From the best-selling author of THE BEATLES
comes the definitive biography of LED ZEP.
“This is the story of poetry and power, rape and pillage, of rock ’n roll incarnate. It’s a great book.”
– Ann Wilson, Heart
From the author of the definitive New York Times bestselling history of the Beatles comes the authoritative account of the group many others call the greatest rock band of all time, arguably the most successful, and certainly one of the most notorious.
Not all the legends are true, but in Bob Spitz’s careful accounting, what is true is astonishing, and sometimes disturbing.
Led Zeppelin gave no quarter, and neither has Bob Spitz. Led Zeppelin is the full and honest reckoning the band has long awaited, and richly deserves.
“Music biographer Spitz (The Beatles) calls on his supreme research and analytical skills to deliver the definitive story of one of the greatest rock groups of the 1970s. He gives new insights into each of Zeppelin’s recordings, as well as their dynamic live performances, which, he writes, were “comparable with how jazz combos performed, with loose arrangements that depended on synchronicity and intuition.” At the same time, he takes an unsparing look at how the band’s massive success snowballed into a “heedless hedonism” that led to their decline and disbanding after the alcohol-fueled death of drummer John Bonham. For all the excess and cruelty Spitz recounts, his passion for the band’s musical genius will captivate rock enthusiasts.”
—Publishers Weekly, ★ STARRED review
“Bob Spitz always gets right to the heart of the story, whether it’s the story of Dylan, the Beatles, or Julia Child. This story, the outrageous story of Led Zeppelin and all its rock ’n roll craziness, is right here in these pages.”
—Graham Nash
“Bob Spitz shows Led Zeppelin and Peter Grant as the iconoclasts they were; grinding the self consciousness of rock ‘n roll in the 70’s into submission without a backward glance. Infamous stories from the road, tales of excess, dominance and ego are balanced by the band’s insatiable desire for heat and beauty. This is the story of poetry and power, rape and pillage, of rock ‘n roll incarnate. It’s a great book, a valuable reading of rock art history.“
– Ann Wilson, Heart
“From LZ’s guitar-god origins through its boozy, drug-addled decline, Bob Spitz doesn’t miss a riff, solo or trashed hotel room. But like the band itself, what emerges most profoundly is the historic, stop-what-you’re-doing sound–loud, bluesy, unapologetic. This is everything you could want in a rock biography.”
– Jess Walter, Author of BEAUTIFUL RUINS
“Let me just say it straight: There is no more elegant, authoritative, deliciously confident and pleasure-giving nonfiction writer – on music, or most other subjects – than Bob Spitz. The reader is a fly on the wall in this panoramically detailed and sociologically majestic book. Bravo to Bob Spitz. They simply don’t get any better than this.”
– Sheila Weller, author of GIRLS LIKE US
“Wielding his signature tools of meticulous reporting, piercing analysis and trenchant writing, Bob Spitz proves again that he’s a modern master of cultural biography. Spitz goes deeper and sees more clearly than any previous biographer, and his storytelling powers make it spellbinding.”
– Peter Ames Carlin, author of BRUCE and SONIC BOOM
AN INTIMATE INSIDE LOOK AT THE HEAVIEST BAND ON THE PLANET
FROM THE FIRST
TO THE LAST
