Jimmy Page: Magus, Musician, Man: An Unauthorized Biography [Hardcover]

George Case (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2007

Jimmy Page - Magus, Musician, Man is a meticulously researched life story of Led Zeppelin's legendary guitarist and producer. From his childhood in war-torn Britain and his pivotal role in the recording studios that launched the British Invasion of the '60s to his milestone achievements, his dark, nefarious excesses with Led Zeppelin, and his emergence as a revered cultural icon and honored philanthropist, this biography - the first ever written about Jimmy Page - portrays all his spiritual, artistic, and personal dimensions. Swinging London, the Sunset Strip, Bron-yr-Aur, Kashmir, and Clarksdale: Magus, Musician, Man traverses through all of Page's hallowed stomping grounds and tells, at last, the complete story of one of rock 'n' roll's most enigmatic and influential talents.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As long as there are teenage boys in the world, there will be an audience for Led Zeppelin, the '70s-era hard rock legend whose "Stairway to Heaven" is still one of the most-ever-played songs in the history of American FM radio. Jimmy Page was the mastermind of the Zeppelin juggernaut, and as one of the three most influential British rock guitarists of the late '60s, he certainly deserves Case's detailed and informed look at his past and present work. In this unauthorized biography, freelance writer Case focuses on Page's music as much as he does on Zeppelin's lurid touring lifestyle, and he is good at reporting Page's early work playing on countless recording sessions (ranging from Tom Jones's "It's Not Unusual" to the Kinks' "You Really Got Me"), as well as detailing the formation of Zeppelin, where Page combined his blues-based rock with singer Robert Plant's "soaring tenor moan" to create a radically new sound. While his enthusiasm sometimes overwhelms his writing ("The Teutonic implications of the airship's family surname invested a gothic sensibility to the ensemble's work"), Case successfully shows how Page and his Zeppelin's musical influence became "so broad and so established that even players who had never consciously emulated his techniques had been affected by them." (May)
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Review

Case's book reminds me why I fell in love with Led Zeppelin in the first place. --Robert J. Wiersema, Vancouver Sun

There is great depth here...Case particularly shines when he recounts the creation of Led Zeppelin and the music that influenced so many. --Tyler Langness, Paste magazine

Deftly synthesizes the extant material on Page...Long on entertainment value...always readable --Mojo magazine

Product Details

• Hardcover: 294 pages
• Publisher: Hal Leonard (April 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423404076
• ISBN-13: 978-1423404071
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,010,697 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Welcome to my Author Central! I'm a Canadian writer with six books to my credit, whose topics range from rock 'n' roll to personal memoir, and from speculative fiction to cultural criticism. Currently I reside in my birthplace of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario (US translation: Flint Michigan or Youngstown Ohio), after twenty years of living in larger centers like Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver (think New York, Washington, and San Francisco). My shorter pieces have been published in the Vancouver Sun daily newspaper, the Vancouver Review literary quarterly, the US social science journal Skeptic, and in a number of anthologies.

What will you find in my books? My literary models are George Orwell (for his clarity of thought and power of rhetoric), F. Scott Fitzgerald (for his almost musical sense of rhythm and diction), and critic Stanley Kauffmann (an impeccable judge of the unexamined ideas and contradictions underlying a given work or experience) - but I also try to make my writing accessible to readers encountering my subjects for the first time. If there's a recurring theme to my work, it may be something to do with the relevance of the past in the present, the importance of cultural literacy, and a detached or introverted take on the noisy to-and-fro of modern and postmodern discourse.

At any rate (to use a pet phrase of Orwell's), curl up in a quiet outer or inner space with one of these titles, and get to know me through them. My words and my thoughts are waiting to engage with you.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nothing new here for Zep fans, May 15, 2007

By 

Geoffrey P. Smith "opusposthum" (ATLANTA, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jimmy Page: Magus, Musician, Man: An Unauthorized Biography (Hardcover)

This biography, written by an enthusiast, suffers the usual problems one encounters when there is no input from the subject of the bio, i.e. it's all secondary sources, mostly quotes from old interviews etc that have been hashed and re-hashed over and over,then organized around a thin narrative. Because the author is so respectful of his subject,the less savory episodes concerning drugs, groupies, violence are glossed over.Much more interesting, to me at least, would be a book that pulls no punches concerning the salacious aspects of being a 'guitar god'and rock star, but then attempts to reconcile this with the 'interesting' Jimmy Page who is obviously blessed with intelligence and talent over and above the usual rock'n'roll suspects.That would require access to the man himself, and I gather the author's overtures in that direction were ignored.

Echoing Voltaire's adage "To the living we owe respect...." the author treads so gingerly around his subject that all we are left with is a transparent chronology of life on the road with Jimmy Page, and it's been covered pretty well in many other more interesting books.

The discussions of the music are surprisingly weak, tours roar by in the space of a few sentences, and Page's inactivity as a 'visible' musician over the past decade means the last half to one third of the book fizzles out.

Until Jimmy Page himself sets the record straight, by himself or with a trusted collaborator, attempts at his biography by others, however well-intentioned, will always fall well short of the mark. I cannot recommend this book to seasoned or casual fans of Page, The Yardbirds or Led Zeppelin.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally! A book on "Pagey", April 12, 2007

By 

Qball53 (Middlefield CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jimmy Page: Magus, Musician, Man: An Unauthorized Biography (Hardcover)

Go to any bookstore and look in the music section, and you'll see books on all the legendary rockers -- Lennon, Dylan, Hendrix, Elvis, Stones, Beatles, Doors, Clapton, Neil Young, Zep -- but this is the first book just about one of the all-time greats, Jimmy Page !! This book has everything -- great early photos, stories about all the session work he did in the early 60s like working with Tom Jones, and how he dated Dusty Springfield, all the great Yardbirds tours, and how he & Clapton used to hang together while they were both unknown, the first Zep tour opening for Vanilla Fudge, how they became huge in the 70s and Jimmy got into heroin, and right up until today, with his 5 kids, including the last one born 8 years ago! We got a chapter comparing all the English guitarists to Page -- not only Beck & Clapton, but Tony Iomni, Richie Blackmore, Brian May, David Gilmour (and quotes from Eddie Van Halen, Joe Perry & Ace Frehly on how Page influenced them). There are quotes from Jimmy on what Zep really thought about Sabbath. For Jimmy Page fans like myself, this is one damn great book, I couldn't put it down!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The cover art is nice, July 9, 2007

By 

Todd Greanier "Droog" (Rochester, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jimmy Page: Magus, Musician, Man: An Unauthorized Biography (Hardcover)

I have been a Page fan more than half my life. I started playing guitar because of Page. I was interested when I saw this book on the shelf and bought it immediately. It sat on my floor for weeks because I just felt it would be a let down, but finally curiosity got me to pick it up.

It was a let down. There is not a single point in this book that is original in any way. Most of the stories told have been told over and over and over again. It seems silly to try to write a biography about a guy who doesn't want to have a biography written about him.

I once asked the boxer, Marvin Hagler, if he would be interested in having a biography written about him. He said no. So, I did not write it. Not exactly a complex decision.

Jimmy Page rocks. This book does not.