LED ZEP - History Channel - 10:00PM - "Dazed & Confused"

[miroslav]

LED ZEP - Biography Channel - 10:00PM - "Dazed & Confused"

Tonight............

Last Night.....

 

[grimtraveller]

I've seen this three or four times on the Bio channel. It's OK in bits but I was kind of disappointed. The most interesting bits were the bits Tony Palmer {the English journalist who says he was invited to go on the road with them for three months} commentates in. I found him interesting for this reason; back in 1979 when I was 16 and had just taken a major musical turn by discovering early Pink Floyd and Deep Purple, I was given or bought or gave books that all had something to say about this band called Led Zeppelin. The connections were weird; biogs on Rod Stewart {Zep ref via Jeff Beck}, Eric Clapton {Zep ref via Yardbirds}, this book on album covers, "The album cover album" that had the covers of the debut, Zep 3, HOH and Presence, the "Rock on " 1980 annual that I bought for my sister that had this A-Z of heavy metal in it that said of Zep "kings of heavy metal, masters of their art, innovators....." and had this superb little article called "A fan's eye view" that said, among other things "You've got to admit, they're pretty bloody cosmic" (I've long thought that would make a great album title), this shitty paperback rock encyclopaedia from about 1971 {in Nigeria in those days, you bought whatever varying stuff found it's way into the country}, it was awful............and "All you need is love ~ the story of popular music" by Tony Palmer.
It's a strange book, it's really well written and Palmer spoke to an incredible array of artists throughout popular music's then history {I think it came out in '76}, people even from the 20s, 30s, wild. But some of the book is so hard to read. It gets better from the 50s on. There's a section there on Zeppelin although it's really focused on Jimmy Page. That's where his quote of "I hate my music being described as rock and roll" comes from.
Anyway it was interesting to put a face and mannerisms to the name. Palmer's book played an important part in my nascent research back in them days. It helped really whet my curiosity about this band. Suddenly, I wanted to hear their music more than anything else in life (that and "Deep Purple in rock").
The other bit I like in the documentary is when Peter Grant recounts the story of the promoter that pulled a revolver on him because he was witholding $1000 from Zep and Grant went to collect. He says "You won't shoot me for $1000. Don't be so fucking cheap !"
So English !!

 

[miroslav]

I was dissapointed by the music they used throughout....not much Zep music....maybe they were not allowed???

 

[grimtraveller]

I find quite alot of these "rockumentaries" to be something of a damp squib. Like, in this Zeppelin one, the "Houses of the holy", "Presence" "The song remains the same" and "In through the out door" albums aren't even mentioned. That's a significant proportion of their output. You learn virtually nothing about John Paul Jones, yet in a way, he was, along with Page, the prime mover in the band initially and along with Page financed the operation and had as significant a career as a session man as Page prior. You learn virtually nothing about their various journeys pre Zeppelin, nothing about how the albums were recorded, practically zero about the songs except Page describing how he wanted "Stairway to heaven" to build from acoustic to fast electric and in the end, the Zeppelin mythology comes across as more important than the facts. Personally, when I want to find out a bit about a group of musicians, I'm not interested in how many groupies they devoured or how many hotel rooms got wrecked. Even if I ran a cleaning company I doubt I'd be interested !
There's a really good programme on Robert Plant in which he talks at length about the pre and Zeppelin period and beyond. No idea what it's called though.

 

[Absolutepower]

One of the cool things about Zep is that none of the members really ever divulged much info on the band and what they did. All the documentaries and biogs are really just speculation. Plant specifically said that the entire bio "hammer of the gods" was all based on the account of some smack addict who hung with the band only few times.

 

[acidrock]

I find quite alot of these "rockumentaries" to be something of a damp squib. Like, in this Zeppelin one, the "Houses of the holy", "Presence" "The song remains the same" and "In through the out door" albums aren't even mentioned. That's a significant proportion of their output. You learn virtually nothing about John Paul Jones, yet in a way, he was, along with Page, the prime mover in the band initially and along with Page financed the operation and had as significant a career as a session man as Page prior. You learn virtually nothing about their various journeys pre Zeppelin, nothing about how the albums were recorded, practically zero about the songs except Page describing how he wanted "Stairway to heaven" to build from acoustic to fast electric and in the end, the Zeppelin mythology comes across as more important than the facts. Personally, when I want to find out a bit about a group of musicians, I'm not interested in how many groupies they devoured or how many hotel rooms got wrecked. Even if I ran a cleaning company I doubt I'd be interested !
There's a really good programme on Robert Plant in which he talks at length about the pre and Zeppelin period and beyond. No idea what it's called though.

110% agreement with you GT,I haven't seen the documentary but I know what you are talking about in general.Unfortunately these documentaries are made more for the Oprah crowd than for musicians.

‪My Favorite Band‬‏ - YouTube

 

[grimtraveller]

One of the cool things about Zep is that none of the members really ever divulged much info on the band and what they did.

True, at the time they were a band, they were very mysterious. I know because from '79 when I discovered them, it was great fun trying to find out anything about them and it took a very long time to actually piece together bits of the puzzle. Years in fact. And in the 15 to 20 years after their demise, Plant in particular was something of a Lennonesque debunker in interviews, often putting down Zeppelin and few seemed interested in John Paul Jones except to find out if he was pissed off at Plant and Page's reunion {with a bass player called Jones !}. But since the internet age really took off, there are now a number of good interviews with the three survivors in print, online and on telly.

Unfortunately these documentaries are made more for the Oprah crowd than for musicians.

And I have a problem fathoming the logic. Populist 'Oprahtic' drivel will be dismissed by both the Oprah type crowd and musicians or those interested in the history of the bands or artists being shown.
Personally, I've been reading biographies on musicians since the mid 70s. I'm interested in the kind of influences and social conditions that helped form them in the first place. Then I'm interested in how their music was shaped and progressed during their careers and what was going on in their lives that may have contributed to the songs and recordings. And I'm interested in how they recorded their music etc.
Once in a while, there are some good ones, but they're getting fewer and further between. Last week, the BBC had a Kinks night and there were two very good programmes, both done within the last year on Dave Davies and Ray Davies, in both they do alot of talking. I did notice in the Dave Davies one, not once is Mick Avory mentioned. I thought that was strange. Still, maybe I ask for too much.

By the way, the 'Favourite band' link is pretty interesting. One of the great Zeppelin tracks in my opinion. But it seems funny to see women singing some of it. Lyrically, it definitely is a man's song !