing skiffle at a very early age and Jones had grown up in a vaudeville family, so was surrounded by music. They had played in the background on many surprising tracks, including working with The Rolling Stones, Petula Clarke, Donovan, Lulu, The Kinks, The Who and even on Shirley Bassey’s James Bond theme ‘Gold Finger’.
Vocalist Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham, meanwhile, were friends in the midlands and played in various bands on the pub and club circuit.
Page famously got called in to join the Yardbirds, but soon found the rest of the band left leaving him carrying the baby. He recruited Plant, Bonham and Jones to join him to fulfil a few Yardbirds gig commitments and then set about recording a new album. From the word go they were in charge of their own destiny, refusing to let record company executives get involved in the making of the music. Which is just as well. Whilst many bands have musical geniuses in their ranks, few bands can claim to be made up entirely of musicians that were at the top of their game and arguably the best in the world at what they did.
When the album eventually came out, it was released under the name Led Zeppelin, apparently a suggestion from Keith Moon. The rest, as they say, is history. The world suddenly got a little bit heavier.
The film contains loads of archive footage, some of it quite rare. From home movies of the guys as kids, ancient TV appearances and news footage from the era to set it all in context. As Neil Armstrong was taking his first steps on the moon, for instance, the band were on stage at a festival in America.
The footage includes several complete live renditions of some of their barnstorming classics, such as ‘Communication Breakdown’, ‘Dazed and Confused’ and ‘Whole Lotta Love’. I can’t imagine anyone with a pulse watching this footage and not being blown away. There’s footage of Page doing his magic stuff on Black Mountain/White Summer, the latter never making it on to any official studio albums. This has a special memory for me, because it was playing on the ‘maternity mix tape’ I had prepared for my then wife, and was playing as my eldest daughter Zoe was born. I’m convinced Page is playing two different riffs at the same time on one guitar.
The film only goes up as far as the first two albums and ends on a high. Personally I thought Volume III was also a classic and Volume IV cannot be ignored, as it featured the song that launched a thousand air-guitar solos, ‘Stairway to Heaven’. For me, some of the albums after that had a few interesting tunes on, but none of them had the ‘all killer, no filler’ quality of the first three albums. In addition, we start getting into the self-indulgent period of having their own plane, double neck guitars, twenty minute drum solos and playing to ridiculous sized crowds. Don’t get me started on the clothes. And of course, as we drew towards the end of the seventies, the world of music was given a big shake up with the arrival of Punk Rock and far more interesting and exciting stuff was going on that was far more in touch with its audiences.
What I am saying is – the film ends at just about the right point for me. It is a snapshot of one of the greatest bands the world has ever seen, before they started to become irrelevant to the next generation. What’s more, it is beautifully put together with loving care and a huge dose of class.
The film is totally about the music. We get very little about the legend that was manager Peter Grant and his dominance over the promoters, label bosses and anyone else who would try to rip off the band. There is nothing about the hedonism and debauchery that went with a huge rock band on tour in those heady days. It is slightly sanitised, but that’s no bad thing. It lets the music speak for itself, and over half a century later, it is music that has occasionally been equaled, but never beaten.