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

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Nov 08, 2009

Summary

Hammer of the Gods, Stephen Davis's 1985 biography of Led Zeppelin, was dismissed by the band as a seedy fiction, but if this account by band confidant Mick Wall portrays anything more clean-living, it's only by a tiny amount. Wall includes fine detail – inter-band politics, the whiff of the rehearsal room – but lurid anecdotes dominate, such as tales of hotels trashed with samurai swords. The sense of naive 60s permissiveness souring into something more sleazy is palpable. It's hard not to blanch at journalist Ellen Sander's account of attempted sexual assault by the band's entourage, and such behaviour clearly wasn't at all irregular. "Not a false picture," is Jimmy Page's less-than-contrite response.