REVIEW: Led Zeppelin breaks silence to celebrate 50 years in the music industry
Contributed by Deb Menconi Clark, associate professor of communication and digital media studies
“Led Zeppelin” by Led Zeppelin, is a 400-page luxury-art book produced and promoted by Reel Art Press. Similar to the instant success that the band achieved in 1968 in the U.S., the book campaign has created its fair share of attention too—but on a global basis.
The campaign for the Led Zepp book began spring of 2018, leading up to an Oct. 9, 2018 global release with strict press embargos regarding the new images and information. The public watched for nearly ten months as social media teasers via video shorts and images played Led Zeppelin music while showing frenzied fans storming huge stadiums.
Additionally, a photo with Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones holding the first “Led Zeppelin” by Led Zeppelin draft copy was released. Pre-publication global sales soared across a multitude of booksellers with additional promises of free posters from select sellers, and a global rollout delivery. To say the buildup to the release of “Led Zeppelin” by Led Zeppelin was as untold as their previous album sales of 300 million copies, would be a severe understatement—especially in the new world of digital media.
The 50-year celebration began just as promised. The campaign for the book “Led Zeppelin” by Led Zeppelin was a spectacular and a carefully executed build-up with a fanfare media piece the week before of four official early portraits of the band members placed in London’s prestigious National Portrait Gallery.
Ironically, the advance fanfare and buildup for the book campaign was completely different from how the band itself came together. The prologue includes the set of the four official portraits and comments from each member. They explain about how the band itself actually began, which was not with fanfare, but with personal awe by the bandmates themselves.
It is a humble beginning. All members were a bit confused about putting this band together. However, they knew that they were destined for something special after their first rehearsal song. Fifty years later, they chose to share their memories, events and stories of how the worlds most successful rock band came together and conquered the rock music world.
It began the very first day the four new band members assembled for their very first rehearsal in a little basement in London’s Chinatown. It was nothing special other than it was their first time to play together. Nothing was formerly planned, which is coincidently something the band and most of the members still practice today.
They realized they need only play and let each member’s spontaneity come through to put on some of the longest concerts by any other band of that time period. The book begins with quotes about how each member felt regarding the band’s first rehearsal, which serves as the book’s prologue.
Then decade-by-decade, album-by-album, their story unfolds visually. Various quotes help give context to the visual content. The images are stunning and some are recognizable formal studio shots, while others are personal photo gems. They range from vibrant color to classic black and white images. From family-style shoots to professional contact-sheets, the variety of images flows well with the variety of music.
The most striking images are two-page spreads that let one see more detail than previously. This means one could actually spend hours pouring over each photo trying to read into what was going on.
Surprisingly, both good times and bad times are shown and then discussed later in a very detailed annotated section, which for most will be the connecting stairway to the Led Zeppelin 50-year silence.
With John Bonham’s untimely death on Sep. 25, 1980, from binge drinking and subsequent asphyxiation, some of the quotes are reinterpreted or recalled by his widow, Pat Bonham, who also owns the copyright for John’s part of the book.
After the whirlwind tour of a visual narrative via images and sparse quotes, the book ends with the largest section detailing the reason the band ceased, the reunion concert and then the annotated narratives, starting with a press release from Atlantic Records.
The publishers and band chose to use a two-page-spread of a dull medium gray color and placed the actual image of the release on the right side with no decoration or embellishment. It was stark and the visual aesthetic in complete juxtaposition to the previous images. However, the message was loud and clear without even having to read the words that shocked the world.
Dated Dec. 4, 1980, the original announcement read:
“We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend and the deep respect we have for his family, together with the sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were.”
– Led Zeppelin
Then, the final section of the book contains detailed quotes and reflections for the images contained in the previous section. The band’s comments and recollections run the gambit from witty and funny to flat out shocking. There is one very evident characteristic, and that is the comments and reflections are genuine and honest. It’s as if all of the information and rumors that had been conjectured about for nearly 50 years were now clarified. The fans finally had a close and personal narrative of what it was like to be and work with Led Zeppelin.
The book is vibrant. It does all it promised to do during the campaign. There’s only one problem, and it’s a common one. The issue is, after 50 years, I do not think the appetite for more information will ever be met.
There will always be some mystery to a band that was so elusive for so many years. There’s sure to be a music historian that will take on the book’s information trying to piece together what might be missing. However, the reality is that it’s with a stiff upper lip and we must accept this gift with a genuine appreciation for sharing more than anyone has ever had from the band, Led Zeppelin.
In 2007, the band actually did get together for a celebration concert, despite many years of refusing to do so. In place of John Bonham’s absence, his son Jason, also a well-respected drummer, filled in for his father that December.
Of course with the current 50-year celebration of Led Zeppelin’s 1968 emergence, many are now speculating whether or not the band will once again reunite. They have been attending events to promote their book. However, the future is as far away as its ever been, until the next announcement. It’s a pattern that yet again, Led Zeppelin has stayed true to. They’ve never said “no” or “never.”
The Celebration concert photos in the book are new high-color digitally enhanced images and contain even more visuals to wet the appetite of Led Zepp enthusiasts. It’s also an appropriate transition from the death announcement to the epilogue and personal narratives.
The stories continue right up to the last picture. Upon completing the narratives, like any good book, you are left wanting more. It’s easy to get immersed in a narrative with multiple voices and experiences.
I’m sure the Led Zeppelin experience will be felt forever. With all the new information, there is a template of sorts for other talented musicians to follow, and perhaps to again, attain another infamous worldwide legend of the top-selling rock band to date with 300 million albums sold and still selling. The record has not been broken to date. One wonders if it really ever will be.
Also published on Medium.
