Excerpt In Times of Stephen Davis Book

[kenog]

It pains me to put this excerpt that I found in the Times UK on this site because I have made my feelings clear elsewhere. However, I don't like our members to miss out on anything Zeppelin related.

'I saw that the gods of rock were mere mortals'

The Times (London); Oct 22, 2010; Stephen Davis; p. 7

Shortly after the guitarist Jimmy Page founded the English rock group in 1968, relations with the press deteriorated to the point of outright hostility on both sides. Early reviews of Led Zeppelin's recordings and concerts were negative, unkind and even vitriolic. There were accounts of journalists being assaulted by members of Led Zeppelin; being spat on; having drinks flung in their faces.

All this changed, somewhat, in 1975. By then Led Zeppelin was the biggest, highest-grossing rock band in the world. As the band prepared a new album of songs and a sold-out tour of North America, the band's media representatives decided that Led Zeppelin would take the unprecedented step of inviting carefully selected writers, editors and photographers from the regular media to come along for a taste of the tour from the inside. Backstage passes would be doled out, interviews would be given, a tour photographer was hired. An elite from this small constituency would even be offered the occasional seat on Starship One, Led Zeppelin's flying gin palace, a converted Boeing jetliner. I was one of those writers.

So, between January and March 1975, I covered Led Zeppelin's tenth American tour as a magazine journalist. I heard a lot of great music, and also witnessed concerts that were far less than brilliant, illustrating how a long, hard-fought rock campaign could be undermined by illness, exile, homesickness, weather, drugs and alcohol. I saw that the current gods of rock were mere mortals after all.

LZ-'75 is a personal portrait of the greatest rock band in history, at the apogee of its flight. For Led Zeppelin, everything they had done until then led up to the epic music they would create in 1975: a year of travel, incredible artistic success, personal exaltation, near-death traumas and a creative rebirth under painful hardship and dislocation. After 1975 Led Zeppelin would never be the same again.

The Starship

The sky was darkening and it began to rain. The limo convoy pulled right up to the Starship's staircase, and the band boarded first, greeted by the two smiling flight attendants. The big runic Led Zeppelin logo was painted on the fuselage. Once inside the customized Boeing 720B, I got a chance to inspect most of the plane before we had to fasten our seat belts.

The entire interior cabin was carpeted in deep purple shag. The front section had a few booths and swivelling leather chairs. Amidships were a brass-covered bar and a seating area comprised of three large sofas and more leather seats. A state-of the-art video player -- still a rarity in 1975 -- could show an impressive library of VHS tapes: Looney Tunes, the Marx Brothers, Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door. A built-in organ stood near an impressive pop-art target painting at the end of the bar.

Farther aft was a cosy private lounge (with a working electric fireplace) and more sofas. The bedroom was in the tail, occupied almost exclusively by Jimmy Page and Peter Grant, and off-limits to everyone else.

The bedroom decor was Vegas honeymoon. A huge fake-fur rug covered a king-sized waterbed. The shower was reputed to have been the portal for several rock stars' entrance into the fabled Mile-High Club.

The Starship took off in a serious thunderstorm. Lightning flashed as the big jet lumbered down the runway. Once aloft, the pilot banked and weaved around the thunderheads, causing drinks to spill. I noticed some fellow passengers tightening seat belts and glancing nervously out the windows.

There was a huge flash of lightning, and the Starship shuddered and dropped a thousand feet. Someone screamed, "Air pocket!" This was greeted with uneasy laughter.

I moved to the bar area and sat near Robert Plant, who was holding court for the pretty girls on the plane, most wearing floppy silk pantsuits and stacked heels. Hovering near Robert was Nick Kent, the correspondent for the New Musical Express. Kent was decked out in high pop fashion: shaggy hair, mucky face, Edwardian jacket, lace shirt, check trousers, absurdly stacked-heel boots. He was sticking close to Plant and Page and the hippie coke dealer they were hanging with.

The Starship now descended amid tremendous blasts of lightning. I could feel the landing gear going down. The plane's sound system was playing the Elvis Presley classic Teddy Bear. The plane shook, sickeningly, in the turbulence, but Robert stayed cool. He remarked that if the Zeppelin was going down, the Elvis soundtrack was totally appropriate since Elvis was where Led Zeppelin had come from.

The plane was diving now in the storm. I looked at Danny Goldberg [the band's publicist], and he looked at me. We both laughed. The whole thing was so gonzo. Rain lashed at the windows. Robert got up and peered out over the wing. "Aha! Dear God," he yelled. "We're landing in a supermarket!"

The Golden God

The warm California sun was shining silver over the greening Hollywood Hills.

"Stephen, it's Danny. Can you come down to my room as quickly as possible? Thanks." Danny had a small suite on the third floor. I let myself in, and he motioned to the bedroom, where Robert Plant was lying like a young king on a king-sized bed. He was dressed in tight jeans, snakeskin boots and a seriously tie-dyed shirt. Danny suggested doing our interview right then and there, but I said that my photographer was upstairs where the light was better, and besides, he had a Thermos of freshly made chai.

"Chai?" Robert leapt up. "Let's have some chai. My wife's Indian, you know."

I introduced Robert Plant to Peter Simon [the photographer] and they made a sort of hippie-brother connection. As I handed Robert the cup of chai, he earnestly inquired: "There's not any acid, or anything, in this, is there?" No acid, I said, and offered him some of the Panama Red.

"No, thanks," he said. "Actually, I gave up cocaine... this morning. A very destructive substance when abused. It's just tea with lemon for me from now on. Well, maybe some chai, too. This is good, man." This was accompanied by an ironic little smile.

We started in on reggae. He said he and Jimmy had just been on the island of Dominica, where the local Rastafarians had treated them to ganja and some sort of hallucinogenic "jelly fruit". Robert had been doing interviews, and people kept asking him about the band's supposed affinity with black magic -- their legend had them making a deal with Satan to ensure their success -- and now it seemed Robert wanted to get something across.

"All that magical stuff," he began in his high, husky speaking voice, "and of course the music, might well get the audience high, but I never allow myself that luxury, and I don't think Jimmy does either. On the other hand, Jimmy'll tell you that sometimes he goes into trances with the audience, and I believe him. But that's not where I'm coming from. I've always got to be in control or the party's over pretty quick.

"What I live for are the King Arthur moments when the music and the vibe just bring everything into a communion. That's what gets me off."

We spoke a bit about Physical Graffiti, still reigning over the charts at No 1, and I asked Robert about Kashmir. "It was originally called Driving to Kashmir," he said. "I spent some time in India after we formed the group, and that's been a major influence on my life. I learnt a lot about a different kind of music, with different kinds of scales and singing styles. And I remember being in one of the towns, recording street musicians, when a Pakistani plane flew over to bomb and there was a sudden blackout. Everything stopped except the street musicians, probably because they thought they weren't gonna get paid.

"Anyway, all the bombs missed the town and landed in the fields. So I think the musicians might have played the danger away, so to speak. If their music could protect the town, I'd like to think we could have a force like that. Just kind of... playing the danger away."

Did he, I asked, actually make it as far as the Vale of Kashmir? "No, not yet," he laughed. "Our Kashmir is really a state of mind. But in a way, we go there every night [on tour]." I said I'd seen a bunch of the concerts now, and that Stairway to Heaven seemed to provide the greatest spiritual lift to the kids. I asked where his inspiration for the bustle in the hedgerow and the lady buying the stairway came from.

"I wrote those words one day after reading a great book called The Magic Arts in Celtic Britain by [the antiquarian] Lewis Spence. Jimmy had the music going in the other room, and I went off to make some notes, and the words came to me, at one sitting, as if I were being guided to write down what I did. So maybe there was a force. And I think about that a lot. It's no longer my absolute favourite Led Zeppelin song, but sometimes I feel that if we didn't have it, we could possibly be just another group heading over the hill."

I asked about direct musical influences. "Elvis," Robert answered immediately, "Elvis singing Little Sister. Little Richard doing Tutti Frutti. Robert Johnson doing Travelling Riverside Blues. Sometimes I tell the audience that Trampled Under Foot is our version of Johnson's song. Then there's Blind Willie Johnson's In My Time of Dying. Bukka White doing Shake 'Em On Down. Howlin' Wolf. Muddy.

"And I loved the San Francisco bands -- the Airplane, Moby Grape, especially Spirit. All great stuff."

What about Jimmy? "With him, it was everybody I just said, and then you throw in the guitar players: John Fahey, Davey Graham, John Renbourn. When I first went to Jimmy's house, I was shocked because he had the same records as me, only a lot more of them."

Peter asked Robert to step out on the balcony so he could be photographed overlooking the big Physical Graffiti billboard opposite the hotel. When I opened the sliding door, Robert stepped onto the balcony, stretched his hands out over the smoggy Hollywood vista, shook out his long blond locks, and shouted, "I'm a golden god!" Peter framed and shot this scene, and I had to laugh because, indeed, at that shining moment with this charming rock star who was charging toward Valhalla while singing of Vikings and Hobbits and a lady who shines white light, it seemed that the golden god thing could actually be true.

Jimmy Page

I hadn't had time to eat after our interview with Robert. I drank a gin and tonic, and another, when I spied John Paul Jones standing in a corner with a drink in his hand. I asked Danny to introduce us, and chatted with the truculent but polite Jones for a few minutes.

I had a mad notion to ask him about the founding legend of Led Zeppelin, which held that the magic-obsessed Jimmy Page convinced the other guys in the New Yardbirds to sell their souls to Satan in return for the usual success and riches. As I was screwing up my courage with another drink, a birthday cake appeared, and a refreshed Peter Grant came in with a bottle of Dom Perignon in each large paw. Richard Cole joined the party moments later.

"Where's Pagey, then?" Grant asked.

"Sitting in the bar downstairs."

This was my cue. As glasses were raised, I slipped out of the party and headed for the bar, now almost empty at one o'clock in the morning. Jimmy was at a table in back with two men. I sat at the next table and waved to Jimmy, who nodded back. Jimmy looked to be giving an interview. After a few minutes, that conversation ended and the second man left. So I introduced myself to Phil Carson, who worked for Atlantic Records, in London, and asked Jimmy if I could buy them a drink and get a few quick quotes for my article while we were there.

Page said he was very tired, but sure, make it quick. I asked him a few questions, hoping I didn't sound drunk after four cocktails, and tried to scribble shorthand notes on the bar napkins.

My first question, about technique, was quickly dismissed.

"It's never a question of technique," he said. "I just deal in emotions." Well, emotions, then.

"It's even simpler than that," he said. "It's really about... attitude, isn't it? The application of attitude. It's either there, or it isn't."

What about the magic thing? "Magic is a system of will, and of strength. That's what interests me about magic. I can't produce material magic, real magic, so what we offer is the illusion of magic-mechanical devices that perform illusions while we play music. And in my own mind, the difference between the illusion and the reality of the lasers and the theremin and all that is... hazy. What's a laser beam? Magic, isn't it?" Richard Cole now came into the bar and looked at me darkly.

Jimmy and I both got up, shakily. Time to go upstairs. I held out my hand, and he shook it gently. He looked really exhausted. I asked, "How long are you going to do this?" "Nothing lasts for ever," he said over his shoulder. "I'm going to enjoy it while I can."

Quite a day, I thought, as I rode up the elevator. I'd done the two crucial interviews I needed for my article. I'd attended the best Led Zeppelin concert of the tour so far, and partied with the entourage.

How I got spiked

Over the next two weeks, I transcribed my interviews and typed up my notes. I submitted my article, to my editor at The Atlantic Monthly.

Two weeks later he informed me that the magazine's elderly editor-in-chief absolutely hated my piece. He was particularly offended at my mention of the mirror ball, which the band had hung over the audience in their arena shows, noting that mirror balls had been common among the swing bands of his distant youth. Also, the old fart had apparently listened to a Led Zeppelin album, or as much as he could stand, and had told my editor it wasn't music but the death agonies of screaming monkeys.

I didn't care. The Atlantic Monthly assignment was just an excuse to get a seat on the Starship. I called Danny Goldberg, but he didn't care about it either. The magazine paid me a kill fee for not publishing the piece.

I secured my bulging Zeppelin file, put it in a drawer for safekeeping, and used the kill fee to buy a plane ticket to Jamaica, where Bob Marley and his fellow reggae stars were most hospitable when Peter Simon and I went down there to report on them for The New York Times a few months later.

[Magic Fills the Air]

Thank you for posting this Kenog. It was a very interesting read. I used to read The Times but recently switched newspapers to The Guardian so I would have missed it if you hadn't posted it.

'The death agonies of screaming monkeys'. That must be one of the worst and most insulting descriptions of Zeppelin's fantastic music that I've ever heard!

[kenog]

Thank you for posting this Kenog. It was a very interesting read. I used to read The Times but recently switched newspapers to The Guardian so I would have missed it if you hadn't posted it.

'The death agonies of screaming monkeys'. That must be one of the worst and most insulting descriptions of Zeppelin's fantastic music that I've ever heard!

Magic,

I'm dreading the rest of this book. Sam (Webmaster) posted an excerpt of his (Davis') encounter with Bonzo. Davis' persistent naming of Bonzo as 'the Beast' is highly objectionable. Obviously, Davis is well aware that you cannot defame the dead.

What I think I shall do is stand in Waterstones and look through the book during my lunch hour. I do not wish to give Mr Davis a penny piece of my money for what will probably be a revisionist history!

[Magic Fills the Air]

Magic,

I'm dreading the rest of this book. Sam (Webmaster) posted an excerpt of his (Davis') encounter with Bonzo. Davis' persistent naming of Bonzo as 'the Beast' is highly objectionable. Obviously, Davis is well aware that you cannot defame the dead.

What I think I shall do is stand in Waterstones and look through the book during my lunch hour. I do not wish to give Mr Davis a penny piece of my money for what will probably be a revisionist history!

Kenog

I won't be buying this either. It sounds dreadful from what you have said. I wonder how much of it he has made up so yet another sensationalist book on Zeppelin can be sold. This sounds like nothing more than tabloid trash.

[tom kid]

Didn't Robert and Jimmy get the idea for the song Kashmir in Morocco?

[Earl Of Sandwich]

That's what I had always known.

[Bong-Man]

Where does he claim different ? Robert was speaking of musical influences in general.....not where he wrote "Kashmir".

[Magic Fills the Air]

Didn't Robert and Jimmy get the idea for the song Kashmir in Morocco?

That's right. I've heard both Jimmy and Robert talking about Kashmir in interviews saying it was inspired by their trip to Morocco and the musicians there.

Although as Bong-Man says, they didn't actually write the song there.

[aen27]

That's for that excerpt. I wonder what Jimmy will think of it coming out just when his book is.

[Chap]

@Magic--

I totally disagree. I LOVE "Death agonies of screaming Monkeys". As the very term "Le(a)d Zeppelin" is in itself a bit of a slam on the band that I always was delighted by, I think "Death Agonies of Screaming Monkeys" would have been a great album title.

This bit that fascinates me about this blurb is the bit about Robert's need for control and Jimmy's need for the lack of it.

[ally]

That's for that excerpt. I wonder what Jimmy will think of it coming out just when his book is.

Ironic isn't it

[PlanetPage]

'I saw that the gods of rock were mere mortals'

The Times (London); Oct 22, 2010; Stephen Davis; p. 7

...Response to Excerpt from Article.... Origins of Song Kashmir are indeed in India....as Robert Plant'75 explains/proof of article from Hindustant Times 2007 attached...

Excerpt from Stephen Davis Book:

"We spoke a bit about Physical Graffiti, still reigning over the charts at No 1, and I asked Robert about Kashmir. "It was originally called Driving to Kashmir," he said. "I spent some time in India after we formed the group, and that's been a major influence on my life. I learnt a lot about a different kind of music, with different kinds of scales and singing styles. And I remember being in one of the towns, recording street musicians, when a Pakistani plane flew over to bomb and there was a sudden blackout. Everything stopped except the street musicians, probably because they thought they weren't gonna get paid.

"Anyway, all the bombs missed the town and landed in the fields. So I think the musicians might have played the danger away, so to speak. If their music could protect the town, I'd like to think we could have a force like that. Just kind of... playing the danger away."

Did he, I asked, actually make it as far as the Vale of Kashmir? "No, not yet," he laughed. "Our Kashmir is really a state of mind. But in a way, we go there every night [on tour]."

[kenog]

I found a review of the Davis book on another site http://www.metalunderground.com/reviews/details.cfm?releaseid=4291 . I have copied a part of the review below which will give you an idea of some more of the book's contents.

"... Three months (Jan-Mar) in 1975 are covered. Davis captures the alcohol and drug use, but also opens up the reader to the injuries, sickness, and voice issues (specific to Plant). Not one show went off without a hitch; you get the impression that if you saw a great Zeppelin show during this time period it’s because you saw them multiple times or were very lucky. In between shows Bonham was buying cars for cash despite not having a driver’s license, Page was found in NYC Mexican restaurants discussing crowd control with writer William Burroughs (this happened more than once), and Robert Plant was often recovering from his illness of the week.

Almost every show during this time is documented in this book, including the set, how Plant’s voice sounded, and how many knives were confiscated at the door of the venue (twenty in Baton Rouge). The depiction of the band and details are honest; there are the girlfriends and groupies as well as the unread fan mail that is laughed at when suggested the band would read these letters...."

[kenog]

Here is an excerpt from the Wall Street Journal's online review of the book:-

"... Fast forward a few years and you come to another watershedLed Zeppelin's 1975 tour of the U.S., which in retrospect signified the peak of the band's brand of heavy rock.

Given their status as bona fide rock gods, Led Zeppelin toured in their own private jetthe Starshipcomplete with deep purple shag carpets and a waterbed. Quickly, the next few months became notorious in rock history for their eye-watering mix of heavy rock, testosterone, drugs, booze, sex and money.

In part, this was due to the depth of the tour coverage, since the band's management had invited a media entourage along in order to win over what had previously been a negative press-pack. (Interestingly, the Stones went down a different route and cut back on press access, especially after the notorious "Exile On Main St." tour, with Mr. Jagger realizing that they needed to clean up their public persona if they were to thrive as a corporate unit.)

The run up to the tour was in itself bizarre, with bassist John Paul Jones threatening to quit the band to become choirmaster at Winchester Cathedral. But after taking some time off at manager Peter Grant's suggestion, he rejoined the band, which went on to record their sixth and arguably best album, "Physical Graffiti," containing tracks such as "Kashmir"a classic riff and singer Robert Plant's favorite of all the band's songsand "Trampled Under Foot."

The tour began in a cold Chicago in January 1975 and ended five months later in London, which was struggling in the midst of an economic slowdown. While Mr. Davis supplies a good description of the tour's ups and downs, he wasn't given much access to the main players, so the interviews with Mr. Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page are quite short, with Mr. Page noting ruefully "that nothing lasts forever." As a result, while interesting, this account is probably one for long-term Zep fans...."

[SteveAJones]

The run up to the tour was in itself bizarre, with bassist John Paul Jones threatening to quit the band to become choirmaster at Winchester Cathedral.

Oh for Chrissakes, not that canard again.

[kenog]

Oh for Chrissakes, not that canard again.

SAJ,

Are you able to clarify for once and for all, if JPP was going to leave at that stage? I am still trying to figure out how an author who went to the length of securing a post writing for The Atlantic Monthly to get on the tour, then proceeds to lose his notes for thirty years. This is after telling us (refer to the opening para of this thread) that he "...secured my bulging Zeppelin file, put it in a drawer for safekeeping, ..".

[SteveAJones]

SAJ,

Are you able to clarify for once and for all, if JPP was going to leave at that stage? I am still trying to figure out how an author who went to the length of securing a post writing for The Atlantic Monthly to get on the tour, then proceeds to lose his notes for thirty years. This is after telling us (refer to the opening para of this thread) that he "...secured my bulging Zeppelin file, put it in a drawer for safekeeping, ..".

He was not about to leave the biggest rock band in the world. However, he voiced concern to Peter Grant about the need for a break from the grueling tour schedules and consequently the band went on hiatus from July '73 to Dec '74. That wasn't the only reason but it was taken into consideration. His taking the Winchester Cathedral job was originally just a joke, but when Peter Grant alluded to it in '75 it became gospel. Grant may have also mentioned it to Davis. Regardless, JPJ himself refuted this in 2001. Complete details can be found at the link below:

http://forums.ledzeppelin.com/index.php?/topic/6085-jpj-almost-leaving-the-band/page__st__80__gopid__489805#entry489805