Led Zeppelin's Led Zeppelin IV

An upper division undergraduate (or middling graduate level?) term paper run amuck. Two stars for the content, but it's a five star book for the over-the-top style putting over the joke. This is one of those books, beautifully, gorgeously, at great and stylistic depth, that argues for artsy high-falutin' social "meaning" in a pretentious kiddie rock record. In short, the author has written an elaborate joke in the vernacular of '70s teenage ideas of "great art," and he has a blast establishing it (see the introduction, page 4, "that launched a thousand keggers,..." and you catch onto it) as a writing exercise. The method that Erik Davis takes is a simple method of telling an English Lit term paper, albeit polished, inflated, methodically built and argued, blown to gargantuan proportions: he methodically and in order retells the album tracks, interpreting them with a steam shovel helping each time as poetic interpretation. If you're looking for an ironic (like Machiavelli, you don't quite know if he's serious or pulling your leg) justification that this album is a great poetic statement, a study of meaning of life questions, an IMPORTANT art, this book is a loo loo of the first magnitude. If you're looking for the nuts-and-bolts about its recording/commercial background, nope you won't get it here. This book is both an elaborate joke about and for the band's disciples who take this ART (album as sacred, beyond "it's a nice record," religious icon) very seriously. In short, this book is about legend. Well, I (record junkie) only recently paid any serious attention to Led Zeppelin's now old catalog, buying the first five albums because they are important, as part of the '60s audio soundtrack. Like picking up the works of Glenn Miller for a '40s flavor, or Pat Boone for the '50s; I'm not a fan, er, devotee of rock gods, but Led Zeppelin, pre-disco 'Stones, the Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, and the Doors are the good dominant flavors of the period/genre'. And they are part of the ground zero of the backward masking hoax, record burning goblin preachers casting Christian spells as proven fact, spooking beehived-doo-ed mothers to righteous panic in cigarette ash homes to fits of vinyl breaking and pinup shredding, scaring stereo junkies of my generation. Olivia Newton-John might've been trying to seduce us to lesbian exercise rhapsodies, but 'Zeppelin, Judas Priest, and Styx were in charge of ferrying the dead when our albums played. I found what I was curious about, beginning page 126, Davis's, well, rather truncated explanations about "Stairway to Heaven," which I unfortunately found lacking in this book. He does note that the hub-bub more or less dates back only as far as maybe mid-'81, though he ascribes it to Michael Mills (more or less Battle Creek, Michigan), which I think is a dead end side alley. Since the book is written WELL after 1980, the backmasking treatment here is from long told tales. (Backward masking seems to have been invented/publicized out of Texas in mid-'81 ("Satan's Attack"), picked up and amplified up to Denver, then migrated to Southern California, where it blew up late April, 1982, and put to footnote print "fact" out of the Denver area in 1982 for endless distorted retelling; I think the catalyst for the affair was the introduction of built-in cassette recorders in cheap shelf record changers/AM-FM radio/tape decks replacing 8-track player/recorders. Anyone with a cheap record player and a $2.00 ferrous oxide cassette could test for satan secret messages. You could finally cue an Lp and make a tape easy and on-the-cheap in semi-hi fi, using your fingers to spin/grind records backwards with a ceramic cartridge $7 "diamond" split 78/45-Lp needle on a plastic free-spinning turntable and the tape punched "play-record." An out-of-the-box and plug-in-the-wall shelf stereo set cost about $150 bucks at Sears, Monkey Wards, or Radio Shack; it looked better than it sounded. Serious record addicts built up component stereos that started at $400, not including a tape deck.)

The first 40% of the book explores the times that the album grew up in, the band's influences, both musical and mystic, the iconic cover and the four symbols. The remainder of the book is a superb dissecting of the songs, a lot of fun to explore. But the final chapter is as fitting an epitaph as the 70s deserves and was very touching. This book is definitely worth the money, particularly if you're a Zep fan.

Led Zeppelin are a band who are much written about, and a large chunk of that has been written about "IV". So Erik Davis, when starting this book, obviously had a huge challenge: how could he bring something new to the table? How could he possibly shed light on such a cornerstone of modern rock that had already been poked, prodded, and dissected throughout its 40 year history? I believe this weighed heavily on the author, and his tack was both lowbrow and highbrow at the same time: he focused really sharply on the occult, metaphysical interests which were near peaking in Jimmy Page throughout the conception and execution of the record. This is good book for someone like me who has pored over every Zep biography, liner notes, Mojo articles, etc over the years in addition to digesting the records to near-fanatic levels and believe they know EVERYTHING about the record. He mentions classic Zep lore - Bonham using a brand new drum set at the bottom of a huge stairwell for "Levee", for instance - as an afterthought, as if to say "but you knew that already". And I did. And the focus on the occult influence through every song, not just "Evermore" or "Stairway", is great. Some of it may be reaching, but he DID bring something new to the table, the book was NOT boring, and it did make me want to listen to the record again. But if you've never read anything about IV, you might want to start with something more basic. Good book, though, very good.

I loved reading about one of the greatest bands ever! Everything you you ever wanted to know about Led Zepplin IV, and other back stories about the band!

Well, whether it does or not, Erik Davis takes a heavy duty occult perspective into this book about Zeppelin's fourth disc. And it works because no matter some of the odd observations, no matter how he twists them to fit into his occult mindset, no matter whether it all gels with me, he's smart enough to get heavy-handed, and then pull back and let the reader know that, well, that's one take, you make your own. Either way, this book is entertaining and involving and one of the best of this series. JCS

You won't learn anything about the making of this album. Recording details? Forget about it. It's all pretty much an over-anaylsis from someone who: a) had way too much time on his hands, and b) got WAY too into Dungeons and Dragons and other such things when he was younger. But he's been quoted on the Wikipedia page about "Stairway To Heaven", so take that as you will. If you view this album as a concept based on the lead singer's journey on a quest of unfullfilment (sp?), and you think that "Black Dog" is a sort of Satanic ritual, then buy it and read on. If that sounds like a load of crap to you, than avoid at all costs. BUT, at least it is interesting to read (even if I don't agree with his convulted over-analysis) and as such it much better than the load of crap that serves as the Black Sabbath "Master Of Reality" book in this series.

So great on so many levels! Thoughtful, hilarious, groovy, sublime...one of the most enjoyable reading experiences I can remember. Even if the mighty Zep is not your favorite band, you will most likely find this book truly awesome!

This is a fascinating book - written long before the Spirit/LZ court case. There should be a book about all their albums.

I've thought that this would be about the album.. A complete description of the songs, instruments, and great moments of this incredible masterpiece.. but I was wrong. This is about a guy that want to write something, his feelings, as I can do if I wanted.

Understandably a 5 star or 1 star read, for me this is a miraculous book full of glorious writing. Example passage: (on Stairway to Heaven) 'If any Zeppelin song deserves to be dubbed a “myth,” it is this one. But what does that mean, to call a song a myth? So far I have been too lazy to define the word, trusting, like the man said about porn, that you will know it when you see it...' Some of the writing is simply magical, delighting in its ability to express intricacies in a way I've rarely experienced in any genre. The language, style & theorising will alienate some, possibly many, but for me this book deserves a place on the highest echelon of popular music literature.

I quite fancied myself to write one of these little books on a favourite album. Then I read this. The depth and range of knowledge and insight that Erik Davies brings to bear on this album practically crushes the artifact itself. His sense of irony and humour is a constant joy and carries the reader skipping along. This is balanced, brilliant and highly enjoyable.