Hammer of the Gods

Ah-a-aaaahhhhHAAAA!!! Ah-a-aaaahhhhHAAAAAA!!!<br /><br />It's been a long time since I read this book<br />It's been a long time, but let's have a look<br /><br />What a whole lotta love Davis has for Zeppelin!<br />What a whole lotta love!<br /><br />Here's a fanboy who's sure all that glitters is gold<br />And he's written the band into heaven<br /><br />And if you said you were a Led-head<br />Oh what fun this book would be<br /><br />Me, I'm gonna ramble on<br />I'm gonna find a new read to quench my greed<br />Ramble on!<br />

I've heard it said that "rock'n'roll ain't pretty".<br><br>I never it expected it to be quite so repugnant, however. Read this book if you want more information than anybody needs about what goes on when young adults are allowed to have no limits absolutely.<br><br>I'd have to blame most of the raucous behavior on the road manager, Richard Cole, and the band's manager, Peter Grant. I'd only been a casual fan of Led Zeppelin (collected all their cds but preferred my 70's hard rock a bit more Purple or Black), so I had not previously heard of either of these guys. Between the two of them, they basically set the musicians of Zeppelin as idiot kings, able to satisfy every whim and never worry about consequences. Not a good recipe.<br><br>I'd read a similar account in the Alice Cooper book (Billion Dollar Baby). Their manager, Shep Gordon, used this tactic to vault the band to stardom. If you act like stars, and are treated like stars, then the confidence you gain might actually make it true. In Alice Cooper's case, it was also to the eventual detriment to the band. Only Alice himself (a true sheep-in-wolves-clothing) was able to get past these excesses, although his battles with alcoholism were not minor. <br><br>What price, fame?<br><br>And in Led Zeppelin's case, you can read in this book how things fell apart. Jimmy Page starts out as quite a nice young man, wise with session experience and seemingly smart enough not to get spaced out like the elder Yardbirds he had joined. In fact, it's his vision that helped allow Zeppelin to craft such superior-quality music.<br><br>But you'll find out too many disappointing things about Jimmy as you read the book to its end.<br><br>Robert Plant comes across as a pretty nice guy. He goes wild at first but does seem to rein things in a bit as time goes on.<br><br>John Paul Jones may be the only one to retain his good sense throughout the band's tenure. Not coincidentally, the book speaks at length about the distance he kept from the band. He was not one to spend his time with the carousing crew like Bonzo.<br><br>And Bonham... what can be said? Described as a nice guy with a heart of gold when he's sober, he's probably the kind of guy who would have troubles fitting in (due to his temper and love of drink) in an ordinary life. But with Richard Cole and Peter Grant around to keep encouraging the worst sort of behavior, and also to help him avoid any serious consequences, it's no surprise that he eventually met with tragedy.<br><br>But enough with the excesses of rock'n'roll. Being only a casual fan, I did learn quite a bit about the band.<br><br> - in the early days of recording rock groups, the producer would bring in the group of choice. Often he'd have a song picked out for them. If some of the musicians couldn't play their parts quickly enough, a session musician would immediately step in to finish the track. That's how Jimmy Page (pre-Led Zeppelin) got such great experience. (It's also the way that Ritchie Blackmore got his start before Deep Purple, but that's another story.)<br><br> - Jimmy's first "real" group was the Yardbirds, but he joined at their zenith. They fell apart, leaving him the name. In fact, the first set of shows that Led Zeppelin did was under the name "The New Yardbirds".<br><br><span>[image error]</span><br><br> - Led Zeppelin really did steal a lot of musical ideas. They crafted their songs well, but it would have been appropriate to share some credit.<br><br> - Led Zeppelin's double album "Physical Grafitti" was not all recorded at the same time. Nearly half of it were tracks unused from previous sessions. It's probably not that much of a secret to diehard fans, but it was news to me. <br><br> - Led Zeppelin was unlike other landmark 70's hard rock bands (Deep Purple and Black Sabbath) because they were highly famous almost at the start. Jimmy Page was able to take his session experience and his Yardbirds experience and use that to orchestrate a band with a lot of appeal and drive right from the start. What's my proof? I do have a quite a few early bootlegs that I've collected over the internet in the past 10 years, and I've always wondered why Led Zeppelin had more available than other notable bands. Right from the start, fans were appreciating Zeppelin enough to archive their every performance. Other bands have far fewer such recordings available in their early years. It's all due to Jimmy Page, his previous experience, and his uncanny musical vision of the new supergroup Led Zeppelin.<br><br> ** Deep Purple had a similar story in that Ritchie Blackmore also had a lot of session experience, but without strong group experience (like Jimmy in the Yardbirds), the first incarnation of Deep Purple (with singer Rod Evans) was basically the training ground for when the vision would be clarified with new singer Ian Gillan (who brought with him experience with Episode Six, to add to organist Jon Lord's experience with the Artwoods). <br><br> ** Black Sabbath had no such session experience to draw on, nor any previous group experience. They benefited from a strong vision of their musical style from their first recorded output. But it takes time for a following to build up, and hard rock had no radio airplay at that time.<br><br><br>One Final Word<br>--------------<br>Many reviewers here have critized the author's "poor writing skills". I'd have to argue, but I'll pick my spots carefully.<br><br>If you dwell on the list of hedonistic excesses, the book gets monotonous. However, if you go back and reread only those sections that deal with the songs (or the performances themselves), you'll see that the author really has a way of describing the music in ways to make it come alive. Nearly every time the author was describing a song, I felt the urge to pull up that track from the album (or from the bootleg of the show he was describing) and listen to it. The author truly does have a skill in describing the music. It's by the far the best parts of the book, and worthy of your attention. Like writing numerous love scenes, it cannot be easy to write about numerous songs and make them come alive.

this was really a crappy book; i give it two stars because of the interesting but lifeless information it gave me. facts. they had a lot of groupies. they fucked some girl with a shark they caught fishing out the hotel window. they did cocaine, then heroin. bonham bought a lot of cars but couldn't drive. jimmy had a 14-year old girlfriend he kept locked in his hotel room. robert plant's dog's name was strider. john paul jones... played bass. some other shit. most of it interesting. some not.<br /><br />but no insight into any of the guys in the band. at all. i don't even think the guy who wrote the book ever even talked to them. most of it seemed to be info from the manager and tour manager. this happened, then this, then we went here, there were girls, we fucked them with fishes, etc.<br /><br />and john bonham was a DICK. and i was glad when he died. true fact. of course then the band broke up, because you need the insane violent drunk asshole to hold the band together by making everybody else bond with each other to deal with him while he's assaulting people and trying to rape female reporters and stewardesses. he's gone, suddenly there's no shared sense of purpose and everyone wanders off to do heroin and make shitty albums with david coverdale.

This book is disappointing, which is odd because the story it tells should be so interesting. Unfortunately, the author simply doesn't write very well.<br /><br />The story reads more like a list of events than a narrative, and to provide interest and emphasis his primary tool seems to be the use of <i>italics.</i><br /><br />The redeeming quality of the book is that the author takes each studio album and breaks it down song-by-song, citing influences and inspirations behind the music.<br /><br />Otherwise, apart from the infamous 'shark incident' (which through his insipid writing he even manages to make sound dull) this book doesn't have much to offer.<br /><br />I have to believe there are better Led Zeppelin books out there--if anyone knows of any, please let me know!<br /><br />[Update: Now there does exist a better Led Zeppelin book. See my review of <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6445709-when-giants-walked-the-earth" rel="nofollow noopener">When Giants Walked the Earth</a>.

Great band. Actually THE greatest ever, in my opinion. Not a great book. I've read it twice. Just not written very well. I'd like to find a better bio on Zeppelin and read it, if I could actually part from romance/erotica long enough!

started: 5/26/08<br />finished: 5/29/08<br /><br />First of all, no rock and roll book could possibly be any more shocking then Motley Crue's The Dirt. lol. Hammer of the Gods is a must read for any Zep fan, really. A classic book about a classic band. It is completely up to date, until 2007 - that's only last year people! :P I really enjoyed it, I always wanted to know what was coming next and I just about cried when it reached 1980 and it was time to say goodbye to Bonzo. Maybe because I love the band so I'm emotionally attached anyway. I loved getting to know Jimmy and Robert and co. more, insight into their personalities and lives. Highly recommended for Zep fans and rock and roll fans in general. A must read!<br /><br />Also, I'd like to note, that I read this book exactly forty years after the inception of the band: 1968-2008. Sweet.

Ci sono due principali motivi per cui le mie aspettative erano alle stelle, e forse anche sopra: per prima cosa, i Led Zeppelin sono i Led Zeppelin, e ci sono poche cose, nel panorama sonoro, capaci di farmi andare fuori di testa come la loro musica; secondo, io dell'autore avevo già addentato la biografia di Jim Morrison, che ho adorato.<br /><br />La verità è che questa lettura mi ha spiazzata, perché se da un lato intrattiene, raggiungendo quello che immagino fosse lo scopo finale, dall'altro il testo è veramente raffazzonato. Si parte bene con la giovinezza di Pagey, si prosegue in modo strano perché agli altri non viene dedicato lo stesso spazio. O meglio, non compaiono proprio, fino al battesimo Zeppelin. Ogni tanto, con un intervallo di circa trenta pagine, ci si ricorda con improvviso stupore che esisteva anche John Paul Jones.<br />Si mescolano informazioni che vanno dal sensazionalismo e lo scandalo che da sempre accompagnano lo scenario rock, ad un elenco di tracce, date ed indirizzi. I punti davvero approfonditi sono purtroppo pochi, spesso ci vengono date informazioni anticipate che verranno poi riprese, in modo assolutamente disomogeneo e discontinuo, alcune pagine dopo.<br />Clamorosamente, il libro si apre con la leggenda della presunta vendita delle anime della band a Satana, cosa che poi non verrà mai approfondita.<br />All'apice della mia perplessità, ho letto un po'di recensioni e ho trovato molto spesso il mantra "poorly written", pensiero che in fin dei conti devo condividere.<br /><br />Nonostante la stonatura di tutto questo intermezzo, la lettura di questo manifesto firmato Stephen Davis offre un piacevole svago e accompagna il lettore appassionato di musica sulle tracce della leggenda.

Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. These guys invented it. Yeah, baby.

Probably not very true, but still totally awesome.

I read this book because it's one of the only books that my husband has ever read more than once. I wanted to see what was so great about it, so off I went.<br /><br />First off, this book is not for me. In my view, this is a zero star book. (Smack-headed pedophiles, angry violent drunks, and dudes who marry a women, have kids with her, divorce her, then marry her sister and have kids with her also, don't really do it for me. Seriously -- those kids are siblings AND cousins. WTF?)<br /><br />Not only did my husband love this book and read it multiple times, he wrote an entertaining book report about it way back in 1990, when he was a wee lad of 13. He rated the book "excellent", so I've gone ahead and given it three stars --that's a nice balance between his five-star rating and my zero-star rating.<br /><br />Because it is highly entertaining, here is my husband's book report, verbatim and [sic]:<br /><br />Hammer of the Gods, the Led Zeppelin Saga. Rating: Excellent. March 12, 1990.<br /><br /> "Led Zeppelin was a rock group of the late '60s, all of the '70s and the early 80s. the band consisted of four members, Robert Plant, who was the lead vocals, Jimmy Page, electric guitar, John Bonham, drums and John Baldwin, alias John Paul Jones, bass and keyboard. <br /> The group started in 1968 when they recorded their first album called "Led Zeppelin." It only cost 1,750 pounds to produce, but grossed over $7 million by 1975. Their second Album named "Led Zeppelin II" was recorded the following year. It was Attacked by critics, but the kids loved it. It sold 800,000 copies in forty weeks. Led Zeppelin's Third album...you guessed it "Led Zeppelin III" was also critisized heavily but the common people thought it was great. When they put their fourth album out "Led Zeppelin IV" in 1971 the assault from the critics was quite slight.<br /> In 1972 and 1973 they went on a world tour while writing the lyrics to and recording the next album "Houses of the Holy." They put the album out after the tour and it went platinum. They took some time off after that.<br /> Their next album, made in 1975 called "Physical Graphitti" was also a smash hit album. By 1976 they started to loose some of the sparks they had in the last 7 years. They put out an album named "Prescence" which not many people liked and neither did the critics. They were also drug addicts or Alcoholics by then. Led Zeppelin had split up for a little less than two years and Roberts son, Karac Plant had died from a respirritory disease. Elvis Presley had died too who was a good friend of the bands.<br /> In 1979 the band got back together to make another album called "In through the Out Door." It did fair on the charts and the critics didn't like it that much. They released it in 1980. <br /> One night in 1981, John Bonham got really drunk and passed out. They laided him down at the Hotel he was staying at and the next morning he was dead. The group put out one last album named "Coda" from songs never put on the other albums. It was put out in 1982 and the group split up. Each member going solo Robert was the most successful.<br /><br />Hedonistic - Devotion to pleasure.<br />Gendarme - A French National Policeman.<br />Truncheon - A short stick carried by Policemen.<br />Troth - good faith<br />Therme - A unit of heat equal to<br />Umbrage - Offense<br />Fracas - noisy quarrel<br />Wrangle - to dispute Angrily<br />Spiel - to say at length<br />Tumescent - swollen<br /><br /><br />Robert Plant - <br /> Was a tall, slender, young man with blonde hair, blue eyes and had quite light skin. He wasn't emotional or shy, he was quite strong and had an average endurance.<br /><br />How many children did each group member have?<br /> Robert Plant had three kids, one girl, two boys. One of the boys died. John Baldwin had three girls. John Bonham had one son who has his own band now. <br /><br /> <br />