turnthepage Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Who read Richard Cole's book and what do you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheStairwayRemainsTheSame Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 At the time I enjoyed it didn't seem TOO unrealistic because it was Led Zeppelin. Then heard Jimmy's comments about how much BS was in it and smacked myself for being so gullible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turnthepage Posted January 14, 2012 Author Share Posted January 14, 2012 Where did you read his comments on it, do you remember? I definitely thought it was good reading, but by the middle of it I began thinking he wasn't a very good road manager. Looking out for the band is one thing but picking fights and getting thrown in jail is another. Not real good publicity for the band! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheStairwayRemainsTheSame Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Yeah: Cole's book raised the ire of Page, who once commented: There's a book written by our former road manager, Richard Cole that has made me completely ill. I'm so mad about it that I can't even bring myself to read the whole thing. The two bits that I have read are so ridiculously false, that I'm sure if I read the rest I'd be able to sue Cole and the publishers. But it would be so painful to read that it wouldn't be worth it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f2walsh Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 It was discredited by the band, but I really enjoyed Hammer of the Gods! There was not alot out in the 1980's to read about the boys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turnthepage Posted January 14, 2012 Author Share Posted January 14, 2012 It was discredited by the band, but I really enjoyed Hammer of the Gods! There was not alot out in the 1980's to read about the boys. I'm almost finished with Hammer of the Gods, it's good. I started reading Fallen Angel about a month ago but had to put it down after the third chapter; just too "out there" for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reswati Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 The Cole book should have been called "Diary of a cokenose". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveAJones Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 I'm almost finished with Hammer of the Gods, it's good. Most of the tour tales in that book were provided by Cole, whom Davis paid a paltry sum of something like $1,200. Cole published his own book seven years later. Though there are inaccuracies, I enjoy both books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperStatic Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 I remember reading Hammer of the Gods when I was 15 years old! One of the first "big" books I honestly read in 1985 besides The Hobbit and a few others (I didnt start reading a lot until my later teens). I was honestly blown away by it, and even with the crazy, and sometimes negative things the book claims surrounded the band at times during its lifespan, it still managed to paint them in an almost mythical way in my eyes (what the hell, I was a kid what did I know lol). Not long after I read it though I heard both Plant and Page say it was mostly bull crap so I never bothered reading it again. Perhapes reading it now in my older age I would have a different take on it. Maybe somday I will, if its even still around even. I've never read the Cole book, whats the general feeling about it? reliable, bull? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turnthepage Posted January 14, 2012 Author Share Posted January 14, 2012 I remember reading Hammer of the Gods when I was 15 years old! One of the first "big" books I honestly read in 1985 besides The Hobbit and a few others (I didnt start reading a lot until my later teens). I was honestly blown away by it, and even with the crazy, and sometimes negative things the book claims surrounded the band at times during its lifespan, it still managed to paint them in an almost mythical way in my eyes (what the hell, I was a kid what did I know lol). Not long after I read it though I heard both Plant and Page say it was mostly bull crap so I never bothered reading it again. Perhapes reading it now in my older age I would have a different take on it. Maybe somday I will, if its even still around even. You can buy it on Amazon. I buy all of mine used. I think you get out of a book what you want to get out of it. I mean, if you're focused on the positive things, then it will be a positive read. Besides, no matter what anyone writes about Led Zeppelin, the music is what matters. Everyone was young once and did things that they've considered dumb once they grew up, LZ members are no different. I know where you're coming from about the books giving the group a mythical aura. When individuals create together and receive the love and devotion that LZ received from their fans, it's just something really fantastic. It's a connection in great proportion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ledzepfilm Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Hammer of the Godz, is bullshit. The band hates that book. I read Coles book. Some seems to be accurate and some seems like complete fucking bullshit. This book should of been retitled: I Needed Money So I Wrote A Led Zeppelin Book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walter's walker Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Yes, but "Fallen Angel" is worse, it's the worst sort of unattributed Amercian Christian Fundamentalist nonsense written by someone who doesn't know the history of the Blues, doesn't understand Ceremonial Magick *or* the actual writings and teachings of Aleister Crowley, and writes their half-baked factoids to fit a preconcieved conclusion-- that that Page, Plant and Peter Grant tried to use the band to convert all the world's children to devil worshippers. If Page had *wanted* to take the reins of the A.'.A.'. or the O.T.O. at the time, he easily could have, but Page was seemingly mature enough to know what happens if you claim Grades above your abilities-- you get to have all the ordeals associated with those Grades slap you up side the head. Besides, *his* music was the biggest thing since the Beatles; and music, not magick, was his chosen profession. I keep hoping that someone will do a big "Beatles Anthology" style of book on the boys, they deserve it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turnthepage Posted January 20, 2012 Author Share Posted January 20, 2012 You're right about Fallen Angel. The author seems to know more about Satanism than he does Led Zeppelin. I'm reading it now although I skip though pages because most of what he writes focuses on the Bible, Satan, Ozzy, and other bands. Very little has to do with Zeppelin, and when he does analyze the group, it's very petty....two line words from different songs that he uses to justify LZ's affiliation with the Devil. The first night I read it I had nightmares so I put it down for a few days. Now I'm reading it again and every time I pick it up I pray and tell God that I'm not on Satan's side. The author is possessed! I don't recommend it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walter Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 I've also enjoyed both books - Hammer Of The Gods was my Bible in the mid-80's, I carried and read it over and over. We didn't have much back then. if it was so "ridiculously false" as said by the band, why was Cole backstage at the O2 concert?!? Good stories always have exaggeration sprinkled in with the truth.....just depends on the level of balance between the two! It does look and sound as if things were pretty wild back then.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walter's walker Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 Well, I actually know a lot more about *actual* Satanism than the author, or at least I'm prepared to look at it more objectively: Several dear friends of mine, people I've known for 20+ years, and Lodge Brothers, are "real" Satanists, attached to reputable organizations like the Church of Satan and the Temple of Set. Over the last four decades, very few *actual* Satanic Musicians have stepped forward to admit their affiliations, Jinx Dawson and her band Coven were the first, although singer and entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. had brief association with Dr. LaVey and the Church of Satan back in '68 or so. A number of "Black Metal" and "Death Metal" groups imagine themselves to be Satanic, but they only make the claim and the pose for the shock value-- again, few of them have the level of intellect, let alone the level of maturity and dedication that it takes to be a *real* Satanist. Shock-rocker Marylin Manson is one though, as was King Diamond. Of a greater number are Ceremonial Magicians: you could count Mr. Page in their ranks, Maynard of Tool, David Bowie (40 years ago), David Tibet of Current 93, Genesis P. Orridge of Psychic TV, Stiv Bators of the Dead Boys; students of the Occult, the Qaballa, Tarot, Astrology, Numerology, and these are often confused by Fundamentalist Christians as being "Satanists." The reality, strangely, is that these sorts Magicians often recognize a Biblical paradigm-- God, Heaven, Angels, Devils, Jesus, Satan, Lucifer that "Satanists" do not. Most 21st Century Satanists are Atheists, or very close to being Atheists-- they believe there is no being more sacred than themselves. Calling Ozzy Osbourne "Satanic" is laughable. Ozzy can't be trusted to remember the lyrics to songs he helped write, he'd never be able to memorize the neccesary High Latin to perform a Black Mass. (Penn & Teller once noted, about 20 years ago, that if all that backward-masking shit really worked, Ozzy would have become Prime Minister of the U.K.) Likewise, the author calling Jimmy anything other than Thelemic or a Thelemite (from "Thelema," the name of Aleister Crowley's philosophy, means "Will" in Greek) would be in error. But the rest of the band, as far as might be determined from their comments in interviews and such, seem pretty ostensibly Christian, you couldn't call "In My Time Of Dying" a Satanic song, after all, with its calls to Jesus, St. Peter and Gabriel, could you? So such claims are prima facea ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Robert Anthony II Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Yeah, I actually have Stairway to heaven (the official title) rather than Hammer of The Gods. Unfortunately, my copy is in storage right now due to a move. All in all, it's a good read. I don't know if it was inaccurate more than most tell-alls, but it kind of matches the consensus amongst most sources from that era. If Jimmy Page or any other band member wants to write their own memoir that doesn't just gloss over some of the more salacious moments of their history, I'd of course welcome it. Until then, stuff like HoTG or StH is worth a read or at least a skim through at the bookstore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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