Surprised you did not mention they all got sick of being interviewed, and that’s why this drops dead where it does, at the second album. I so wanted to hear them talk about “How the West Was Won,” because I’d argue that’s the greatest Zep album, with “Since I’ve Been Loving You” their best ever track. Calling Bonzo civilized is absolute revisionist history. He was a brute. Lifted me over his head as if he were pressing iron, and threw me down the stairs to their plane. And poor Danny Goldberg was at the foot of the stairs yelling, “no, Bonzo, no; he’s the journalist on the road with us…”

Tom Zito

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I haven’t seen the doc yet but it will have to, as a teen rock reporter for Tiger Beat magazine in the 1960’s. I got to go to every single concert at The Rock Pile in Toronto, the infamous former Masonic Temple at 888 Yonge Street the major North/ South street in Toronto. Yes it’s very haunted. I got to see everyone and I mean everyone who came through there, two nights a weekend, different acts from 1967 onwards.some in early 60’s too.

I had been a Yardbirds fan from the  For your Love Days,and Shape of Thing’s To Come, I’d been a John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers fan when Eric Clapton played with them, the Yardbirds were in the popular film Blow Up with Jeff Beck smashing his guitar. I knew Jimmy was in the YB’s.

I got to see the Zep play at the Rock Pile on a very hot August night in 1969 it was packed to the rafters. I was standing on the floor a few feet from the stage and me and everyone had their minds blown. I went backstage. Robert Plant and the guys are hanging out. I’m wearing a black lace see-through shirt with strategic pockets and a nude body stocking underneath, I’m 17. Robert  Plant came up to me grabbed my shirt and pulled me over to him, the buttons ripped open on the front of my shirt, I was stunned and  holding onto my shirt and walked my way backwards out. Other people in the room were like. Wow Robert Plant ripped your shirt open! You’re so lucky.

Got to see Zep later in 1970s play at a college campus in the suburbs. They were good but the energy wasn’t as raw as the that first 1969 album was. Still I’m a fan. I watch every ls live performances on YouTube now.

So glad I was born when I was to live through seeking the Beatles live 4 times and all the great rock acts many of whom I met.

That time and that music will never repeated.

Tara Greene

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In 1969, I was 15 living near Springfield Mass. my sister somehow got the first Zep album with Communications Breakdown etc and we played it over & over. So when we heard on local Fm radio that Zeppelin would be playing the Springfield Municipal auditorium, a few of us got tickets and our parents to drive us. But the place was 2/3 empty so I/we went down and sat in the front row in front of Page (and as the joke goes, I haven’t heard well ever since). It was a great show and plant was over the top with his lemon dong . The next week the 2 nd Zep album was issued in. The disc with Whole lotta Love and the rest is history . It’s possible that the Springfield Mass show may have been one of their first in the US but it was far from crowded.

Ironically later in life-after law school in my first job with a small boutique firm that handled US taxes for British entertainers, I was handed 100 pages of depositions to summarize- about 25 pages of sworn statements by  each member of Zepelin as they appealed the UsGov IRS going after them for US performance income sheltered in the British Virgin Islands. (The US gov didn’t buy it, but the depositions were an entertaining read for a 25  year old newbie lawyer/ fan and insights into what the band members actually knew or didn’t about the business they were in.)

bkatchinson

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I saw Led Zeppelin on Halloween evening, October 31, 1969 at Symphony Hall in Springfield, Massachusetts. A venerable blue blood 2500 seat venue not accustomed to British rockers.

I believe Led Zeppelin 2 had just been released. Taj Mahal opened the show.  Taj grew up in Springfield and had a tremendous welcome as I recall.

At that time he had already recorded a few records of his own.

While i had seen a few live shows ( Dave Clark 5

being the most notable) the Led Zeppelin show simply blew everyone away both sonically and culturally. We had simply not experienced anything like this before in our young 15 years and knew intuitively that our world was going to get a lot more interesting, and fast.

I spent the summer before on a ranch near Snowflake, Arizona. There was a turntable and one record on the property. The first Led Zeppelin LP. So by the time I got to Symphony Hall I was quite familiar with the music but not the explosive experience of a full out live rock and roll show.

For the next 55 years I measured every live performances against this first live experience, not unlike a first love who always stays with you.

Whatever you want to say about Led Zeppelin, they were certainly one of the best rock and roll acts to hit American shores, ever.

PS, my oldest son is a professional musician who has backed Terry “superlungs”Reid on some of his solo tours over the past 10 years.

Terry is of course best known as the vocalist that was asked by Jimmy Page to join the new band. Terry passed because he was at the time committed to going out on tour opening for the Stones and i believe Cream. He recommended Page speak to his buddy Robert Plant. The rest is history. If you haven’t had Terry on your podcast you should. I don’t think there are many others out there who intersected so many lives in Rock N Roll. Happy to make an introduction.

Jonathan Plotkin

Chief Imagination Officer

The Spontoonist

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As I watched this documentary I realized that Jimmy Page is a Rock and Roll genius along with Brian Wilson, Phil Spector and Lennon/McCartney.

Peace

Tim Clary

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I was NOT there. But in the 90s when I was a teenager my guitar teacher started teaching me Zeppelin in my second lesson, and when I put Led Zeppelin II on my dad’s Klipsch Heresies my world was transformed. Then when I studied music in college, they made us read books about the blues and how Zeppelin appropriated black musicians’ work. Well, that’s a topic for the classroom and it’s part of the story, but Zeppelin was not a cover band, and the way they make you feel in their live performances is the essence of rock and roll, based on the blues but so much more. Very few bands have done it like they did. I like rock from all eras, but 80s rock all sounds corny by comparison, and 90s rock sounds almost unmusical. Jimmy Page really did have the touch. There are a lot of great guitarists out there, and my favorite is Hendrix for his unique style, but Page and maybe Brian May are the only other popular rock guitarist on that level technically, musically, harmonically who could communicate so much with a single melodic line.

Mitchell Maddox

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I was fortunate to see Led Zeppelin on their first US tour.

They opened for Country Joe and the Fish at the Fillmore West in SF.

And, of course, they were remarkable.

Best,

Michael Wright

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What I loved about it was the early focus on how being born in England during or just after WW2 shaped all of them. And Page’s and Jones’s descriptions of their early days as session musicians and arrangers.

Also, I never knew Plant was homeless for a time because of his utter commitment to becoming a singer.

Seeing it at a French cinema early this year with a special sound system was revelatory. I thought I knew every note of these songs, but I heard sounds I’d never heard before. I want a sequel that covers the next two albums.

Alison Bracker

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Was lucky to see them perform live at The Forum when I was 11 or 12. My sister took me — I never took Physical Graffiti off the record player. Just played it over and over and over.

-Lesley Bracker

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Thanks for writing about this. I was waiting… Zep was my band. Being on the “younger” side I saw them twice, LA Forum ’77 and Knebworth in ’79. Seeing the band on their home turf and the British audience was an unforgettable experience to say the least.

I loved the movie. I learned some things I did not know and saw some amazing unseen footage! I absolutely love how John Bonham was given a voice for the film and to watch the other three being filmed listening to the interview for the first time was magical! Seeing their faces and the emotion it brought, priceless! My wife is not a fan fan but loved it nonetheless. I must say this film deserved to be seen and heard via the IMAX experience. On TV at home would not have done it justice.

Cheers, Mark Southland

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I was there too, too young for their breakthrough but an early fan and was 10th row at the MSG run in ’77 I believe.  I know the story but love doco’s that show a slice of an artist’s history rather than a chronological career film.

 

The reason I watched it was Bonham, the clips of him in the trailers blew me away.  I know all of Jimmy’s playing and moves, the raw power of Bonham is what I enjoyed the most.

 

Barry Ehrmann

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I saw Led Zeppelin at the Baltimore Civic Center in 1971 and Rod Stewart and Faces in 1972. Jimmy Page played a guitar solo on “Dazed and Confused” for 20 minutes with a bow on a double neck guitar. I still go to shows today and see groups who are technically more talented than the groups back then but they don’t have the inner drive or creativity that people like Jimmy Page had. Like you, I was fortunate to see most of the great acts of the 1970’s for a couple of bucks a show. It was an experience. Thanks for all that you do to keep the spotlight on the industry.

Tom Fitzsimmons

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Facts:

“The Doors renaissance was unexpected, yet I don’t hear any kids talking about the band today. But Led Zeppelin?”

Anecdotally I can attest: My students have never heard of the Doors of Jim Morrison. Honestly, if I play “Light My Fire” for them, they can’t connect. I see a student or two wearing a Zep shirt daily.

I told one student who loves music about Jim Morrison singing the lyric on Ed Sullivan show even though he was supposed to change it. My student said, “How do you know so much obscure music knowledge?”

Obscure…

Heck, my World Lit class just read Julia Keller’s editorial about 9/11. No one knew who Dan Rather or David Letterman were. (They did know The Wrinkle in Time reference.)

Mike Vial, from the trenches

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I didn’t want it to ever end. I may have to watch that doc as I do Cameron Crowe movies – over and over and over and over again.

I remember the first time I ever heard a Zeppelin song – I was 12 and visiting my friend’s house. I heard music coming from her older sister’s room and the sound crushed my heart and gave me butterflies (she was playing Houses of the Holy). I never felt that way ever before about anything. It shook me and made me want to cry. I think it was my first love. Their music has owned me completely ever since. It still makes my heart hurt and my stomach shake but it also reminds me of everything wonderful I’ve seen and every joy I’ve experienced. For the past 40 years my favorite place to be is in my headphones listening to Led Zeppelin – my happy place. I have to thank Denise Casillas for listening to them in her Orange County bedroom back in 1984 – I will never forget that moment ever.

Denise Alvarado

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Led Zep’s first tour was my first concert. I was 12 years old. I begged my mom to let me go. We lived on West Street, literally just a couples blocks from the concert venue, the brand new Anaheim Convention Center (which had been an orange grove we rode our Sting Ray bikes in). My dad had just bought me a used Strat at Garden Grove Music (’58 Mary Kaye, I still have it) because, after 5 years playing a Japanese log, we couldn’t afford a new Strat.

I arrived early with anticipation. I had LZ’s first album months before I heard of the tour, and wore it out on my parents’ Packard Bell console. The opening act was some unknown British band named ….. Jethro Tull. Talk about hitting your first-concert lottery. Then Zep. It was an era where you could rush the stage, without any security, and I did. I was on the right, just under JPJ, Page was on the left playing thru a pair of trapezoidal Rickenbacker Transonic cabinets, JPJ had Acoustic 150s. They played most of the record, and I was enthralled. If anything cemented my next 12 years playing in L.A. rock and prog bands (Gazelle, Pegasus), it was this show. This band.

John LaGrou

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Well said, maestro. I was a huge fan, Jimmy page is my spirit animal as a player… What I took away from the film, besides seeing footage that I hand never before — and I didn’t think that was possible — was, and this is why the title “becoming Led Zeppelin“ is so great, you actually see these four guys, and it had to be THOSE four guys, that’s where the alchemy lies, become the biggest band in the world in a minute, in ONE YEAR between Led Zeppelin 1 and 2, it coalesces, takes off into the stratosphere and becomes a band for the ages. Fascinating. Hard to imagine it could ever happen again. Also the way Page imagined the albums as full albums, like each a novel, created to be ingested as a piece, not as a list of easy to swallow, bite sized snacks (which dovetails with his solo on “Stairway to Heaven” — far from my favorite song of theirs, but it contains the greatest guitar solo of all time, and I’m not the only gunslinger who thinks that, it’s perfect in every way and primarily its genius is the story it tells, with a beginning middle and end, not just hot licks strung together. I defy anyone from the rock era to be unable to hum the beginning of that solo, iconic is too soft a word for this work of art). I was also struck while watching the film by the love between these guys, still, and watching them listen with big smiles, wryly and in some cases joyfully, to the sound of Bonham’s disembodied, nonchalant voice was wonderful and at times really emotional… I think it’s a great film, even for those not in the cult. It’s like watching the Eiffel Tower being built in a year.

Steve Jones

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Thanks for the stroll down Memory Lane. I was at that Faces Rod Stewart show too! But I still have my Fillmore East program that lists when Led Zep shared the stage with Woody Herman and his Thundering Heard. I so wanted to go to the but maybe it was a scool night or I couldn’t scrape up three bucks for a Fillmore East ticket. Years later, I’m working at Scholastic Magazines as a writer/music editor and I was, like you, and remain a music fanatic. So thanks to Atlantic Records publicity department I got a free ticket to a double bill of Bad Company and Led Zep. Atlantic Records knew what they had with Swan Song (if memory serves) there was a show So at Madison Square Garden and it was Bad Company opening up for Led Zep. You mentioned Jimmy’s geetars. Love my Telecaster but that double neck Gibson guitar blew me away. The only time I’d ever seen the double neck  Gibson 12-25 was in the hands of John McLaughlin. A six string and a 12 string in the same guitar! As a guitar collector I’d love to own one of those two in one guitars but I’m not sure my aging back could handle the weight. I sold off my Les Paul cause it weighed as much as a boat anchor. Led Zep changed music, the concert biz in so many ways! Glad I got to see them! Thanks for the memories.

Chip Lovitt

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Thanks for your excellent perspectives on   Becoming Led Zeppelin. Generally quite agreeable.

A few things to add:  the Yardbirds released one LP where Page was to sole lead guitarist – “Little Games”. Unfortunately a second rate effort save for a few highlights but listen carefully and you’ll hear much of Page’s Good Times Bad Times guitar solo, the opening chords of The Song Remains the Same, and use of the violin bow on his Tele…all rehashed as innovations on LZ songs.

But what I really like about Becoming Led Zeppelin is it helps us forget their Song Remains the Same movie ever existed. The performances recorded in that movie should have never been released. Even a hardcore fan like me cannot excuse them for the dreadful Dazed and Confused performance.

Anyway, Becoming Led Zeppelin is a wonderful film – bravo to the producers and director!

markv

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Thank you for your thoughts Bob…they have spurred me to respond.

I approached this film with a certain amount of trepidation caused by my highly personal opinion that the “before fame” chapters of biographical works are usually not what interests me. I always want to get straight to the blood and guts chapters.

But in the theater Becoming Led Zeppelin immediately fascinated me. I mean it’s always interesting to see where the people came from – what kind of roots and environments influenced them – but seeing the milieu that all four members came through was a moving experience. To hear Johnny Kidd & The Pirates doing “Shaking All Over” in the theater with a modern sound system created a palpable excitement for me not unlike it must have hit Page et al in their salad days. So as I watched the disparate stories of these four working musicians with their influences, struggles, and successes I began to understand just how rebellious and explosive what was simmering and waiting for its moment to explode really must have been. It blew my mind to realize just how little time elapsed between Page & JOJ performing on Lulu’s “To Sir With Love” and the sonic assault that “Communication Breakdown” unleashed upon the world. It must have felt like a musical atomic bomb during those days. Revolutionary, rude, cacophonous, almost punk, and most importantly FRESH.

And you are correct Bob when you speak of the way Zeppelin’s music made people FEEL. The first Zeppelin song I heard was “Dancing Days” when I was in 4th grade on a friend’s older brother’s record player. It was an excitement unlike anything I had felt before and I am sure it changed the course of my life. I am definitely on record as saying that seeing Jimmy Page work the MSG stage in The Song Remains The Same film (at the Ridge Cinemas in Richmond VA) was the impetus for me wanting to be a musician. I mean who else gets to go to work in black silk dragon pajamas?

After seeing Becoming Led Zeppelin I was discussing my thoughts with another ancient LZ fan like myself and I mentioned the other aspect of the film that truly affected me: I said that it really got me right in the feels to see the surprise, joy, and amusement Page, Plant, and Jones displayed while being shown performance footage of themselves as “young gods.” Their reactions to their younger selves simply made me happy. It was an unexpected by-product for me.

But to see their loving and almost tearful reactions upon hearing the shockingly civilized tone with which John Bonham speaks in that last and lost interview was mind blowing. It’s not that I expected some kind of different reaction from them it’s just that their reaction was what any NORMAL person’s feeling for a tragically lost comrade would be. And I know that I am not alone in saying that I NEVER once considered the members of Led Zeppelin to be normal people.

I told my Zeppelin loving friend how amazed by the modern interview segments I had been upon seeing the film. And he simply responded, “It humanized them.” Nuff said.

And he was right. Becoming Led Zeppelin brought these gods down from Mt Olympus and put them back on Earth as gentlemen and elder statesmen. This is a remarkable accomplishment when the film could have been a predictably simple and complete fluff job.

One last thought: I was hoping for an announcement of a second film that might be entitled BEING LED ZEPPELIN that would detail the days of their ascension. But now I think I am happy with what we have. I do wish Jimmy Page would just fling open the vault and give us what he knows every Zeppelin fan like myself wants: MORE!

Cheers,
Dave Schools

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You forgot Coverdale/Page (1993).

Josh Valentine

Longmont, CO

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I ran our high school radio station. A good friend, came in with a block of hash at 10am, and Physical Graffiti. We locked the doors, and played it for hours. Got in sh*t for it since the jocks who had a speaker in their room didn’t like it. One of my greatest life moments ever.

Jim Carroll

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Love Led Zeppelin. Bought II when it was released. Saw them live in Stockholm in 72(?).

Anyhow, Becoming Led Zeppelin is NOT streaming in Sweden. What a bummer.

Thought that Netflix was world-wide. But, alas, no. Every itsy-bitsy country has their own catalogue.

So I guess it’s off to the Torrents.

Bye Bob, dig your writing.

Chris Bell

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It made me cry with joy more than once. Fucking glorious!

Hugo Burnham

Apple TV+ trailer: https://shorturl.at/dxkKf

I’ll watch Owen Wilson in anything. He’s kind of like Howard Stern, self-deprecating, but even more lovable. And he’s got that smile/wink of the eye.

Unfortunately he’s better than this predictable show, but that does not mean I didn’t enjoy it. I broke my cardinal rule of not watching anything week by week, but when the first episode was over, I saw they’d also dropped another three, but I’m writing about the first one anyway. Maybe Apple learned its lesson with “The Morning Show”… If you’re starting with nothing, you’ve got to give people more than a little taste.

I’ve been off Apple TV+ for a while, but online it says if you get a new Mac, you’re entitled to three months for $2.99 each, and that’s a deal. Which I couldn’t figure out how to get, no matter how much I researched and clicked. I asked the guy at the Apple Store when I went in for a new case for my iPhone. Yes, I saw this video on TikTok from an ex-employee saying they’ll take ANYTHING back, even cases, so I went and they did! And this guy in the store said OF COURSE I was entitled to the deal. But I still could not make it happen.

And then I called AppleCare.

Which I never do. Because if you can’t find the answer online, it probably doesn’t exist. And you’ve got to go through the first layer of help, where they ask you stuff like “Is it plugged in?” And that’s what happened, but they kicked me up to the big guy and Friday, nearly a week later, I got an e-mail from my helper saying that they couldn’t solve my problems, that they were bugs, which was what I thought, but I got sick of having no ding when I got e-mail and having my messages stacked as opposed to a list on the lock screen of my iPhone.

And we were on the phone for nearly two hours. And there was a lot of downtime and we established a bond so I asked him about the Apple TV+ deal, and he was feeling guilty because he was unable to solve my problems so he said “Let me see what I can do…” and ultimately I got three months free, ergo “Stick.”

Not that I was expecting much. The reviews were not top-notch. But there’s that magic Owen Wilson element. Ever since I saw him in “Bottle Rocket” I’ve been hooked.

He’s got that weird nose, as a result of injury. Someone else might have fixed it, but he hasn’t bothered. Maybe he thinks he’ll end up with something worse, which is probably true. But he’s a good-looking guy and then I start to think about the suicide attempt, which was contrary to the characters Wilson always plays. It was unfathomable at the time. But even if you’re handsome and famous and talented, that does not mean you can’t get depressed. Maybe he’s not convinced of all I see in him, what we all see in him.

So “Stick’ may have been greenlit because of the success of “Ted Lasso.” Why not make another sports comedy? But other than “Bend It Like Beckham,” I don’t think a soccer movie has made it in the U.S. But that golf movie, “Tin Cup,” it’s Ron Shelton’s second best movie, after “Bull Durham,” and it’s serious as well as funny…and there are other golf movies, however lowbrow, like “Caddyshack” and “Happy Gilmore,” and do we need another variation on the golf theme?

Sans Wilson this show would suck.

But Judy Greer as Stick’s ex…she looks so much like Lisa Kudrow, but she’s not ditzy. She’s the center of the family. She can’t help but love Stick. Until enough time goes by that she just can’t handle his losing anymore, and then there’s that family tragedy, talk about predictable.

And then there’s Marc Maron… He’s so good, so natural in “Stick” it’s amazing. The role is perfect for his personality. You can’t see him acting like you did in his sitcom and in that wrestling show, “Glow.”

The rest of the cast? Mariana Treviño is kinda good, but it seemed like her accent faded in and out.

And then there’s Peter Drager as Santi…the prodigy, the golfer… Wilson’s rap in the back of the grocery store about loving the game is so right on, just like in the opening when he waxes rhapsodic about the feeling you get when the course meets the sky at the right time on the right day…I know exactly what he’s talking about, that’s how I feel skiing. And like with golf, every turn, every day is not great, but when you nail it…

As for golf, I played as a kid, not well, but semi-regularly.

And then I played in the eighties when everybody took it up for business reasons. But I just couldn’t take it that seriously, I just couldn’t be that competitive. Furthermore, my mother, who lived to golf, taught me etiquette which my compatriots did not have, they’d yell in frustration and throw their clubs…

But watching this show made me want to play again. A little. And I’m looking forward to the rest of the episodes. It’s SO predictable. But when Owen Wilson gets excited, there’s a passion you rarely see in other performances. He might be smiling, he might be laughing, but he BELIEVES!

Which makes you believe too.

Which puts a smile on my face. Not in the “Ted Lasso” way, because Ted was a doofus out of his element and Jason Sudeikis has talent, but not like Owen Wilson…talk about natural.

And Wilson has charisma. The kind the almost made it people have, when they’re down on their luck thereafter, boozin’ and druggin’ and screwin’ and bettin’… This role was made for Wilson.

I loved his performance so much, along with his interaction with his ex-wife, that I just had to tell you about it. You’ve go to acknowledge talent when you see it, because it’s truly rare. And comedy? That’s the hardest acting of all. And Wilson doesn’t play to the camera, he never breaks character, he’s FANTASTIC!

Now on Netflix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDKC77QS8WM

I was there, which seems kind of weird sixty years on. Because many fans were not.

Canvass youngsters and ask them if they’re familiar with the Yardbirds. They probably don’t even know “For Your Love.” But Led Zeppelin? Led Zeppelin is FOREVER! Only rivaled in longevity by the Beatles. The Doors renaissance was unexpected, yet I don’t hear any kids talking about the band today. But Led Zeppelin?

Actually, it’s kind of funny. It’s the harder stuff that the kids cotton to. They love Black Sabbath too, the Ozzy years, “Paranoid.” It’s the raw power.

And most have no idea who Iggy Pop still is, never mind was.

So what we’ve got here is history, context, which is not what I expected.

The scene is set. We see footage of Lonnie Donegan. Jimmy being inspired by Rod Wyatt. WHO? We’ve all got our influences, not only household names, but the forgotten kid from the neighborhood who got us started and then dropped out, even though we ultimately went deeper and deeper.

So comparing this movie to the legend…

It was definitely Jimmy’s band. We hear about Robert Plant’s resentment, he and Bonzo being treated not quite as second-class citizens, but less than…

You see Page had a vision. And he executed on it. And it was all a result of history, experience. Not only hours practicing, but actually playing. He did all those studio gigs, he talks about recording Muzak. But after being thrilled to be the youngest member of the faceless studio tribe, Jimmy wanted more.

So Jeff Beck asked him to join the Yardbirds. And then Jeff quit shortly thereafter and Jimmy became the lead guitarist. And he was taking the band into proto Led Zeppelin territory, but few in England cared and America was a slog and then the rest of the Yardbirds told him it was over.

But Jimmy was lucky, he had Peter Grant. Who believed in him, who enabled him. Every great act needs a manager to open doors, smooth the journey, argue for the performer(s). Because chances are if you’re a great performer, you’re a lousy business person.

Don’t compare today with yesterday. First and foremost, today’s acts are focused on money. That’s the number one complaint, THEY CAN’T GET PAID! Spotify is the devil. As if the company were stealing like the labels of yore. And then you see how much money Led Zeppelin was actually making… Even in adjusted dollars, they’re not even in the same league as the bankers, never mind the techies.

But women called into radio stations to tell Robert he was a fox. Money goes a long way. As does fame. But when you’re a musician…music hits people in a unique way, that supersedes cash and even looks. People just want to get CLOSER! Which is why people are watching this documentary to begin with.

I was invited to a screening back in January, I could explain why I didn’t go, but I didn’t. But the film is better on Netflix. Because of the subtitles. Turn them on. It’s not that you can’t understand what everybody is saying, rather the subtitles make the lyrics come ALIVE! Led Zeppelin was so much about the sound, and you know the lyrics, but when they’re in front of your face as the music is playing…there’s a whole ‘nother level of meaning and intimacy.

Now reviews were not universally positive. Then again, most reviewers are not Led Zeppelin fans. They’re intellectuals, they observe from a distance, they don’t want to be all in and run on emotion, which is what it takes to be a Led Zeppelin fan. It’s how the music makes you feel, first and foremost.

And as a movie… There are full songs included. Which sometimes undercut the momentum of the film, but will be studied, be interesting on further viewing. To see how Jimmy played that Telecaster…

Jimmy’s famous for playing a Les Paul. But this Telecaster that Jeff Beck gave him, that he painted in a psychedelic fashion, he wrung all of those sounds from this guitar on the first album. And to watch him do it…

And I’ve seen Jimmy play with the bow, but not from this close, which makes it less of a novelty and more of a sound.

John Paul Jones gets his time, but they don’t focus on the keyboard textures he added.

Robert Plant… He has a sense of humor about himself, and you get more of a feeling about who he was and what he was feeling before he was plucked from obscurity by Jimmy and Peter Grant.

As for Bonzo… They’ve got an unheard interview, which civilizes the man. All the antics he was ultimately known for are absent. But the funny thing is they had to pay him forty pounds a week to quit Tim Rose. You see his wife Pat needed him to get paid, he answered to her.

And John Paul Jones’s wife nudged him to call Jimmy to join his new band.

And somehow during all this Plant impregnates his girlfriend and gets married and you’re watching thinking, THEY WERE SO YOUNG!

As for all the Aleister Crowley stuff, the darkness of Jimmy Page, that’s absent here. And this is before the dragon outfits, he’s wearing jeans on stage, and they’re not always faded.

And at this point people are aware that Jimmy is soft-spoken, it’s not a revelation, but his intellect, his ability to convey what he was thinking and what he did…that’s the essence of the movie.

He wanted to push the envelope, go where no one had gone before, take blues and rock and psychedelia one step further and…THE CRITICS HATED IT! Legendarily hated it!

Now this was the second or third wave, depending on how you count it. The first wave was the Beatles and the rest of the British Invasion. Then came FM rock, with Big Brother and Cream and Hendrix and…Led Zeppelin were one step beyond that. When Led Zeppelin truly broke there was FM radio in nearly every city. Album rock had won.

Everybody hates an innovator, until the innovation breaks through.

And it’s always the public that gets on board first. Spreads the word. Jimmy insisted that there be no singles pulled from the first album, they caused tension for the Yardbirds. But as Zeppelin were touring to full houses as 1969 unfurled, they asked themselves, HOW DOES EVERYBODY KNOW?

One thing is for sure, Led Zeppelin wanted to blow people away on stage. And you hear about a great stage show today, but it’s not the same thing, because you can see a show online, get a feel for it, whereas you used to have to actually go to the venue and if you saw something amazing, not only were you positively flabbergasted, but you lived off the high for days and told all your friends about it and dragged them to see the band the next time around.

These were veterans. They’d paid their dues. And if you insist on doing it your way, you must blow people’s minds. I can’t think of the last time a band’s live performance blew my mind, but I can tell you about seeing Rod Stewart with the Faces in the spring of ’71 and so many more. Some might be caricatures of themselves today, but back in the day…

And no executive could tell Jimmy what to do. He insisted on that. The band made the first album on their own money and Peter Grant ran interference with Atlantic. And that’s very different from today, where the suits all have an opinion, make you employ a cowriter, insist on umpteen remixes.

Then again, the days of the musical group are nearly history. Because you just can’t make enough MONEY! People don’t want to suffer that much. They want to be solo artists. As for the joy of success expressed by Plant… Today everybody’s so busy complaining they’re getting screwed and not as successful as they should be that it taints the entire enterprise.

Then again, music isn’t everything today. These guys heard the sound and had no choice. There were breakthroughs on recordings constantly. Hell, “Led Zeppelin II” eclipsed “Abbey Road” and “Let It Bleed” at the top of the chart. Can you imagine three albums of that quality being released today?

Now Robert Plant woke up one day and decided to come down off his throne and make it solely about the music, and had success with Alison Krauss.

Jimmy could never quite find his niche, the magic once again. There were a couple of numbers with Paul Rodgers and the Firm. Page and Plant illustrated the necessity of having John Paul Jones in the mix, never mind the driving power of John Bonham.

And sans Jimmy and Robert, John Paul Jones is a journeyman.

But once upon a time…

To go from nowhere to everywhere. Not based on hype, but purely on the music.

And Jimmy continued to innovate. “Led Zeppelin III” was a left turn that took decades for people to appreciate. And “Physical Graffiti” doubled-down on the Zeppelin sound like there were no other acts in the universe.

So do you need to watch “Becoming Led Zeppelin”?

Don’t even bother if you’re not a fan of the band. There’s an early gig showing people putting their fingers in their ears, and so many feel this way.

But if you’re part of the cult, or a developing musician, it’s a must-see.

This is not the usual rock doc. Hagiography akin to “Behind the Music.” This is just the story, told in a straightforward fashion. It all happened, they don’t need to embellish it.

But how did it happen? What were the influences? How did it all come together?

That’s what you’ve got here, up through the release of “Led Zeppelin II.”

The band was ramblin’ on, getting a whole lotta love, creating music that we will never hear the likes of again.

This movie brings it all home.

THANK YOU!

Tune in Saturday June 7th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz