Led Zeppelin Book Review

Good Times Bad Times

Few acts in the vast library of music entertainment can be used in the same sentence as true art form. Millions will agree that Led Zeppelin does. Maybe not classical music aficionados.

In thirty years as a minor music journalist (Jam, Relix) I’ve seldom had shattering musical insight or scintillating prose.  I’m prone to overstatement and hyperbole.  Not this time. This book is titanic. It’s a pictorial of the original, true-to-form rock and roll band. The eight-page introduction is worth the cost of the book alone.

Led Zeppelin I was released to little fanfare in January 1969. Led Zeppelin II, released in October ‘69 really got noticed. 

My teenybopper friends and I weren’t introduced to them until the spring of 1970. The raw heat and dazzling lead guitar of Heartbreaker stunned us all.  At the big finish of that track, the two-second cue before Livin’ Lovin’ Maid had us reeling. Like a bucket of ice water in the face on a scorching day – refreshing and shocking – all we wanted was more. With a purple umbar-rel-a and a fifty-cent hat barges in with an entirely distinct rhythm, tone and signature.

I bought I and II the next day. 

Good Times Bad Times[1], by Jerry Prochnicky, long time researcher and rock writer and Ralph Hulett, music photographer/journalist combine their talents in grand fashion – almost twenty years after Zeppelin crashed.

I bought this book online six weeks ago and it arrived last week. Since then my head has been churning with Misty Mountain Hop, Ramble On, How Many More Times; as many as I can think of – Dazed and Confused, Street Corner Girl…then my mind scolds itself: what about Kashmir, In the Evening, When the Levee Breaks?  All are jamming my head – they fight for airtime but each is cut short by competing Zeppelin tracks…No Quarter, The Ocean, Nobody’s Fault But Mine… it’s as if the tracks have voices of their own – all demanding to be heard. Like rice sucking up water, my head is bulging to the breaking point – these treasures live on…it’s fantastic. 

I’m drunk with delight… You Know I’ve Had My Share — we’ll be back in three weeks.  

This blog post is the first of at least six on this 216-page 8 ½ X 11 hardback.

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[1] Abrams Publishing, New York, New York, October 2009