There are a few different approaches one can take in chronicling Led Zeppelin, the larger-than-life hard rock band that blazed through the 1970s like an out-of-control comet. You can stick to the music, the approach taken by the worshipful upcoming documentary “Becoming Led Zeppelin.” You can go salacious, as in Stephen Davis’ highly unauthorized 1985 book “Hammer of the Gods.” Or you can bite off the whole story, the glory and the mayhem, the train wreck and the true bliss.
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That’s how Bob Spitz approaches his sprawling account, “Led Zeppelin: The Biography” (Penguin Press, 688 pp., ★★★½ out of four, out now). Spitz, whose previous subjects include The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Ronald Reagan, knows he needn’t exaggerate the band’s abhorrent behavior, from drummer John Bonham’s blind-drunk sexual assaults to guitarist Jimmy Page’s petulant entitlement. He also knows said behavior doesn’t eliminate Led Zeppelin’s mighty musical triumphs as the most popular rock band of its generation (they routinely outsold The Rolling Stones). The good, the bad and the ugly coexist in the Led Zeppelin story, and Spitz knows well enough to report and tell it all.
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It all starts with the blues, an obsession for English white boys of the ’60s looking to break free from safe pop strains. “For a generation of British teenagers looking to leave their mark,” Spitz writes, “the blues had become a state of mind.” Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker and others made these young musicians’ hearts go pitter-patter, including a skinny, outrageously talented guitarist named Jimmy Page.
Before long Page was jamming with The Yardbirds alongside his friend Jeff Beck. To his credit, Spitz doesn’t portray this pairing as some kind of collaborative paradise. One stage wasn’t big enough for those two egos. Besides, Page had something bigger on his mind: a super group, boasting the kind of talent and profile no one else could match.
From the London studio scene he plucked bassist John Paul Jones. In the blue-collar Midlands pub scene he found wailing singer Robert Plant and ferocious drummer John Bonham. There’s a relative innocence to these early, assemble-the-troops times. Zeppelin had yet to become a collection of divas. The mountains of cocaine, rivers of booze and piles of cash hadn’t yet curdled the quartet. Their demands and expectations hadn’t yet become ridiculous. The band’s manager, Peter Grant, hadn’t yet become a coked-up bully. Zeppelin just wanted to be louder, and better, than anyone else. And oftentimes they were.
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Zeppelin obviously wasn’t the only band of its time and milieu to partake in ’70s rock ’n’ roll excess. But they did seem to push hedonism to unusually destructive lengths. The book details two instances of attempted rape by Bonham, who drank himself to an early grave at the age of 32. Page was a connoisseur of underage groupies: “Robert’s girlfriends weren’t as young as Jimmy’s; many hovered around the age of consent,” Spitz writes. Regarding the groupie scene, it was Plant who said, “One minute she’s twelve and the next minute she’s thirteen and over the top.”
“It’s telling of attitudes of the time that cultural commentators didn’t call out such sentiments as offensive,” Spitz writes. “Rock ‘n roll bands – especially Led Zeppelin, perhaps the most egregious in the behavior department – were given a pass.”
Spitz, on the other hand, gives nobody a pass. Hovering above all the parties and all the jams and the richly detailed accounts of creating each album is an abundance of abominable behavior that only grew worse as Zeppelin’s fame exploded. Blame the drugs and the alcohol and the enabling if you wish, but this is one group portrait that doesn’t flatter.
Do you know what pairs nicely with a pumpkin spice latte? New book smell. The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting longer, which puts us in the mood to get cozy under a warm blanket, light a candle and settle in with a good book. Lucky for us, there are plenty to choose from this fall, starting with “The Book of Form and Emptiness,” by Ruth Ozeki • Out now • A year after the death of his father, 13-year-old Benny Oh hears voices, often troubled, from inanimate objects – but then he finds peace in the voices of books.
“Bewilderment,” by Richard Powers • Out now • From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Overstory” comes a heartrending story about astrobiologist Theo Byrne, who searches for life in the cosmos while raising his unusual, brilliant, kind but also troubled 9-year-old son, Robin, after the death of his wife.
“Cloud Cuckoo Land,” by Anthony Doerr • Release date: Sept. 28 • From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “All the Light We Cannot See” comes a kaleidoscopic story that takes place across three different places and times: 15th-century Constantinople, a small town in present-day Idaho and a spaceship in the future.
“Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence,” by Anita Hill • Release date: Sept. 28 • A new manifesto on gender violence – what it is and how to confront it – from the lawyer who gave landmark testimony against Clarence Thomas alleging sexual harassment during his Supreme Court nomination.
“Crossroads,” by Jonathan Franzen • Release date: Oct. 5 • Franzen tells the story of a Midwestern family in the 1970s at a pivotal moment, the action largely unfolding across a single day. Russ and Marion Hildebrandt each seek to free themselves of their marriage; oldest child Clem comes home from college; popular sister Becky is veering into counterculture; and youngest brother Perry has been selling drugs to middle schoolers.
“The Night the Lights Went Out: A Memoir of Life After Brain Damage,” by Drew Magary • Release date: Oct. 5 • Several years ago, the popular Defector and former Deadspin columnist suffered a sudden catastrophic brain hemorrhage that left him in a coma for two weeks and permanently changed. He shares the story of his near-death experience, journey to recovery and life after touching the void.
“The Lincoln Highway,” by Amor Towles • Release date: Oct. 5 • Emmett Watson, 18 years old and newly released from a juvenile work farm where he was serving time for involuntary manslaughter, hits the road on a tour through 1950s America in an absorbing novel from the bestselling author of “A Gentleman in Moscow.”
“I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness,” by Claire Vaye Watkins • Release date: Oct. 5 • A writer leaves behind her husband and baby daughter for a reading in Reno, Nevada, that’s supposed to be brief but turns into a monthlong postpartum depression spiral as she confronts the ghosts that haunt her. A dark, and darkly funny, work of autofiction from the gifted writer of “Gold Fame Citrus.”
“Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American in Search of the Real Dirt,” by Nick Offerman • Release date: Oct. 12 • Actor, writer and humorist Offerman (“Parks and Recreation”) takes a trip across the Land of the Free for some deep meditations on our relationship to the land, from our backyards to our majestic national parks.
“On Animals,” by Susan Orlean • Release date: Oct. 12 • A collection of stories from the author of “The Orchid Thief” and “The Library Book” about how humanity lives alongside animals, including the chickens in Orlean’s own backyard, the 23 tigers one New Jersey woman keeps as pets and the world’s most famous whale.
“Unprotected,” by Billy Porter • Release date: Oct. 19 • The Emmy-winning actor of “Pose” shares his story of growing up Black and gay in a country that wasn’t kind to either identity and how the constant struggle to simply be himself shaped the singular artist and proud icon.
“Going There,” by Katie Couric • Release date: Oct. 26 • The beloved journalist and former co-anchor of the “TODAY” show takes readers behind the scenes of her professional life and shares the obstacles she overcame – sexism, insecurity, an eating disorder, the death of her first husband – in this intimate portrait of an undeniably modern woman.
“Baggage,” by Alan Cumming • Release date: Oct. 26 • The acclaimed queer Scottish actor follows up his 2014 memoir, “Not My Father’s Son.” Cumming continues the story of his self, chronicling his life in Hollywood and personal transcendence from a traumatic past.
“Our Country Friends,” by Gary Shteyngart • Release date: Nov. 2 • In March 2020, a group of friends gathers at a country estate to ride out the pandemic together. The next six months are filled with romance, betrayal and conflict. Could this be our first Great American Pandemic novel?
“The Perishing,” by Natashia Deón • Release date: Nov. 9 • Lou, a young Black woman in 1930s Los Angeles, wakes up naked in an alley with no memory of how she got there. After a series of remarkable visions and coincidences, Lou begins to believe she may be an immortal. Can she recover the memory of her past in order to save the world?
“The Sentence,” by Louise Erdrich • Release date: Nov. 9 • The Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning author of “The Night Watchman” returns with a ghost story. A bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted by its most annoying customer, Flora, who refuses to leave even in death, and bookseller Tookie struggles to get rid of her.
“My Body,” by Emily Ratajkowski • Release date: Nov. 9 • Model, actor and social media influencer Ratajkowski goes deep on the subject of the commodification of women in this collection of essays which explores feminism, sexuality and the cultural treatment of women. If anyone would know, it’s her.
“Will,” by Will Smith with Mark Manson • Release date: Nov. 9 • The global superstar opens up about his life, tracing his transformation from a fearful child in West Philadelphia to Hollywood box-office titan, and the inspirational journey of self-knowledge needed to master his emotions and keep his family together.
“Call Us What We Carry,” by Amanda Gorman • Release date: Dec. 7 • Gorman proved herself an energizing new voice in American poetry with her stirring poem, “The Hill We Climb,” memorably delivered at this year’s presidential inauguration. Her breakout collection includes that poem and more that carry a message of hope and healing.
“Beasts of a Little Land,” by Juhea Kim • Release date: Dec. 7 • A young girl named Jade is sold by her family to Miss Silver’s courtesan school and befriends an orphaned boy, JungHo. As the friends come of age, they become swept up in Korea’s revolutionary fight for independence in this epic historical tale.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Glory and the mayhem: New Led Zeppelin biography tells tale of groupies, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.
