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The romantic phenomenon of Jimmy page - book


jsj

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Have any of you read this one? I picked it up on eBay for £2.49 this week as I'd never seen or heard of it before. It's worth a read if you like a laugh. It's an entirely subjective book of her thoughts and opinions, to which she is entirely allowed to own obviously, but some of them are a little odd but before I get to them I want to mention some of the many factual mistakes she includes. The prime howler being;

At their last performance ever 7/7/80 "Bonham was unable to complete his set and the performance was concluded with Bad Company drummer Simon Kirke" where to start with this one? I guess she's mixing up three different gigs; Kirke appearing as a guest and Bonzo collapsing, though both these events occurred on different nights and neither at the final one. How did she arrive at this?

They earned over one million dollars for their gigs at Madison square garden in 76. Bron yr Aur being in South Wales. Tight but loose and the Concert Files were written by Dave Linwood, which as she lists in her bibliography you'd think she might want to check.

When Page & Plant played Reading Festival in 98 she says the audience were mesmerised by Page playing the Coverdale/ Page song Don't leave me this way. hmmmm, I don't remember that, I mean I was a little tipsy admittedly but

There are many others too

As a book it flits from subject to subject paragraph to paragraph, including some half baked astrology and numerology and how as an only child she can compare herself to Sir Page as she refers to him throughout.

Some of her opinions are a little puzzling as well. Custard pie is "detestable, no matter what it's genre" Sick Again is "a terrible sounding miscellaneous" and In My Time Of Dying where "the annoying vocals of Plant ruin the song" and that she can't believe in the song because he doesn't make an effort, Bring it on Home brings the second album to "a boring close". I think she believes that Sir Page wrote the lyrics up until Stairway too. Fair enough regarding the songs, we all have our own views, but I don't recall anyone ever suggesting Planty didn't try at IMTOD, it just seems an odd opinion to select

The only two direct Zeppelin books listed in the bibliography are Richie Yorke's from 74 and the Concert File 97 and Rolling Stone mags. Perhaps that explains a lot, I have the Richie Yorke's but that's straight from the old school journalism long before hammer of the gods and then after the proper biographies.

I couldn't put it down once I'd started and read it in two sessions. My wife was laughing as she'd hear me sighing, tutting and tittering at it's contents. A very enjoyable read, but then sometimes I find awfulness to be as absorbing and entertaining as something really good, which this certainly isn't, but if you can find it as cheap as mine give it a go

Johnny

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Have any of you read this one? I picked it up on eBay for £2.49 this week as I'd never seen or heard of it before. It's worth a read if you like a laugh. It's an entirely subjective book of her thoughts and opinions, to which she is entirely allowed to own obviously, but some of them are a little odd but before I get to them I want to mention some of the many factual mistakes she includes. The prime howler being;

At their last performance ever 7/7/80 "Bonham was unable to complete his set and the performance was concluded with Bad Company drummer Simon Kirke" where to start with this one? I guess she's mixing up three different gigs; Kirke appearing as a guest and Bonzo collapsing, though both these events occurred on different nights and neither at the final one. How did she arrive at this?

They earned over one million dollars for their gigs at Madison square garden in 76. Bron yr Aur being in South Wales. Tight but loose and the Concert Files were written by Dave Linwood, which as she lists in her bibliography you'd think she might want to check.

When Page & Plant played Reading Festival in 98 she says the audience were mesmerised by Page playing the Coverdale/ Page song Don't leave me this way. hmmmm, I don't remember that, I mean I was a little tipsy admittedly but

There are many others too

As a book it flits from subject to subject paragraph to paragraph, including some half baked astrology and numerology and how as an only child she can compare herself to Sir Page as she refers to him throughout.

Some of her opinions are a little puzzling as well. Custard pie is "detestable, no matter what it's genre" Sick Again is "a terrible sounding miscellaneous" and In My Time Of Dying where "the annoying vocals of Plant ruin the song" and that she can't believe in the song because he doesn't make an effort, Bring it on Home brings the second album to "a boring close". I think she believes that Sir Page wrote the lyrics up until Stairway too. Fair enough regarding the songs, we all have our own views, but I don't recall anyone ever suggesting Planty didn't try at IMTOD, it just seems an odd opinion to select

The only two direct Zeppelin books listed in the bibliography are Richie Yorke's from 74 and the Concert File 97 and Rolling Stone mags. Perhaps that explains a lot, I have the Richie Yorke's but that's straight from the old school journalism long before hammer of the gods and then after the proper biographies.

I couldn't put it down once I'd started and read it in two sessions. My wife was laughing as she'd hear me sighing, tutting and tittering at it's contents. A very enjoyable read, but then sometimes I find awfulness to be as absorbing and entertaining as something really good, which this certainly isn't, but if you can find it as cheap as mine give it a go

Johnny

It sounds like one of those films that is so bad it's entertaining in a cheesy sort of way. Who wrote this book?

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It was written by Juliann White and published in 1999.

the cover photo is pretty crappy too, though I think she took at one of the '98 gigs she attended., so I suppose that's fair

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I was there too...she's wrong.

it's baffling that she chose to point out a particular mention for this song out the whole gig, that she wasnt at, but is on youtube and bootleg cd to check just in case she muddled it up with another gig, but even if that was any other gig of the 98 tour it would still be wrong anyhow surely?

Have you read it SAJ? If not you should for a laugh

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I wanted to initially get this book but to me once you start making dozens and dozens of factual mistakes things become irritating,

not really funny. It's a bit like a politician rattling off preposterous actual numbers of a great many predictions/achieve able goals/costs

of projects etc.. Sometimes a few ridiculous mistakes or opinions can definetly add color, but this book seems "off color" for me.

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Stay away...STAY FAR FAR AWAY from her books!!!!

Juliann White is a serial offender when it comes to misguided fan diaries masquerading as real books. She also self-published a book called "Jimmy Page: Past Presence" in 2002, which is just as error-prone, loopy and poorly-written as "The Romantic Phenomenon of Jimmy Page". That is the clue to these book's lack of worth...they come from self-publishing sites such as Minerva Press and Xlibris. At least the cover for "Jimmy Page: Past Presence" has a more professional look. The cover for "The Romantic..." is ghastly.

I kind of feel sorry for her. She is obviously a fan of Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin. Just a trifle obsessed and misinformed and possessing a stunted vocabulary.

Just because the internet makes it possible to for anyone to publish a book doesn't mean you should.

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Beats me how errors on this scale make it through the writing (let alone the editing!) process, these days.

Even in 1999, when she wrote this, there was this thing called 'the internet', see, and ...

If the book was self published, she probably didn't work with an editor.

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An edit ?? HA HA . Did she even use actual mail to deliver the books, or was there some other strange unknown system of delivery??

Actually I'm not damning her. I'm not going to heavily judge someone just because their selling some relatively harmless B.S.

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On page 38 in issue #15 of Dave Lewis' TBL under the Book Reviews heading, there is a brief mention of "The Romantic Phenomenon of Jimmy Page". Dave Lewis rather charitably writes: "Rather ambiguous exploration of Page's career. Heavy going to say the least..."

End of review.

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so far I've only managed to find full price copies of her Past Presence book, but i'll keep looking until I find a cheap one and then i'll get it.

s'funny, the book is so shit you'd think that anyone who has bought one would want to dump it asap on ebay, unless they're like me and like a laugh reading garbage and kept it on their bookshelf for another day

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"rather charitably" indeed. this highlights one of my problems with Dave Lewis. while he is a fantastic bridge between the band and fans at times and he has done some sterling work, you will never find him say anything that could in any way be considered a criticism of the band or anything related to it.

why didn't he say something like - this book has many inaccuracies in it, couple with some strange ideas of the author, only for completists - or similar, not impolite but telling us its rubbish. what's the point of a review otherwise. no need for a hatchet job, but something with so many mistakes in it should be pointed out

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IMO, the sad thing is that the book's title, The Romantic Phenomenon of Jimmy Page, holds promise. A good writer who is knowledgeable about pop culture and the media could produce an interesting book that explores Page's manipulation of his public persona and the media. In Page you have an elusive yet fascinating subject who went from Young Mod, to Regency dandy to magick acolyte to rock elder statesman. Was he a trend setter or did he merely follow trends others set? What inspired his sartorial choices during his years with The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin? If Robert Plant was Led Zeppelin's Golden God, Jimmy Page was the band's Dark Lord. Who first gave him this moniker? Did he actively pursue his current role of elder rock statesman or did he accidentally fall into it? You get my drift.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I read this book about 10 years ago. I was impressed by the author's enthusiasm for Page/Zeppelin, but I was thoroughly disgusted by all the factual inaccuracies and poor writing. In truth, at least half the members of this forum could probably write a better book about Page/Zeppelin than Ms. White did. (I'm looking at YOU, Strider, lol) 

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Ok, sod it, I bought one cheap. Make your own mind up and all that. As Disco Duck said, a study of Jimmy's career in relation to the principles of the Romantic movement could actually have been really interesting and offered up a lot of unusual approaches to familiar events. But no - it's just as bad as people have said it is. Agree with Pagefan55 - she clearly genuinely loves Jimmy and his work and has boundless enthusiasm both for it and him. And she has actually sat down and put some time and effort into at least trying to write about something she loves. Pity the end result is such a misfire, though, especially as it would've been a piece of the proverbial to correct the glaring errors! Ah well.    

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