Customer Reviews

Led Zeppelin's Led Zeppelin IV (33 1/3)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

While I definitely enjoyed parts, big parts, of this book. I didn't really realize when I ordered it that it was going to focus on the occult so much. That's definitely my fault so I won't rate this book down because of that, I just wanted to mention it so that any future buyers are aware of it. Sometimes the author's analyzations of the book are a little "out there," but otherwise, it is a good read for any fan of Zepplin.

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

While not my favorite book that I've read in the 33 1/3 series, Davis's book on IV does a nice job of exploring some of Zeppelin's influences and does what this series is so great at--it brings the album back to life. Sure the book may be a bit flawed--of course it's far better for most of what passes for music criticism these days (33 1/3 is, by the way, consistently better than most, especially in terms of exploring historical and social contexts)--but it made me bust out a record that I thought I'd listened to death and fall in love with it all over again with brand new ears. I could write similar reviews for every book in this series that I've read, but I just happened to check out the page here and thought I'd weigh in with my opinion.

I had to comment after reading the 33 1/3 book by Erik Davis concerning Led Zeppelin. This is my first Amazon book review. My impulse is the same as any concerned citizen who posts a sign at a toxic swimming hole, to prevent skinny dippers from contracting cryptosporidiosis. Although Davis seems to have done his home work, he nevertheless fails to deliver a meaningful analysis of his subject. Most of the first half of the book is wasted making tangential connections between Jimmy Page, his studio work, and his interest in the occult. No doubt an interesting discussion could be had on this subject, sadly Davis doesn't provide one. He gives more air time to a born again Christian trying to exorcise his passion for Zeppelin, than to anything of interest to a less disturbed fan. If the endless procession of barely relevant mystic pronouncements were not annoying enough, Davis makes them more so by packaging them in his awful self-indulgent prose, filled with quaint references to lyrics and song titles. He counterpoints his overblown academic diatribes by ending them with embarrassing, and meaningless puns. I felt his lame attempts at humor were there as an excuse, so that if confronted with his poor scholarship he could claim he was only joking. An example of his maddening and wide-ranging rambling follows: "The polarity between Page and Plant is even reflected in their names. The plant is the pure green spunk of earth, whereas the page is a work of man, a skeletal void upon which we inscribe our plots and spells [p.61]." I may grant that this is cute, in a sophomoric way, but by page 61 I was tired of this kind of thing. As the Monty Python lads might say, "GET ON WITH IT!"

In the second half of the book Davis inflicts upon the reader his contrived notion that Led Zeppelin's forth album tells the mythical story of a naive dude on a quest to California for some hippy tail. And then he interprets the songs to fit his bogus thesis. This self-serving excuse to flex his interpretive muscles is an epic fail. I'll admit that I'm oversimplifying here, but honestly he doesn't deserve a serious rebuttal. Davis' contribution to the 33 1/3 series is like a Spirograph made with a fat black crayon, that he keeps interrupting by pushing it in a different direction, so that instead of a hypnotizing pattern emerging, we are subjected to a bizarre cobweb, made by a lobotomized spider. Having unwittingly walked through his mess, I'm still trying to remove it from my head. Here's hoping this review provides the necessary exorcism. Perhaps I should contact Thomas Friend to see if he's learned to live without the specter of the evil Jimmy Page haunting him.

Trying to glean nuggets of truth from this book is like swimming in a liquid manure lagoon in search of arrow heads. Although I respect the dedication I can't recommend it. So don't think about reading this book unless you are unafraid of drowning in BS. Have you ever been annoyed at a concert by someone on a cell phone shouting to someone that they are at a concert. It's like that. Meaning it's more about Erik Davis than Led Zeppelin, and Erik Davis is an ass hat.

Neither a tome, nor a grimoire --not quite a cultural critique-- nor a mere record review. Perhaps it's an elfen rune, or recipe book for the imaginal mediascapes of nostalgia. Maybe it's a long bong-hit's rant in a Linklater film. In fact, it's almost the inverse of Jorge Luis Borges' longwinded tales of hypothetical texts, because it's about an alien implant embedded deep within our psyches: Led Zep's fourth record.

It's got no gossip. It's just a wildly entertaining and jawdroppingly smart ride through every level of the subject: as an object, as a spell, as a pop phenomenon, as a myth, as sound, as legend, as a money making music machine. It's more about the mythology of the music makers than it is about the band as real people. The idea of the artist folds into the artist as magician, and Led Zepplin is the perfect vehicle.

Erik Davis takes the entire idea of a record review and rather than going gonzo like Lester Bangs, he goes meta. And the way you walk through the matrix may never be the same afterwards.

I'm not sure how familiar the other reviewers of this entry in the series are with the series at large. I collect these books and have been equally infuriated and engrossed by them. Erik Davis' entry on Zep IV is one of the best I've read. I would place only the entry on Throbbing Gristle's 20 Jazz Funk Greats by Matmos' Drew Daniel higher. Sure, if you want to criticize Davis for not creating a rote book expounding the musical virtues of the album then that's fair I suppose. I for one do not need yet another (yawn) writer to tell me anything else about the musical merits of the record that I could not have figured out on my own or culled from the astronomical amount of text written on it over the years. Davis' entry mines the depths of his own interest in the occult to connect the dots between Jimmy Page's interest in Crowley, etc. and the resulting music which is rightly considered a phenomenal album by many rational human beings. I was pleasantly surprised after collecting approximately 30 other 33 1/3 entries by just how entertaining and insightful this one turned out. While it would be easy to criticize some of the entries in the series by scholars for diving into their own expertise area wormhole (Dai Griffiths abysmal entry on Radiohead's OK Computer comes to mind), this is not one of them at least for me. I expected to read a by the numbers entry going over all the ways IV is considered one of the canonical classic albums by a classic band. I expected the book to be merely "okay." Erik Davis helped reignite my love for Led Zeppelin at a time when I thought I had played their albums ad nauseum and was not pulling them out much anymore.

In the land of Led Zeppelin books,My first thought: Occult significance can be read into a box of Capn' Crunch if you have a gift of gab> But this was well thought out ,and entertaining with Davis continually reminding us, this may be so, or may not just keep your mind open.Our reality tunnels may process differently, but (thanks R.A. Wilson) there is enough of a thread to keep us guessing. Ater reading this book, I was assailed by Black Dog coincidence central, Even while watching an American Masters on Preston Sturgess, Rex Harrison called some one a padfoot !!!! how does Davis do that ?? A good addition to your music library .

Although the author is knowledgeable in both esotericism and rock music, he does not put his observations together in any meaningful way. He jumps from idea to idea, throwing in some insightful comments seemingly at random. I bought the book with high hopes but was pretty disappointed. Led Zeppelin have received much more thoroughgoing analysis elsewhere. It's not a bad book, just overly casual and journalistic.

this book on Zeppelin 4 is around 170 pages. the author actually starts talking about Zeppelin 4 around page 70. everything before that is masturbatory gushing over jimmy page and his occult fascination. once he actually gets on the topic of the book, zeppelin 4, the author works painstakingly hard to continue tying almost everything into the occult. and it only works in the most convoluted far fetched manner. zeppelin is bigger than jimmy page. and jimmy page is bigger than his fascination with the occult. i wish the author had appreciated and respected that when writing this book.

I love everthing about this book.I love the mystery behind the music , the myth's associated with the band and the way the writer presented each item and infused them together.A treat for all Zeppelin fans.Would buy it again just to have 2 copies.1 for the bedroom and 1 for the office.